Australia, a major supplier of minerals key to the energy transition like rare earths, has more to gain by encouraging investment from allies to build up its minerals processing industry, Chalmers said at a conference in Sydney. "Foreign investment is a good thing when it’s in our national interest," Chalmers said. "But as investment interest grows, and as the sources of that investment interest grow, we’ll need to be more assertive about encouraging investment that clearly aligns with our national interest in the longer term." The Labor government which took power in May is buttressing Australia's policy to build out a critical minerals processing supply chain. Australia is revising its critical minerals strategy and has been positioning itself as a green superpower, backed by its mineral endowments.

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