Great opportunities await the Australian critical minerals industry, according to the Productivity Commission, but it says they are unlikely to include manufacture of end products such as batteries. The commission’s critique of the emerging industry …
Speeches by top trade officials last month highlight the rift that has opened up between the US and Australia on trade policy, and the implications for national security. The US is turning its back on …
Critical mineral projects will be favoured for federal government loans under its new critical minerals strategy, but there are to be no tailored tax breaks. Nor are there any plans to make downstream processing a condition of …
The size of the cuts that Australia’s Defence Department must make to existing programs to create room for the recommendations of the defence strategic review will be dictated in part by the persistence of inflation. …
President Joe Biden’s offer to have Australia counted as a ‘domestic’ economy under the US Defense Production Act may give a badly needed boost to the flagging economic relationship between the two countries. The US …
Overall defence funding, 2023–24 Consolidated defence funding (including the Australian Signals Directorate) Funding $52.6 billion Growth on prior year 7% Real growth on previous year 1% Department of Defence government funding Funding $50.1 billion Funding …
All arms of Defence are under pressure to make savings to help fund the nuclear-powered submarine (SSN) program while dealing with impact of inflation. The total resourcing for Defence over the three years to 2025-26 …
China, India and Japan are leading a surge in military spending in the Asian region with geopolitical tensions pushing South Korea, Australia and Taiwan, among others, to follow suit. China’s military spending now exceeds the …
China’s campaign of economic coercion against Australia failed because of support from other Asian trading partners who turned to Australia to secure their energy supplies. Japan, Korea, Taiwan and India—Australia’s second, third, fourth and fifth …
The upper estimate of $368 billion for Australia’s acquisition of eight nuclear-powered submarines is an impossibly large number. Stacked in $100 bills, each 0.14 millimetre thick, the pile would rise to about 500 kilometres. You …
Australia is assured of rapid growth in exports of the key minerals needed to make modern batteries, but the government’s plan to move into battery manufacturing will require aspiring businesses to overcome the related hurdles …
Australia’s ability to make meaningful inroads into the downstream processing and manufacturing of critical minerals is hobbled by the downsizing of the country’s established metals processing industry over the past two decades. The closure of …
