Stand-Up Australia

AUSTRALIA HAS THE MINERALS. BUT WHO HAS THE STRATEGY? The United States has announced a $560 million investment in a scandium project in central western NSW. This isn’t simply foreign investment in an Australian mine. The US is financing the development of a strategically important Australian resource — while securing …

Why isn’t Australia being equally strategic? We manufacture less and less, reducing ourselves to one of the world’s largest wholesalers of minerals. Australia has the minerals. America recognises their strategic value, finances their extraction and negotiates preferential access to the output. What is Australia’s long-…

WHEN GOVERNMENT POLICY MAKES INDUSTRY UNVIABLE — WHO PAYS? Saving more than 1,000 jobs at Tomago Aluminium matters. But the $2.5 billion taxpayer-funded deal to keep Australia’s largest aluminium smelter operating raises a bigger question. Tomago says it cannot secure commercially viable electricity beyond 2028. How di…

Just days after reports of new payment terminals in New Zealand capable of using facial and palm recognition, Australia has now been added to the rollout. Verifone’s Victa terminals are coming here, with technology designed to eventually let Australians pay with their face or palm. We’re told it will be opt-in. Just li…

We opposed this Bill because it expanded ASIO’s coercive questioning powers. The Coalition had a chance to help stop it. Only 2 of 27 Coalition senators recorded a vote. Both voted NO. The other 25 recorded no vote. This is legislation that can compel people who haven’t been charged with a crime to answer questions, su…