Anthony Albanese goes to Washington and signs a “deal” with Donald Trump, who publicly belittles our Ambassador. What’s the scam?
The scam is that – apart from the show, apart from the Rudd distractions, and apart from the cost of weapons that Australia will be paying for – there is a lot of bluster and little substance; the imaginary benefits mostly going to the US.
There isn’t even any fine print, just a press release from the White House.
First, the Export-Import Bank of the United States is issuing “Letters of Interest” for a total of $US2.2B. A letter of interest means diddly-squat; it’s a term mostly associated with people sending unsolicited job pitches to companies for which they want to work. Letters of interest … not even an MOU.
A bit more akin to an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) is the seperate announcement on critical minerals, with at least a stated intent for each country to invest $US1B into “securing the supply chain” for rare earths and critical minerals.
Second, the US Department of War (sic!) will invest in the construction of a 100 metric-ton-per-year advanced gallium refinery in Western Australia, further advancing “self-reliance in critical minerals processing.” It doesn’t specify whose self-reliance is in question, nor the amount of investment, but suffice to say, China accounts for well over 90% of the world’s gallium production.
Gallium is used in semiconductors and electronics, not exactly a major industry down under, but the US is rapidly losing its hegemony.
Finally, apart from the verbiage around AUKUS and other weapons systems that Australia has already committed to pay for, and the US beef that we Aussies don’t want to eat, here’s the real “clincher”:
- Australia’s superannuation funds will increase investments in the United States to $1.44 trillion by 2035—an increase of almost $1 trillion from current levels.
- This unprecedented investment will create tens of thousands of new, high-paying jobs for Americans. (our emphasis)
Rest assured, the boards of Australian Super Funds are not meeting today to give that utterly empty announcement any consideration whatsoever. That’s not how the world of investments works, and Albanese should know better. We know that Trump doesn’t.
