Within days of joining the Ministry, Frydenberg went in to bat for the Adani Group’s Carmichael mine in Queensland, going so far as to say it might be a candidate for government assistance in the provision of infrastructure, such as helping fund the mine’s rail system.
Talk about waving a coal-coloured rag at the Green Movement.
Carmichael is the environmental lobby’s primary cause of complaint thanks to its location, proposed rail route, port site, and shipping movements through the Great Barrier Reef.
Every trick in the Book of Protests is being brought to bear on Carmichael, and we are probably only up to chapter five in a 12-chapter manual about how to frustrate a mine development.
Into the Carmichael quagmire charged the new Minister stating the mine was “a very important project, which will see significant investment in Australia and provide electricity to millions of people in the developing world”
Yes Minister. You are spot on. That is exactly what Carmichael has the potential to do and The Hog is delighted to hear you say those things – but how do you propose to deliver on such fine sentiment?
Asking that question of delivery is perhaps a little unfair because Frydenberg is just days into his new assignment, and it is the first big issue he has faced as a Minister – or as a politician who has only been in the Australian Parliament for five years.
If he can deliver, Frydenberg really will be seen as a champion of the Australian resources sector at a time when it needs everything to go right after several years in the sin bin of low prices, mine closures and little fresh investment.
Green groups have, so far, been slow to recognise that there is a new man in the Resources and Energy portfolio with the only response so far coming from the Australian branch of the US-backed anti-coal campaign group, 350 Australia, which repeated warnings that it would do whatever was required to stop Carmichael.
One of the preferred routes in thwarting the development is via the banking system with activists peppering banks, and fund managers who invest in banks, with threats of retribution should a particular bank lend money to coal developers.
Using banks as a proxy for the anti-coal campaign is an interesting approach, and some banks have caved in, perhaps because they were not receiving a clear signal from the Australian government that they were expected to support a nationally important industry.
Frydenberg’s first comments will stiffen the backbone of reluctant bankers because he has linked environmental activism as an attack on the Australian economy, which it obviously is, even though government ministers have been slow to recognise the economic dangers of killing the coal industry.
“Anti-development activism can create major delays in projects and send investment offshore,” Frydenberg told the Australian Financial Review.
“You have to be very conscious of that when there are long time-frames involved and we are competing internationally for investment in this country.
“We are not the only nation in the world that produces iron ore or mines for coal.”
That is the point Minister. Australia is just one of many countries with mineral resources that the world wants, and if customers cannot buy here they will buy elsewhere, and probably from a source less careful with how it manages environmental issues, such as Indonesia.
The question now is that having nailed the big issue to his Ministerial Mast, and having drawn out the standard response from the anti-coal activists what happens next?
Well, what The Hog reckons needs to happen is for the resources industry, led by coal, to make itself more open to the Australian public, with the starting point being to learn the lessons of Alcoa in WA during its fight over access to bauxite in the Darling Range.
By opening its doors and welcoming visitors to its operations Alcoa was able to show the world that it (a) did not destroy the environment; (b) it was actually protecting the environment; and (c) it was improving the environment with its active tree-planting programs.
The point here is that most Australians are city dwellers and have never seen a mine. They rely on television documentaries and activist propaganda for their “facts”
Do what Alcoa did. Take people to mines. Show as many people as possible how the industry works.
It might be expensive, but so is the media advertising blitz, and an open door policy can work wonders in winning friends, and the more people who see the modern mining industry at work the better.
