Donald Trump at the United Nations: “Climate change – it’s the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world, in my opinion.” Photo: Screenshot.
Anthony Albanese has urged American business giants to invest more money into Australian manufacturing and capitalise on the nation’s vast supply of mineral resources and renewable energy technology.
The Prime Minister hosted an event at the Macquarie Group’s US headquarters in New York, where he stated that he aimed to add a “new dimension” to Australia’s partnership with the United States.
“American capital and Australian manufacturing are a natural fit,” he said.
“And if we move now, we can make them an unbeatable combination. We can put our investment partnership at the centre of a defining global opportunity.
“The world’s shift to clean energy represents the most significant change since the Industrial Revolution.
“We are looking at ever-increasing global demand for clean energy and the technology that generates and stores it.”
But US President Donald Trump has used his own address to the United Nations General Assembly to dismiss climate change as “the greatest con job” in the world.
In an almost hour-long speech to world leaders gathered at the UN, Mr Trump trashed the concept of renewable energy, while praising fossil fuels and insisting his country has the most oil and gas of any nation.
The President claimed that solar and wind don’t work as energy resources, that the UN’s talk of climate change consequences is wrong, and that the economics of renewable energy are flawed.
“Climate change – it’s the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world, in my opinion,” he said.
“All of these predictions made by the United Nations and many others, often for bad reasons, were wrong.
“They were made by stupid people that have cost their countries fortunes and given those same countries no chance for success … We’re getting rid of the falsely named renewables, by the way. They’re a joke. They don’t work. They’re too expensive.”
Describing renewable technologies as “so bad” and “so pathetic”, the President said he has “unleashed” a concerted push to drill for new oil, gas and coal reserves.
Anthony Albanese with US Ambassador Kevin Rudd at the Macquarie Bank investment event in New York. Photo: Anthony Albanese Facebook.
Mr Albanese subsequently told reporters that the President was entitled to his own views on climate change and that he wouldn’t comment on the content of the speech.
“My job is to represent Australia’s national interest,” the Prime Minister said.
“President Trump gave a speech. He’s entitled to give a speech and to put his views.
“I don’t think that they are any views that he hasn’t said before.”
Mr Albanese also revealed that a date has finally been set for a face-to-face meeting with the US President.
An anticipated meeting on the sidelines of the UN this week did not take place, so Mr Albanese will now have to fly to Washington next month for a meeting at the White House on 20 October.
Back at the Macquarie Group gathering, the PM was doing his best to talk up Australia’s mineral wealth and natural resources.
US money directed towards Australian resources and manufacturing would be a wise investment, he said.
“If you started with a blank piece of paper and wrote down every asset and resource you would need to thrive in that economic environment, at the end of it, you would hold in your hand a list of Australia’s strengths,” Mr Albanese said.
“We are home to some of the most valuable deposits of critical minerals on earth, just about the whole periodic table, including the light and heavy rare earths essential for high-tech manufacturing and defence, the digital economy, artificial intelligence, data centres and clean energy.
“As the alignment of economic and security interests becomes increasingly important, our government sees this as an opportunity to create a new source of comparative advantage – to make more things in Australia.”
