C ritical minerals, once the domain of white-coated science nerds, have recently burst into our daily news headlines courtesy of Anthony Albanese’s visit with Donald Trump earlier this week, where a framework was signed to support increased investment in Australian critical minerals projects.

Much like the fictional unobtanium in Avatar, critical minerals, as the name suggests, are of huge economic and strategic importance. So, ensuring the supply chains needed to produce mobile phones, renewable energy technology, electricity grids, defence equipment and AI is considered a national security priority by many nations.

However, the terms “national interest” and “national security” are increasingly being used to muddy the waters around how governments spend your hard-earned tax dollars.

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