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South China Morning Post
07-07-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Australia's Albanese to address Darwin Port sale on China visit
When Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese arrives in China next week for his second official visit, he will have more than the typical diplomatic niceties to discuss with President Xi Jinping. Advertisement A major task on Albanese's agenda, besides routine topics like trade, will be to explain his country's stance on Chinese investment – in particular, addressing the controversy over the ownership and potential government-influenced sale of the Darwin the Post has learned from sources with knowledge of the matter. This will make for a difficult conversation, analysts said, as Beijing has been on high alert to future divestments following US action over Chinese-owned ports at the Panama Canal. Albanese will arrive in Beijing around July 15, one source said, as a 'friendly gesture' to keep relations on a positive track. Another source said the prime minister will attend the China International Supply Chain Expo , an event held in the country's capital annually since 2023. This year's edition will run from July 16 to July 20. Advertisement Australia's Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet said Albanese's international engagements will be announced in 'the usual way' in reply to a request for comment.
The Guardian
25-06-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Tony Abbott tells Advance supporters bequeathing money to rightwing group will ‘protect' Australian values
The rightwing lobby group Advance will court donations from deceased estates with the blessing of former prime minister Tony Abbott as part of its latest efforts to fundraise for its campaign war chest. Advance targeted the Greens at the latest federal election, claiming success after the minor party lost three lower house seats, including one held by former leader Adam Bandt. While Advance's claims of campaign success have been disputed by some, including within the Liberal party, the controversial outfit is looking to widen its source of donations to include bequests in a 'generational' fight for Australia's 'freedom, prosperity and security'. Advance released its 24-page report on the 2025 election in an email to supporters on Friday evening, detailing its messaging and strategy to undermine Labor and the Greens' votes at the polls. Its report claimed 52,529 donations were made to the group in the year leading up to election day, totalling approximately $13.8m. Of that amount, $10.6m went to the anti-Greens campaign, while $3.2m went to messaging against Anthony Albanese, the report said. The Australian Electoral Commission will release official spending figures for the federal election campaign in October – six months after the May 2025 election date. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email But Advance has no intentions of fading into the background until Australians next go to voting booths. The group, bankrolled by $15.6m in donations during the 2023-24 financial year, has created an offshoot, Advance Generations, to allow 'generous donors and supporters the chance to leave a gift to Advance in their will'. 'The election is over, but the fight for Australia's freedom, prosperity and security will take generations. That is why we started Advance Generations,' the group's campaign report said. Abbott, a longtime supporter and board member for Advance, also offered his own testimonial in the report: 'Supporting Advance Generations is a very good way to protect the values and country that we cherish for the next generation.' During the election, Advance's campaigns attacked the Greens, renewable energy and net zero targets, as well immigration levels. Since 3 May, Advance's primary campaigns have centred around stopping immigration and ending Welcome to Country ceremonies. In an email to supporters on Wednesday, the rightwing group encouraged followers to 'speak up and take on' the ceremonies, criticising them as a 'tool to indoctrinate' children. 'And if you and I don't stop it, they'll go further,' the email said. The creation of Advance Generations might be new, but there are familiar names involved. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion According to Australian Securities and Investments Commission records, Advance director and former ACT Liberal politician Vicki Dunne sits as a director on the donations offshoot. Dunne is joined by longtime donors former fund manager Simon Fenwick and businessman Maurice Newman as directors of the group. Advance Generations's website is registered under Whitestone Strategic – the secretive conservative campaign firm Guardian Australia revealed as being behind the marketing and design work for Advance's campaign against an Indigenous voice to parliament. Advance's election efforts were not praised by all. Weeks after polling day, several senior Liberal sources told Guardian Australia the rightwing advocacy group made 'no difference at all' to the election result. A former Liberal MP told Guardian Australia the party would ultimately realise the group was not a sustainable campaign affiliate. 'They are taking a lot of money from a lot of people who are being hoodwinked,' they said. 'They are not spending it [effectively], and what they spend it on is high-profile, low-impact campaigns that splinter our electoral coalition.' Advance's director, Matthew Sheahan, shot back at the claims, accusing 'bed-wetting anonymous Liberals' of 'looking to blame everyone but themselves'. 'The truth is that Advance does not exist to get hopeless Liberals elected, it instead campaigns to promote and defend Australia's freedom, security and prosperity.' In response to questions to a related story, a spokesperson for Advance said the group spent $7m on its anti-Greens campaign, including $3m during the election period on target seats. Do you know more? Email sbasfordcanales@
News.com.au
17-06-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
‘Naive': Australians have their say on proposed super tax
Young voters and Labor voters are among those most in favour of the Albanese government's proposed tax concession reductions for people with more than $3m in superannuation. Half of Australian voters (52 per cent) support the proposal, while about one in four (26 per cent) oppose it, YouGov polling on behalf of The Australia Institute has found. Young people aged 18-24 are about four times as likely to support the proposal as oppose it. Female voters are more than twice as likely to support the proposal as oppose it. Only 0.3 per cent of Australians – some 80,000 – have super balances north of $3m. Under the proposed changes, they would pay an additional 15 per cent on yields, which according to Treasury estimates would pump about $2.7bn into Commonwealth coffers. Speaking to NewsWire, The Australia Institute executive director and former chief economist Richard Denniss said he believed it was naive to suggest young voters should be worried about tax concessions for the ultra-wealthy. 'It seems quite ridiculous to suggest that young people who can't afford to buy a house, young people who are worried about all of the pressures of modern life, should be worried about the feelings of much older people with $3m in superannuation,' he said. 'We are in a cost-of living crisis. To suggest that the big concern for most Australian voters, let alone for most young voters is the feelings of people with more than $3m in super paying a little bit more tax. Well, I just think that's naive.' Some critics have decried the proposal as a tax on unrealised gains, with others warning it could penalise younger generations down the track. However, Mr Denniss said these criticisms misinterpreted or overlooked the realities of the situation. 'The simple reality is only 80,000 of the 26 million people in Australia have got more than $3m in super. If someone finished school and started earning the average earnings on the day they finished school and worked for the rest of their life, they still wouldn't get to $3m in superannuation,' he said. 'To suggest that in time, this will be a big deal for all Australians really suggests that people making that argument have no idea what ordinary Australians are dealing with – $3 is an enormous amount of money to have in superannuation and all the government's proposing is that people that are fortunate enough to have that much get slightly smaller tax concessions than they currently do.' Mr Denniss added that it was 'pretty clear' why young people would think 'sure, pay a bit more tax, because I'd like to have access to better quality health, better quality education, and improvements to my cost of living'. The survey also found that half (50 per cent) of Australian voters believe the additional $2.7bn in revenue from these changes would make no difference to their vote at the next election. However, about one in five (19 per cent) indicated that it would make them more likely to vote Labor. Mr Denniss said that of particular interest was the higher proportion of young voters, female voters and independent voters who were more likely to support the reduction. 'It's very high risk for the Liberal Party to so soon after losing young female voters in inner city areas to come out and defend a policy that overwhelmingly helps higher income men,' he said. The survey found nearly three-quarters (72 per cent) of Australian voters see the main purpose of the superannuation system as funding their retirement. More than half (53 per cent) also believe it's there to reduce reliance on the aged pension. 'We're often told that the point of superannuation is to help people fund a dignified retirement and that the benefit of superannuation is that it takes pressure off the age pension budget. This sounds amazing, but in reality in Australia, there are people with half a billion dollars in their self-managed super funds,' Mr Denniss said. 'So unfortunately, superannuation has become a vehicle for tax minimisation for the very wealthiest Australians and giving huge tax breaks to people with half a billion dollars in super does nothing to take pressure off the age pension budget for the simple reason that someone with half a billion dollars was never going to get the age pension. 'We really need to reflect as a country on what is the point of superannuation and what is the goal of giving tax breaks to superannuation? Because giving tax breaks to people who've got half a billion dollars in their self-managed super fund makes no economic sense and it doesn't make a lot of political sense either.' The 18-34 age group showed the highest likelihood of being swayed to vote Labor due to this policy; however, South Australian voters and Coalition supporters were among the most likely to be less supportive of Labor as a result. 'The reality is that people living in the inner cities of Australia are often the highest income earners, so it's not a surprise that we see a lot of people in regional areas and a lot of people in capital cities like Adelaide and Hobart, where incomes are a lot lower than Sydney and Melbourne, are less concerned about this policy than most,' Mr Denniss said. 'But to be clear, even in the inner city, even in NSW, a majority of Australians actually think that this is a good idea.'
SBS Australia
09-06-2025
- Politics
- SBS Australia
SBS News in Easy English 9 June 2025
Welcome to SBS News in Easy English, I'm Camille Bianchi. +++ 830 Australians have been recognised as part of the King's Birthday Honours. Former Prime Minister of Australia, Scott Morrison, is one of 14 people named as a Companion of the Order of Australia. The title has been offered to every Prime Minister since 1975. Mr Morrison says he is proud. "I am very humbled by the recognition and thankful to the Australian people who gave me the opportunity to serve as Prime Minister during one of the most difficult periods in Australia's history. Everything from natural disasters to the COVID-19 pandemic, the recession it caused. The threats we faced in the Indo-Pacific and the assertions and coercions of China - and our response to that. But through all of that, the Australian people were absolutely amazing." A former federal politician who lost her seat at the recent election, says she wants to move into Tasmanian state parliament. Last week, Tasmanian premier Jeremy Rockliff lost his job, when other politicians voted against his leadership - and now there will be a sudden election. Former Liberal M-P Bridget Archer wants to be chosen to represent a seat in the Bass electorate. "I'm not going to be anybody's stooge or anybody's puppet." "Bridget is a fighter. Bridget, understands the importance of being part of Team Tasmania." Today is SBS 50th birthday. The national public broadcaster started in 1975 as an experiment to share information about a national health care program, to Australians from non-English speaking backgrounds. Today, SBS broadcasts in 63 languages. NITV began in 2012 - a channel made by, for and about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Managing Director of SBS, James Taylor, says there is a lot to celebrate. "We've got the highest volumes of multilingual content than ever before in our history. And in 60 languages. We're also being acknowledged across a number of other fronts. We've got the Australian streaming platform through SBS On Demand, and we are the podcaster of the year, three years in a row. These are all things to really be celebrated. We're a public good, we are in part funded by the public, and it's really important for us to be delivering more and more value each year to Australians." In Tennis, defending champion Carlos Alcaraz has defeated Jannik Sinner in the French Open final. This is his fifth Grand Slam trophy. Alcaraz said kind words about his rival, Sinner, who had wanted to win his third major tennis trophy. "Honestly, I know how hard you're chasing this tournament or every tournament. I'm pretty sure you're going to be champion not once but many, many times. It's a privilege to share the court with you in every tournament, making history with you." That's the latest SBS News in Easy English.
News.com.au
01-06-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Bulk Buys: Calls for Aussie green iron grow, but we're missing the crucial ingredient
Green iron has become a major talking point in Australian political circles But the biggest handbrake on the nation-building industry could, ironically, be Australia's raw materials Cyclone Metals is blazing a trail in the space at Canada's Iron Bear project Recent weeks has seen a re-emergence of a long-running debate in Australian mining and the political landscape around it. Do we continue to dig it and ship it, selling our iron ore and coal to China in a network that makes us the quarry for the world's dominant steelmaker? Or can we revive a long crippled manufacturing sector at home, saving the world from an industry responsible for 8% of global carbon emissions by becoming producers of green iron at home. One barracker, the Rod Sims chaired Superpower Institute, claimed in a report last week that we could turn the $120bn iron ore export industry into a $386bn green iron export sector by 2060. They've called for government intervention to make it happen. That includes a production tax credit to supplement a proposed credit designed to make green hydrogen production $2/kg or below, equivalent to a carbon price of $170/t. Other recommendations are to support shared infrastructure, a green hydrogen certification scheme, grants that can support 15% of capital cost on top of an already announced $1bn green iron investment fund, up to $500m for projects producing 0.5Mt of steel or more a year, and a host of more general recommendations to support global carbon pricing initiatives. Industry backers The push for domestic green iron has come from business quarters as well, notably Andrew Forrest and his iron ore giant Fortescue (ASX:FMG), which is building a 1500tpa pilot plant at its green energy hub at Christmas Creek, at the same time as it dials back investments in its much touted hydrogen division amid a backdrop of economic uncertainty. Forrest himself has laid out warnings that Australia's iron ore exports could be at risk of losing their crown as ore grades slide and high-grade African deposits like Simandou come online. It's a curious position given Fortescue' own iron ore, sans its Iron Bridge magnetite mine, is among the lower grade products on the market, with some variations. Lower grade iron ore can work in concert with higher grade products in the blast furnaces that dominate the steel market in China and emerging player India, since it is typically blended to reach an optimal blend for the steel mill, based on market prices for steel and various inputs including iron ore and coal. China has stated its intention to reduce emissions from the steel sector, regularly promoting capacity swaps that involve the retirement of older factories for newer ones with better emissions profiles. It has largely done that via the development of electric arc furnace plants that need scrap steel to operate. There are some limitations there – recycled steel isn't great for high-end products like cars or high-tech equipment, while blast furnace lives remain relatively young. The plants, which use coal as the reductant to convert iron ore into crude steel, will remain in operation for decades yet. The easiest way to reduce steel emissions in billion tonne a year producer China is therefore higher iron ore grades with lower impurities, which require less coal and energy to produce the same steel tonne. To really curb emissions you need a direct reduced iron plant, which tends to operate with natural gas as the reducing agent. Theoretically, this process could be emissions free if that gas can be swapped out for hydrogen, something which has been studied for a while in Europe. But there's a bigger limitation. Australia has great stores of natural gas and abundant wind and solar resources to power a hypothetical hydrogen production process. However, it's the very specific grade of iron ore needed to produce DRI steel that will be the blocker. Australian iron. ore producers ship hematite, which has a high (but in the Pilbara's case declining) grade in the ground. But it is magnetite concentrates, which need to be beneficiated to deliver higher grades with lower impurities to the market, that are key for DRI. "With abundant high-grade iron ore resources and processing facilities, countries like Brazil, Canada and Sweden are better positioned for this transition. If it wants to remain competitive, Australia must focus on developing its magnetite iron ore sector," IEEFA energy finance analyst Sorough Basirat warned. "Over the past two decades, several large-scale concentrate plants have been launched to supply high-grade feedstock, along with two smaller-scale pelletising operations. Despite significant investment, however, these projects have often been plagued by delays, budget blowouts and operational setbacks. "Australia must act swiftly to remain competitive. Green iron is more critical to Australia than to any other country, given that iron ore is its leading export and that the country is the world's largest iron ore exporter. "The clock is ticking for Australia. Major miners must accelerate their efforts and adopt viable solutions quickly, or Australia risks missing out on this once-in-a-generation opportunity." Global potential That doesn't mean there aren't already Australian companies waking up to these changing tides. Cyclone Metals (ASX:CLE) this year sewed up a deal for Brazil's Vale, producer of around 60% of the iron ore globally suitable for DRI steelmaking. In recent times DR pellets assessed by Fastmarkets have nabbed a premium of around US$50/t over the prevailing price of 65% Fe iron ore, which itself runs a premium to the commonly quoted 62% Fe price – the latter is currently US$95.80/t. Cyclone Metals owns the 16Bt Iron Bear magnetite complex in Canada's Labrador Trough, one of the few places known to produce magnetite of the purity required to have DRI potential. With Vale in line to spend US$138m proving it up for an eventual 75% stake, it's one of the few deposits on the ASX with genuine potential to join the ~125Mtpa market for DR grade iron ore. "We've got a resource and we've done variability test work, so we've got results which for all intents and purposes is the easiest resource to upgrade to the DR grade that we're aware of," Cyclone CEO Paul Berend said. "(Rio Tinto's) IOC has got something a bit similar and they're about 250km from us, but they're much, much smaller in size and Vale is able to make DR pellets from much lower grade material from their southern system." That is proprietary to Vale, something Berend says shows developing DR grade iron ore projects in Australia is not outside the realm of possibility. But Iron Bear's mineralogy has given the project a leg up. Unlike blast furnaces, where impurities are extracted and separated in a slag, DRI plants need extremely low silica levels in their feedstocks. "When you see a silica floating below 1.5% you're getting into the zone. The Fe grade of a pellet is around 66% because you add things into pellets, you add bentonite and other stuff, binders," Berend said. "The Fe grade goes down, but it's misleading. It's the concentrate that you need to look at. "And even if you do get a concentrate, which has Fe and the silica which are the two things that you need to worry about, you still have to be able to get to the compression strength and the porosity, which not all orebodies, and enable you to do." Still an opportunity That doesn't mean Australia can't join the movement towards DRI. "Australia has a challenge with the ores, but has a huge advantage in terms of energy costs. So that's a very interesting situation for us to be in," Berend said, noting that Australia like other locations that host DR plants like the Middle East has its own sources of natural gas and renewable energy. "And I would invest very heavily in processing because there's lots and lots of iron ore in Australia, people haven't looked at the magnetite deposits in the way they should. And I'm sure there's clean magnetite deposits out there that we could find." Magnetite ores with higher grades and lower impurities will save emissions in traditional blast furnaces as well, Berend noted. "There's a challenge here Australia because if we don't interact together we're going to miss the boat for the next generation of ores," he said. "People get distracted by this siren of let's try and do zero carbon steel. It makes no difference to the footprint for the planet of steelmaking. "We can do green steel in Western Australia, but it will still be a very marginal thing for the next century or 50 years. And whilst it's interesting and we should do it, the bigger picture is decarbonise the steel industry by having cleaner raw material baskets, cleaner coal, cleaner iron ore. Immediate impact." Cyclone and Vale recently completed phase 4 of the met testwork at Iron Bear, producing 2.3t of DR grade concentrate at 71% Fe and 1.2% silica with low deleterious elements, along with 3.5t of blast furnace concentrate and, critically, 260kg of direct reduction pellets grading 68.4% Fe and 1.5% silica. A scoping study is due by the end of June. Elsewhere across the ASX there are a host of other magnetite hopefuls. In WA Gina Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting is still working on studies into a deposit in the Pilbara known as Hardey and in the Yilgarn in a partnership with Hawthorn Resources (ASX:HAW) and Indian-backed Legacy Iron Ore (ASX:LCY). In South Australia Magnetite Mines (ASX:MGT) continues to hold the Razorback project near the long-running but clouded SIMEC Mining operation. In the Pilbara and Mid West are the long-established Sino Iron and Karara Mining operations, while in Tasmania, Grange Resources (ASX:GRR) operates the small Savage River mine, where an underground development to extend its life is in the works. Falling iron ore prices appear to have scuttle the Southdown development proposed by Grange in WA's Great Southern region, while in Hawsons Iron (ASX:HIO) continues to plug away in NSW. In Africa, AKORA Resources (ASX:AKO) is targeting the development of its 2Mtpa Bekisopa project in Madagascar, which unlike most magnetite projects can be upgraded to grades similar to the iron ore produced in WA's Pilbara with simple beneficiation. That means it can be developed as a low-cost DSO operation, costing just US$60.6m to establish and with capital payback in 1.8 years according to a recent PFS. FID is expected in mid-2026 with the first shipment due in Q3 2027 if all goes to plan. MD Paul Bibby said on the release of the March PFS that further drilling could confirm additional mine life beyond the initial 6 years, with the long-term vision of building a high-grade concentrate operation beyond the initial DSO project. According to assessments of the port capacity at Toliara, minimal upgrades would be needed to support Bekisopa's anticipated Stage 2 green steel iron concentrate product handling of a nominal 5Mtpa rate. What about coal? While iron ore prices have been relatively stable this year in the face of weak steel industry profits and macroeconomic uncertainty, coal has suffered dearly. Prices of US$187/t for the top-grade Queensland coking coal don't seem too bad until you factor in the much higher cost base for incumbent miners since the pandemic, and the fact most producers don't actually realise that benchmark price. Thermal coal is even more sold off, down at around US$103/t after a couple of mild northern winters. Experts don't think met coal prices, in particular can stay so far into the cost curve forever. Speaking to Stockhead last week, Precision Funds Management's Dermot Woods said it was just a matter of time before the market moved for its key pick in the space, Whitehaven Coal (ASX:WHC). " If you take how hard it is to get a project off the ground in any commodity and then multiply that by all the green tape around getting a coal asset up anymore," he said. " We're sort of bemused that people aren't willing to pay more of an option premium for something like Whitehaven, which is making OK money at the moment. "If you can compare and contrast to lithium, which also isn't working at the moment, but the price is going down and down and the coal price is level. " People are pricing in this coal price forever, whereas they're pricing severe mean reversion back to sort of US$12-1500 ... on lithium. " I don't think that the average person understands how much costs have gone up in the coal space or what the real all in sustaining costs are there. " I don't think there's a lot of people making much money in coal at the moment, so it's a matter of time to – and you never know when these prices happen – but until coal runs really hard."
