Madeleine King: Critical minerals vital to national security and green energy

Iron ore, coal, gas, and oil have paid for our way of life for more than 60 years. But the world is changing. Increasingly it is our critical minerals and rare earths that are being sought after by the rest of the world. Critical minerals will be key to getting to net zero. Without those critical minerals, we can’t make the solar panels, batteries, and wind turbines we need to reduce our emissions. But we also need critical minerals and rare earths for our defence and for the defence needs of our allies. Critical minerals and rare earths are used in everything from the F-35 jet and Virginia Class submarines through to weapons guidance systems and night vision goggles. Look at the conflict in Ukraine, where the face of warfare has been transformed by small drones and mobile satellite uplinks. All of this technology is made using critical minerals and rare earths. Make no mistake: the success of our critical minerals and rare earths industry is a matter of national security. As former defence minister and Labor leader Kim Beazley has said, supporting our critical minerals and rare earths industry is a down payment in Australia taking responsibility to lead on critical minerals globally. This is why it was rather surprising to see Opposition Leader Peter Dutton move so quickly to declare his opposition to the Albanese Labor Government’s plan to provide production tax credits for critical minerals companies. The Liberals’ decision to play politics on an important issue of sovereignty is mind-boggling. Particularly from an Opposition leader who has made such a pantomime of playing the hard man on national security. Let me be clear: The decision to offer large-scale support for our critical minerals industry was not made in a vacuum. Allies such as the United States Government have urged Australia to take steps to support our critical minerals and rare earths industries. The US Government is backing its words with action. In a historic step, the US Congress passed President Biden’s proposal for Australia to be included in the US Defense Production Act’s definition of domestic source. This means Australian-based businesses will be eligible to receive loans, grants and purchasing contracts directly from the US Government to support critical minerals supply chains. Funnily enough, Opposition frontbencher Dan Tehan was lobbying for exactly this kind of support when he visited Washington as trade minister in 2022. “There’s a huge ask whether it be when it comes to supply chains, when it comes to infrastructure when in particular comes to critical minerals and rare earths, or telecommunications, that we work together, and we share the load of the financing need,” Mr Tehan told a newspaper at the time. That’s exactly what this Government is doing. Sharing the load. Instead, Mr Dutton has blitzed East Coast media outlets attacking production tax credits as welfare for billionaires. Mr Tehan needs to give his leader a crash lesson in economics and geostrategic reality. Our critical minerals and rare earths industries operate in thin markets and are vulnerable to manipulation. All emerging industries need government support to get off the ground. During the 1950s, the Menzies government invested heavily in mineral and fossil fuel exploration, which led to major discoveries and investments. Was this welfare for billionaires? Try telling that to a nickel miner in WA facing redundancy. Sir Robert Menzies would be rolling in his grave at his old party attacking successful businesspeople like Chris Ellison. Mr Dutton seems to have forgotten that big companies are big employers. Our mining companies create well-paid, highly-skilled jobs. Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor has likened the production tax credits to giving a dollar to every café owner for every coffee they produce. With the greatest respect to baristas around the country, producing lithium hydroxide, vanadium pentoxide, or nickel sulphate is a bit more complex than producing a latte. Apparently, today’s modern Liberals want us to be leaners, not lifters. The development of the critical minerals industry should be bipartisan. Indeed, until very recently, it was. Now we have a spectacular about-face from the coalition, using class warfare to argue against policy to ensure the development of a critical minerals and rare earths industry that will secure the supply chains of Australia and our partners. Mr Dutton’s position is anti-resources and anti-WA.

Madeleine King: Critical minerals vital to national security and green energy

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