MAGA muscle exposes weak point in rare earths opportunity

Anthony Albanese will talk co-operation on critical minerals with Donald Trump. But Australia is in a tough and competitive race to deliver.

yesterday 9

Jennifer Hewett

BHP, Rio hope their bets on ‘anarcho-capitalist’ pay off

The resources giants have a lot riding on Argentinian President Javier Milei in this month’s congressional elections.

07.10.2025 3

Jennifer Hewett

Liberals fall down their own rabbit hole

Sussan Ley’s job just got harder as some of her colleagues decide that fighting culture wars is the path to electoral redemption rather than a dead...

06.10.2025 6

Jennifer Hewett

EVs and me – I’m not the only one who’s confused

To the frustration of the states, the federal government is hitting the brakes on setting up road-user charges for EV drivers.

01.10.2025 3

Jennifer Hewett

Consumer spending going up means rates less likely to go down

RBA governor Michele Bullock’s commentary will confirm the market’s view that prospects for another interest rate cut this year have receded.

30.09.2025 3

Jennifer Hewett

Little pity for banks in fight over payments revolution

Expect a growing outcry from the banks over the RBA’s proposal to cut “interchange” fees paid by businesses on every credit card transaction.

29.09.2025 7

Jennifer Hewett

Albanese bets on fantasy climate targets as Trump bets on coal

The prime minister ignored Donald Trump’s rant against renewables as he promoted Australia’s green credentials in New York this week. How real is...

26.09.2025 10

Jennifer Hewett

UN mesmerised by Trump as he takes America into uncharted waters

It’s the Donald Trump show. The president uses his address at the United Nations to blast the failure of others as he boasts of America’s success.

24.09.2025 2

Jennifer Hewett

Downing Russian drones took a little Australian firm to ASX success

Small Australian company DroneShield has grown its way into being a global player thwarting Russian drone attacks and supplying the US and European...

23.09.2025 2

Jennifer Hewett

Optus guilty of fundamental communications failure

Technology failures may be inevitable in today’s world, but that makes the telco’s failure to communicate Triple Zero service problems even more...

22.09.2025 3

Jennifer Hewett

Albanese banks on mateship as he lands in Trump’s America

Keir Starmer has cheerfully exploited Donald Trump’s love of British royalty and pageantry. Anthony Albanese can’t offer the same distractions if...

19.09.2025 4

Jennifer Hewett

Sussan Ley stuck in no-man’s land, an eye out for knives

The opposition leader faces plenty of trouble behind her leadership, as well as ahead, as she tries to refocus the Liberal’s message on economics.

17.09.2025 4

Jennifer Hewett

Cybersecurity an illusion as ‘Q day’ looms

Protecting our data is already under attack from AI, but now cyber “thugs and thieves” are relishing what advances in quantum computing might give...

16.09.2025 10

Jennifer Hewett

Climate ambitions ring hollow for firms facing the costs

Despite all the money and rhetoric, Australia’s emissions cuts have flatlined for the past four years, suggesting a tough ask to reach Labor’s...

15.09.2025 6

Jennifer Hewett

Big business swaps fights for favours with Labor

CEOs are giving Canberra the benefit of the doubt as they wait to see whether suddenly fashionable words such as productivity will translate into...

12.09.2025 5

Jennifer Hewett

Telstra’s biggest policy fight isn’t over AI but is just as critical

Telcos are happy with the idea of having their spectrum licences simply renewed rather than being forced to bid for them again. Consumer groups...

11.09.2025 10

Jennifer Hewett

Asia Pacific shrugs off Trump’s tariffs

It turns out the US president’s ‘liberation day’ blitz hasn’t been as damaging as feared. So far.

09.09.2025 10

Jennifer Hewett

Why Worley is banking on AI

Worley’s US-based CEO, Chris Ashton, is determined not to be one of those left pondering what to do with the promise of artificial intelligence.

08.09.2025 6

Jennifer Hewett

Navigating the risks of big power politics

Daniel Andrews is the least of the Albanese government’s problems in managing the new perils of the world.

05.09.2025 4

Jennifer Hewett

Business takes gloss off Chalmers cheer

The treasurer is pleased that better than expected quarterly GDP figures showed consumers were more willing to spend. But business investment remains...

03.09.2025 4

Jennifer Hewett

The big threat to Australia’s iron ore empire

In a warning to the hugely profitable Pilbara industry, Brazil’s Vale believes its mines are better suited to Chinese ambitions for lower emissions.

02.09.2025 6

Jennifer Hewett

Hook, line and sinker: How I got caught in a phishing trap

I became one more consumer fooled by a scam – and am now dealing with the financial cost as well as the personal humiliation of being so easily...

01.09.2025 5

Jennifer Hewett

Government pays up to keep projects alive

The Albanese government is hoping that subsidising key mining and smelting projects to help them weather price collapses will pay off. It’s a big...

08.08.2025 4

Jennifer Hewett

As Trump fights big pharma, the PBS risks getting caught in the crossfire

The US president is angry Americans pay more for their medicines. Will he want the PBS – and Australian citizens – to help change that equation?

06.08.2025 6

Jennifer Hewett

Energy report long on woolly words, short on specifics

The Productivity Commission’s second of five interim reports offers a confusing new acronym but little that is concrete.

04.08.2025 10

Jennifer Hewett

Labor has some hard choices on climate policy

The party claims the election win as endorsement of its energy strategy, but faces difficult decisions about reducing emissions and controlling costs.

01.08.2025 10

Jennifer Hewett

Brutal but effective: Trump rules the world on tariffs

The US president is declaring victory amid grudging capitulation from friends and foe alike, writes Jennifer Hewett.

30.07.2025 10

Jennifer Hewett

In an EV-first world, can e-fuels drive the decarbonisation of transport?

HIF Global is just one of the big businesses betting on green tech to provide a viable alternative to electric vehicles.

28.07.2025 9

Jennifer Hewett

Why Australia can’t dodge US tariffs

Despite the Coalition’s attempts to suggest otherwise, Labor cannot offer enough – not even an audience with a king – to appeal to Trump’s...

25.07.2025 10

Jennifer Hewett

Labor delight as Coalition reopens climate wars

Sussan Ley’s problems with managing the opposition’s energy policy just got much worse. Labor’s problems with managing its own energy policy...

23.07.2025 10

Jennifer Hewett

Little Aussie miner pushes back on Chinese control of critical minerals

The announcement by ASX-listed Tivan of Japanese support for its fluorite projects is a small example of the effort to build supply chains independent...

21.07.2025 5

Jennifer Hewett

Roundtable screams of Chalmers’ style, but where’s the substance?

The treasurer is pushing big ideas and expectations for his economic talkfest in August. The practical results are much less certain.

18.07.2025 5

Jennifer Hewett

Henry’s plan for what comes next

The former Treasury secretary failed to have a previous Labor government implement a resources super profits tax, but he has plenty of big ideas for...

17.07.2025 20

Jennifer Hewett

Green iron push bolsters message to voters

Shared optimism about the technology and a promised increase in jobs and prosperity are a useful counter to rising concerns about Australia’s growth...

15.07.2025 10

Jennifer Hewett

Our man in Beijing – but not Washington

Anthony Albanese’s highly choreographed visit to China showcases the lack of a similar invitation – or enthusiasm – from the Trump White House.

11.07.2025 5

Jennifer Hewett

Trump’s copper tariffs will backfire on the US

The administration wants to “bring copper production home”, but the most likely result is that manufacturers will have little choice but to pay...

09.07.2025 20

Jennifer Hewett

Michele Bullock gives a lesson in prudence

The RBA governor and Reserve Bank board were willing to shock the market, noting “anything can happen, and we’re alert to that”.

08.07.2025 4

Jennifer Hewett

Albanese lost in translation as he heads to Beijing

The prime minister is sending a confused message on Australia’s relationship with the US. The contradictions will be sharper in his visit to China...

07.07.2025 10

Jennifer Hewett

My daughter-in-law is afraid to send her baby to childcare. She’s not alone

The anguish of the Victorian case has hit families around the country, striking deeply at their confidence in the whole system.

04.07.2025 5

Jennifer Hewett

Critical minerals script runs into reality in DC

Australia’s efforts to use these resources as a bargaining chip in Washington won’t work.

02.07.2025 7

Jennifer Hewett

Milei goes for broke in Argentina

The South American country’s president offers a radical experiment in economic therapy for a nation in desperate financial straits.

29.06.2025 9

Jennifer Hewett

Albanese can’t escape ‘daddy’ Trump’s defence demands

Donald Trump wanted – and got – acclaim and obeisance from NATO leaders. It’s lucky Anthony Albanese wasn’t in the picture.

27.06.2025 5

Jennifer Hewett

US plays the Trump card at NATO

The summit allows the US president to parade his ceasefire success and press NATO members to up their defence spending. Australia’s Richard Marles...

25.06.2025 8

Jennifer Hewett

Trump claims elusive win despite uncertainty

The US president’s high-risk bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities looked to have been a big win. Does the quick breakdown in the ceasefire mean...

24.06.2025 4

Jennifer Hewett

Why Albanese has to back US strike

The prime minister is belatedly backing America, but what comes next in the Middle East is much less clear.

23.06.2025 4

Jennifer Hewett

Trump would love to target the Federal Reserve as well as Iran

The president sounds as angry with Jerome Powell as with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. But what he decides to do about Iran will come much sooner than a Fed...

19.06.2025 20

Jennifer Hewett

Storm clouds gather over G7

The intensifying conflict in the Middle East will dominate an agenda that was supposed to focus on trade and support for Ukraine.

16.06.2025 10

Jennifer Hewett

Why Brazil is too big and too important for Australia to ignore

Amid a shifting global order, expanding international ambitions and a tricky domestic balancing act, Brazil could have a greater impact on Australia...

13.06.2025 10

Jennifer Hewett

Australian rare earths miners join rush to Brazil

At least 13 small Australian miners are frantically trying their luck – and trying to raise money – to develop rare earths mines. But why are they...

10.06.2025 10

Jennifer Hewett

Australia and Chile have more in common than you probably think

The two countries have many similarities as mining-based economies dependent on China as their major trading partner. But the relationship goes...

06.06.2025 9

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MAGA muscle exposes weak point in rare earths opportunity

Jennifer Hewett

BHP, Rio hope their bets on ‘anarcho-capitalist’ pay off

Jennifer Hewett

Liberals fall down their own rabbit hole

Jennifer Hewett

EVs and me – I’m not the only one who’s confused

Jennifer Hewett

Consumer spending going up means rates less likely to go down

Jennifer Hewett

Little pity for banks in fight over payments revolution

Jennifer Hewett

Albanese bets on fantasy climate targets as Trump bets on coal

Jennifer Hewett

UN mesmerised by Trump as he takes America into uncharted waters

Jennifer Hewett

Downing Russian drones took a little Australian firm to ASX success

Jennifer Hewett

Optus guilty of fundamental communications failure

Jennifer Hewett

Albanese banks on mateship as he lands in Trump’s America

Jennifer Hewett

Sussan Ley stuck in no-man’s land, an eye out for knives

Jennifer Hewett

Cybersecurity an illusion as ‘Q day’ looms

Jennifer Hewett

Climate ambitions ring hollow for firms facing the costs

Jennifer Hewett

Big business swaps fights for favours with Labor

Jennifer Hewett

Telstra’s biggest policy fight isn’t over AI but is just as critical

Jennifer Hewett

Asia Pacific shrugs off Trump’s tariffs

Jennifer Hewett

Why Worley is banking on AI

Jennifer Hewett

Navigating the risks of big power politics

Jennifer Hewett

Business takes gloss off Chalmers cheer

Jennifer Hewett

The big threat to Australia’s iron ore empire

Jennifer Hewett

Hook, line and sinker: How I got caught in a phishing trap

Jennifer Hewett

Government pays up to keep projects alive

Jennifer Hewett

As Trump fights big pharma, the PBS risks getting caught in the crossfire

Jennifer Hewett

Energy report long on woolly words, short on specifics

Jennifer Hewett

Labor has some hard choices on climate policy

Jennifer Hewett

Brutal but effective: Trump rules the world on tariffs

Jennifer Hewett

In an EV-first world, can e-fuels drive the decarbonisation of transport?

Jennifer Hewett

Why Australia can’t dodge US tariffs

Jennifer Hewett

Labor delight as Coalition reopens climate wars

Jennifer Hewett

Little Aussie miner pushes back on Chinese control of critical minerals

Jennifer Hewett

Roundtable screams of Chalmers’ style, but where’s the substance?

Jennifer Hewett

Henry’s plan for what comes next

Jennifer Hewett

Green iron push bolsters message to voters

Jennifer Hewett

Our man in Beijing – but not Washington

Jennifer Hewett

Trump’s copper tariffs will backfire on the US

Jennifer Hewett

Michele Bullock gives a lesson in prudence

Jennifer Hewett

Albanese lost in translation as he heads to Beijing

Jennifer Hewett

My daughter-in-law is afraid to send her baby to childcare. She’s not alone