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End of Year Message 2024, Sabine Pittrof, Chair

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Dear Members and Friends,

As we approach the end of 2024, it is a good time to look back on the year for the German Australian Business Council.

2024 was a year of continued transition: Both Business Council Patrons, H.E. Ambassador Natasha Smith, and Consul-General Kelly Matthews, have commenced their posts, and both have kindly agreed to take up the roles as our Patron and Co-Patron. Our Board has had ‘a changing of the guard’ in key roles farewelling long-term treasurer, Eberhard Goihl, event oversight lead, Peirui Tan, and deputy chair, Evangelos Kotsopoulos, as well as board members Sergej Bukovac, Dalibor Vukadin and Simone Wienhausen. As announced at the AGM in April, in order to take some pressure off the chair role, we have moved to a Co-Chair model. I am delighted to announce that long-term Munich board member Robert Harrison has agreed up step to the role of Co-Chair. I will initially stay on as the lead chair and will, after a transition period, move to the role of Co-Chair with a focus on the liaison with the Australian Business in Europe (ABIE) network.

Regarding value delivered to our members, we championed 12 events this year across three cities. My personal highlights being the Ambassador’s Dinner in Frankfurt at which we welcomed our Patron, H.E. Ms Natasha Smith, and the visit to the European Space Agency at Darmstadt in February.

One important facet of the Business Council is to make our voices heard in Australian policy discussions and decisions. In co-operation with the ABIE network we successfully issued a further submission relating to Free Trade Agreements. It is with great satisfaction that for the first time, ABIE, as a network, was invited to provide representation on this topic at a public hearing in Parliament House, Canberra. Fellow board member Robert Harrison and I represented the Business Council at this hearing, together with representatives from our French and British sister organisations. It is very gratifying for the Business Council to be recognised as a key organisation for business networking in the private and government sectors between Germany and Australia.

It is only with the efforts of our voluntary board members that the Business Council continues to build on our strengths to grow and evolve. The quality of our submissions and the success of our events are built on the support of our active members, Patrons, Partners, Board and staff. I would like to take this opportunity to thank each of you for your contribution this year and ongoing support. Special thanks go to our event leads Lucia Santosa and Dietrich Klusemann, for their hard work in managing the event team transition, and to our event managers, Gordana Paton and Ulrike Neumann, for looking after the smooth running of our events.

My deepest gratitude goes to our office manager, Suzanne Heim, for her unwavering support of our association. Many of you would not realise the extent and broad range of the work Suzanne is completing in the background. She is the backbone of the Business Council and the Board would not function without her. Her talent and dedication make her an invaluable and integral part of the Business Council. A heartfelt Thank You for the great work that you do, Suzanne!

It goes without saying:  A very big Thank you to you, our members and friends, for your dedication to the cause of enhancing and expanding bilateral business relations, and supporting our activities. A special thanks goes to the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, our premium sponsor. We highly appreciate your support and partnership and look forward to our joint event in March next year.

In 2025, we will be primarily focused on two areas: 1. Increasing value to our members and 2. The planning of business information and networking events throughout the year, including the AGM to be held on 8 April in Frankfurt. The board will convene for our annual strategy meeting on 18 January 2025, confirming a new 2-year strategy. Your ideas and input will be most welcome. Please approach any board members or email them to info@gabc.eu.

Once again, I would like to thank you for your continued support and commitment.

I wish you and your families a Merry Christmas and a very Happy and Healthy New Year.

Best Regards,

Sabine Pittrof

Chair, on behalf of the Board

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Business Council Chair attends the launch of Austrian sister organisation

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Business Council Chair, Sabine Pittrof, attended the launch of the Austrian Australian Business Council in Vienna last week.

“I was very impressed with the high quality of companies attending and delighted to be asked to recount the history of the Australian Business in Europe network. I would like to congratulate  AABC Chairs Gabriele Costigan and Travis Pittman and their team on a successful event”, says Sabine. The German Australian Business Council would like to congratulate its sister organization in Austria. We look forward to collaborating on joint events and within the ABIE network more broadly.

www.aabc-austria.com

Ambassador Gabriele Visentin

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EU Ambassador urges Australia to make investment easier

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Reuters is reporting that the EU Ambassador in Australia, speaking at the Minerals Week Conference in Canberra, Australia, urged the country to make foreign financial investment simpler. Ambassador Gabriele Visentin said EU financial investment in Australia was already big, and the bloc aspired to grow the level of investment, especially when it comes to investing in the sourcing of critical raw materials, such as lithium, cobalt and nickel.

As we know in the German Australia Business Council, Australia is abundant in critical minerals. These are particularly important for the transition to cleaner energy. Currently, China has a dominant position in the supply of those materials.

In May 2024, the EU and Australia signed a memorandum of understanding to comply more carefully crucial and strategic minerals as the EU tries to diversify its providers away from China and Russia and change its economy to reduce carbon emissions.

Australia and the EU have been negotiating a free trade agreement since 2018, although a deal remains elusive. Talks, however, were halted last October after Australia rejected an offer which did not sufficiently open European farming markets for Australian exports.

Mining

Australian critical minerals projects in the global spotlight

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The Australian Government has launched a new digital Critical Minerals Prospectus, showcasing more than 55 investment-ready projects to potential investors and buyers from around the world. The digital Prospectus features an interactive online map, shining a spotlight on the investment-ready projects across Australia’s critical minerals landscape.

The tool can be customised to navigate Australia’s rich and diverse mineral endowment, and a range of available government support, including potential funding for Australian critical minerals projects. Australia has an abundance of critical minerals needed to build essential components, for things like electric vehicles, solar panels, hydrogen technology and batteries.

The Government is also incentivising investment in critical minerals projects through a range of programs, including the $4 billion Critical Minerals Facility and the recently announced $7 billion Critical Minerals Production Tax Incentive.

The interactive Australian Critical Minerals Prospectus is available here.

Speaking at the launch, the Minister for Trade and Tourism, Don Farrell, highlighted that “Australia is ready and willing to meet the growing global demand for critical minerals, and we welcome international investment in key projects across the country. The new online Prospectus shines a spotlight on over 55 investor-ready projects which will attract the investment we need to build new industries, create more jobs, and become a renewable energy superpower.” The Minister for Resources, Madeleine King, added “Critical minerals are vital for the global efforts to reduce emissions and becoming increasingly important inputs for the defence industry. Australia’s resources industry has been developed with foreign investment, and we need overseas investment to build our critical minerals industry”

Australia – not (yet) a powerhouse for critical raw materials

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The Economist in a recent article reports that Australia, despite its rich reserves of critical minerals like lithium and rare earths, faces major challenges in becoming a global powerhouse for supplying critical raw materials, required by industry in the transition to net zero.

Key obstacles highlighted in the article include the current dominance of China in refining and processing the materials. Australia currently relies on the export of materials and has not yet fully developed its own processing capabilities. The article concludes that there is also a need for more investment in infrastructure.

For more details, you can read the full article here.

Interim Report: Inquiry into the Australian Government’s Approach to Negotiating Trade and Investment Agreements, February 2024

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The German Australian Business Council were invited to provide feedback on the Inquiry into the Australian Government’s Approach to Negotiating Trade and Investment Agreements in a public hearing at Parliament House, Canberra in October 2023. On 6 February 2024, the Joint Standing Committee on Trade and Investment Growth presented its interim report on this matter.

The report is available at: The Australian Government’s approach to negotiating trade and investment agreements – Parliament of Australia (aph.gov.au)

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What’s at the core of the Australian German relationship? January 2024

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Here is a LinkedIn post from the Australian Embassy Germany highlighting Australia and Germany’s work together on a wide range of shared bilateral, regional and global interests. These include security and defence, strengthening the multilateral system, tackling Climate Change, and supporting the green transition, with particular collaboration on Hydrogen and Critical Minerals. Plus the successful connections cover the full breadth of political, scientific, economic, and cultural exchange.

(28) Post | LinkedIn

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Business Council Public Hearing Appearance – FTA Negotiation Inquiry, 20 October

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Following the Free Trade Agreement submission made by the German Australian Business Council, we have been invited by the Joint Standing Committee on Trade and Investment Growth to appear at a public hearing in Parliament House, Canberra regarding their inquiry into the Australian Government’s approach to negotiating trade and investment agreements.

The public hearing will be broadcast on the Parliament House website (link below). Individuals can listen to the public hearing by clicking on the relevant link on the website. A recording of the public hearing will also be uploaded to the website.

Date: Friday, 20 October 2023

Time: 3:10 to 3:50pm AEDT / 6:10 to 6:50am CEST

Link: Watch, Read, Listen – Parliament of Australia (aph.gov.au)

Representing the Business Council at the public hearing are board members: The Hon. André Haermeyer, Dr Robert Harrison, Elisabeth Opie and Dr Sabine Pittrof.

If you are interested, please feel free to click on the link and follow the hearing.

Madeleine King

Australian Minister for Resources, Madeleine King, in Europe

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Australian Minister for Resources and Northern Australia, Madeleine King, is currently in Europe to promote Australia as a reliable supplier of critical minerals to support global efforts to reach net-zero.  Minister King will hold bilateral talks with ministerial counterparts from Germany, the EU, France and the UK, and will participate in the inaugural International Energy Agency (IEA) Critical Minerals and Clean Energy Summit on September 28 in Paris.

Talks will involve industry representatives from across Europe and the UK, including Europe’s automotive industry, which will need more critical minerals to manufacture electric vehicles.

“Australia has the critical minerals the world needs to help lower emissions, and we have well-established export supply chains built over decades through our iron ore and gas industries,” Minister King said.

“Australia’s resources sector also has high environmental and social governance standards (ESG), and a global reputation as a stable and reliable export partner.

“I released Australia’s new Critical Minerals Strategy in June, which lays out Australia’s support for the industry and our plan to become a globally significant supplier of critical minerals by 2030.”

The visit to Europe and the UK will be a chance to outline how Australia is working with the sector and cooperating with international partners to diversify global supply chains and support investment in the mining and processing of key critical minerals.

“The world’s clean energy transition will ride on the back of Australia’s critical minerals,” Minister King said.

“Critical minerals are crucial components of clean energy technologies such as batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage, as well as for wind farms and solar panels.”

Australia is the world’s leading producer of unprocessed lithium, the world’s third-largest cobalt exporter and the fourth-largest exporter of rare earths. Australia is also the fourth-largest exporter of mined copper and nickel and a significant producer of aluminium.

GABC Inquiry into the Australian Government’s Approach to Negotiating Trade & Investment Agreements Submission, September 2023

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A further submission regarding an inquiry into the Australian Government’s approach to negotiating trade and investment agreements was sent to the Joint Committee on Trade and Investment Growth of the Parliament of Australia by the German Australian Business Council on 22 September 2023

Thanks are extended to those involved in putting this further submission together, in particular Robert Harrison and Elisabeth Opie, and supported by André Haermeyer.

The submission can be found here: GABC Inquiry into the Australian Government’s Approach to Negotiating Trade & Investment Agreements Submission, September 2023