Indian Magnates and Migrants: or How Australia Trapped Itself between Moody’s and Modi

Australia’s relationship with its own ‘colourful’ mining magnates, often soap-opera-like in character, has evolved alongside – and often overshadowed – a shifting landscape of international mining activities, as operators have shifted from Britain, first to Japan, then China and now India. Mining ownership can be read as part of a wider discourse on foreign ownership of “Australian assets” with a long history of causing scepticism and resentment – and not only relating to mining but also property acquisition and purchase of farm land (not least by China). The support for international investments (as well as large-scale migration) comes from the fiscally conservative parts of Australian society whose perception since the “opening up” of the Australian economy during the Hawke/Keating years has been driven by an overriding concern to “service” the neoliberal turn in the global economy. What I am interested in exploring in my paper is how the arrival of yet another major Asian player on the Australian mining scene, India, is perceived. I will be looking at mining giant, Adani, whose involvement in the coal extraction project in the Galilee Basin has become a saga of political power games. The coal mine project, if carried out, will lead to greenhouse gas emissions bigger than those of Australia itself, and will be accompanied by a harbour facing the Great Barrier Reef with potentially extremely damaging consequences for a natural environment that may already have passed the point-of-no-return for self-repair. The mining project, in other words, offers a rich terrain for discussing climate change, environmental and land rights issues in the context of an unchecked global economy. Yet, what I am more interested in here is to discuss how the “imagery” surrounding the Adani project is given shape by Australian perceptions of the Adani Group’s Indian background. And explore its connection to wider Australian cultural perceptions of India, which has occupied a marginal position in relation to the rise of China as Australia’s major economic partner.