We all love mining now, but there is still a big ‘elephant in the room’

Washington: It’s hard to believe it has already been 15 years since then-prime minister Kevin Rudd lobbed the “mining tax” into the national discourse, only to be savaged by the industry in a no-holds-barred advertising campaign that contributed to his downfall.

But mining is once again the flavour of the month. Australia’s status as one of the world’s premier quarries has become its trump card as the US administration seeks to remove itself and the world from China’s stranglehold over the supply of critical minerals.

Rudd, now US ambassador, bouncing back from his Cabinet Room collision with President Donald Trump, addressed a room full of American senators and House representatives the next morning, where he introduced Australia’s Resources Minister Madeleine King as “captain mining”.

Then it was on to a luncheon at the Australian embassy marking the 140th birthday of Australian mining giant BHP, where Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was the guest of honour. US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum was in attendance, as was David Copley, a senior minerals adviser on the White House National Economic Council, and World Bank president Ajay Banga.

“Happy birthday, BHP!” Rudd enthused from the podium to applause, before introducing the company’s man in Washington, head of corporate affairs Dominic Perrottet, the former Liberal premier of NSW.

As guests quietly tucked into their entree of goat’s cheese souffle, orange, pickled fennel and beets, Perrottet fondly recalled a column he wrote for The Sydney Morning Herald (“one of Australia’s great newspapers”, he hastened to add) when he was NSW treasurer that lightly criticised Rudd over his 2008 economic stimulus.

Rudd’s letter to the editor – filed “from his manor in New York”, Perrottet said – savagely retorted: “Treasurers, even state treasurers, are supposed to know what they’re talking about.”

But we are all friends now, not to mention friends of mining. Albanese said BHP was a great success story, of which all Australians could be proud, and touted the critical minerals deal signed with US President Donald Trump just 24 hours earlier.

“We see this as a golden opportunity and a natural fit,” Albanese said. “A partnership between American investment and Australian resources, and our people’s shared expertise and capacity.”

Without naming China, he went on: “This co-operation can help safeguard both our economies from future global shocks … [and offers] the certainty of dealing with a stable democracy, a true friend, companies whose word you can count on.”

Australia possessed a rare and precious resource that couldn’t be bought, Albanese said: “Trust. Australia is a trusted partner. We have a secure legal system, a secure political system. You know that our word is our bond.”

Burgum then spoke enthusiastically about Australia, the critical minerals deal and Rudd, whom he came to know during his years as governor of North Dakota.

Conscious of keeping people from their two-meat lunch of Statler chicken and grilled sea bass, Burgum was succinct and to the point, especially when it came to naming and shaming China for stealing intellectual property and engaging in unfair trade practices.

“While it may be politically un-correct for others to say that, I feel like I’ve got a responsibility here to say that we are up against a real challenge,” Burgum told the audience. “That challenge is that we cannot lose the AI [artificial intelligence] arms race to China.”

It was a subtle reminder from one of Trump’s cabinet members that there is still some unease in Washington about Australia’s restraint when it comes to explicitly calling out Beijing.

Just moments earlier at a news conference, Albanese had refused to engage with reporters’ questions about Trump’s observation that AUKUS was a deterrent against China, but one that he didn’t expect to have to use. AUKUS was “not about any one country”, Albanese said, but about “Australia’s national security” and “a more secure Indo-Pacific”.

There is a stark difference in how Australia and the US are prepared to talk about what Burgum called “the elephant in the room”. That has been a consistent criticism from people close to the administration, as this masthead reported in August.

But for now, at least, everybody is on the same page, eager to make mining great again. As Burgum told the embassy audience: “We are not in a period of energy transition. We are in a period of energy addition.”

Drill, baby, drill!

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