Billionaire Andrew Forrest, an iron ore magnate turned green energy advocate, has called for Australia to maintain strong ties with China to combat climate change, criticising the Coalition’s advocacy of nuclear power and failure to set emission reduction targets.
Speaking on ABC Radio National this morning, the chairman of Fortescue Metals Group known as “Twiggy” said Chinese domination of green industries, which have prompted energy security fears among some Western governments, stemmed from their “gutsy” investment decades ago and was fundamentally beneficial.
Chairman and founder of Fortescue, Andrew Forrest.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“That happens to be a great dividend for the world, a much bigger threat than China’s economy is global warming,” Forrest, who made much of his fortune selling iron ore to China, said.
He added investment in Australian green industries alongside China would power the national economy.
“If we end up doing this, then it will be equipment sourced in Australia and China, everything made in Australia, and all the product distributed and supplied to the world,” Forrest said. “So that is a pretty solid marriage – very much in Australia’s national interest.”
Forrest also criticised Opposition Leader Peter Dutton for advocating for small nuclear reactors to be introduced to Australia, reiterating a recent National Press Club address in which he called the Coalition’s stance “bulldust” and said the technology was still more than a decade away from being viable.
“If you think that’s any solution for our standard living or our cost of living, then you’re completely wrong. You are absolutely misleading,” Forrest told the ABC this morning.
He was then asked what recent Coalition gains in opinion polls showed if their energy policy was as flawed as he described. “It just tells me that we have a very poor transmission of the truth,” Forrest responded.
Forrest said the Coalition’s failure to back the Albanese government’s $22.7 billion Made in Australia subsidy scheme to boost the country’s green technologies and set a 2030 emissions reduction target was economically harmful.
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“We are the people who are employing everyday Australians. It’s not you, Mr Talking Head, trying to get yourself a scared vote. It’s us – Australian businesses – who are out every day and want some degree of certainty to make employment decisions, investment decisions, to grow our country,” Forrest said.
Forrest, whose pushes for closer China relations amid heightened Australian security concerns have irked the government in the past, maintained the country was not a threat to Australia.
“I’m really only qualified to comment on Australia. And no, I don’t see a quiver of hostility towards Australia. That would be China kicking an own-goal instead of us,” Forrest said.
“So no, I don’t think China and Australia are at risk of any military incursions.”
