{"id":652135,"date":"2026-05-06T00:04:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T00:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/652135\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T00:04:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T00:04:13","slug":"twiggy-forrests-warning-to-albanese-and-labor-on-micromanaging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/652135\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Twiggy\u2019 Forrest\u2019s warning to Albanese and Labor on \u2018micromanaging\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Mining billionaire Andrew Forrest has urged the federal government to stop \u201cmicromanaging\u201d Australia\u2019s energy transition and use the upheaval caused by conflict in the Middle East and its political capital to accelerate the electrification of the economy.<\/p>\n

The Fortescue executive chairman said the war in Iran had laid bare the fragility of fossil fuel markets and hardened a long-term \u201cmegatrend\u201d away from oil, diesel and gas, arguing key supply routes such as the Strait of Hormuz would not return to their previous stability.<\/p>\n

\"FortescueFortescue executive chairman and founder, Andrew Forrest.Oscar Colman<\/p>\n

The world\u2019s fourth-largest iron ore miner said the disruption should be treated as a strategic opening rather than merely another geopolitical crisis, warning Australia was at risk of squandering an economic advantage if it remained tied to imported fuels.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019re Hanson, if you\u2019re Liberal, you\u2019re Labor. I couldn\u2019t care less: to every politician, you are in a long-term megatrend. This is your opportunity to lead,\u201d Forrest, who will open the Smart Energy Conference in Sydney on Wednesday, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cUse the fact that the Strait of Hormuz isn\u2019t coming back… Things aren\u2019t going to return to the way they once were.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Prime<\/a><\/p>\n

The intervention amounts to a pointed challenge to the Albanese government\u2019s policy settings after Labor\u2019s expanded parliamentary majority a year ago. Forrest argued the government now had the political capital to pursue deeper structural reform instead of incremental change.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that with a 94-seat majority, now is the time for bold moves, where we lead, not micromanage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Drawing a historical parallel with the Coalition government of former prime minister Malcolm Fraser in December 1975, Forrest suggested governments that fail to use large mandates are eventually punished by voters.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look at the Fraser government decades ago, who won a landslide majority and then didn\u2019t use it \u2026 they weren\u2019t rewarded,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Forrest is pushing for that to begin by the government capping the fuel tax credit at $50 million a year per beneficiary, which he says would not only deliver estimated savings of $2.46 billion \u2013 to reallocate for cost-of-living relief \u2013 but remove a major disincentive for major companies to electrify.<\/p>\n

He said capping the rebate for the biggest mining users rather than abolishing it outright, would keep in place support for farmers, fishers and smaller businesses while redirecting pressure onto the largest industrial claimants.<\/p>\n

\u201cSubsidising diesel, which is 90 per cent made outside of Australia, exposed to oligarchs, to dictatorships, to war \u2026 is a continuing error which we, which Australia, does not need,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you keep it in place, then you distort the innovation, which is what Australia is best at\u2026 innovating, finding a way through, making good on the journey, no matter how tough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wary of his critics within Australia\u2019s powerful mining lobby, Forrest pointed to Fortescue\u2019s development of 200 megawatts of renewable energy in the Pilbara, to be in place by 2028, including solar and wind power backed up by a series of industrial-sized batteries.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Treasurer<\/a><\/p>\n

Squadron Energy, the renewables outfit owned by Forrest, is also overseeing the only wind project currently under construction in NSW, 14km east of Wellington in the state\u2019s central west.<\/p>\n

He pushed back on claims his own advocacy was driven by vested interests, pointing to Fortescue\u2019s own transition away from fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, people who say \u2018Twiggy\u2019s just going for vested interest\u2019, I\u2019d say, \u2018what are you doing to prove your words?\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know what I\u2019m doing to prove my words, my entire company is committed now to eliminating diesel from our supply chains, and we\u2019re transforming our entire company to a much kinder, much more advanced, much more interesting place to work. What are you doing?\u201d<\/p>\n

But he also warned that governments and renewable projects needed to work harder to mitigate backlash in regional communities, urging a rethink of the design of the electricity and transmission system, arguing infrastructure had too often been built around legacy constraints.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralia doesn\u2019t need to be putting energy wherever the grid is. We should be putting the grid wherever the energy is,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am a farmer. I\u2019ve got other people\u2019s infrastructure going all over my own family property. The argument has always been \u2018well, it\u2019s in the national interest\u2019, so therefore we just do it. But actually \u2026 it\u2019s also in a particular company\u2019s interest, so they\u2019re not bearing the cost, whereas I am as a farmer. And so I actually see that argument.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forrest said without strong leadership Australia also risked drifting towards a more divisive, US-style political climate, arguing fear-based campaigning and social fragmentation could derail long-term reform.<\/p>\n

He said importing elements of the American political system \u2014 particularly its polarisation and short-termism \u2014 would come at a cost to living standards and social cohesion, undermining the kind of consensus needed to drive large-scale economic change.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf your only argument is to cause distrust, is to cause fragmentation of Australians to fear each other, then you\u2019re taking us back,\u201d he said. \u201cLook at America … you can see by the disaster of higher living prices, lower standards of living as a result, just isn\u2019t where we want to be,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

More federal budget coverage<\/p>\n

The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning<\/a>.<\/p>\n

CORRECTION<\/p>\n

This story has been updated to reflect that 90 per cent of Australia\u2019s diesel is produced outside the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\"RobRob Harris<\/a> is the national correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age based in Canberra. He is a former Europe correspondent.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,164],"class_list":["post-652135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}