Australian diplomat supports smelter

Newly-appointed Australian High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago, John Michell, has no objections to the establishment of an aluminium smelter in Trinidad. He made the point in reply to a question posed after he had addressed a luncheon of the Port-of-Spain Rotary Club yesterday at Queen’s Park Oval. A Rotarian asked him if he knew of any harmful effects of a smelter, as recently proposed in a MOU between Government and Alcoa. Michell replied: “No. The smelter is modelled after an Australian smelter from my home state of Victoria. I’m not aware of any particular issues surrounding that smelter.”

Giving the vote of thanks, former minister of finance Selby Wilson pondered on how Australia had grown from a place of exile for England’s “bad eggs” into a powerful and progressive nation, quipping: “Maybe you can share with us how you deal with crime and criminals?” Noting that Michell said he was seeking ways to build ties between Australia and Trinidad and Tobago, Wilson proffered: “We’d like to export Carnival to Australia.” In his address, Michell invited ideas for links between the two countries, saying “I’d like to hear from people, if there are any areas to explore opportunities with Australia, especially in a commercial sense. “When you are sitting at your desk thinking about a strategy, goods to source, or an investment possibility, think Australia.” He said he wanted to develop more strands in the relationship. “As long as it’s ethical, legal and morally upright, I don’t care.

“Education is one idea I have in mind. People with education links to a country tend to take some of that country with them.” He noted a quarter of the athletes in the 2006 Commonwealth Games to be held in Melbourne, Australia, would be from the Caribbean, remarking: “There’s an opportunity there.” “If we get more ballast in our relationship, tourism will follow. It’s in everyone’s interest to develop more strands to the bow.” With China set to become a huge consumer of goods, he said Trinidad should consider Australia as a new source of goods. He said Australia was geared towards export, with one in five jobs being in the export sector. Saying that he had noticed many imports from New Zealand, including butter, on our supermarket shelves, he said that proved that distance was not an obstacle to trade, and he hoped Australia has similar success. Trinidad and Tobago, he noted, was as far from Australia as the United States, and was closer than the United Kingdom, two of Australia’s major trading partners.