Matt Canavan urges firms to help as ‘NationKeeper’

Matt Canavan will urge the corporate sector to back ‘Team Australia’ and bolster the country’s industrial strength through investment and buying back Chinese-owned infrastructure.

Nationals senator Matt Canavan. Picture: AAP

Nationals senator Matt Canavan will urge the corporate sector to back “Team Australia” and bolster the country’s industrial strength through investment and buying back Chinese-owned infrastructure amid growing tension with Beijing.

The former resources minister will use a speech at the Brisbane mining club on Thursday to argue that corporate Australia’s lack of patriotism poses a threat to Australia’s security in the Indo-Pacific region.

His speech will be delivered days after Home Affairs secretary ­Michael Pezzullo declared that the “drums of war” were beating and warned that Australia must be prepared to deploy its “warriors to fight”.

Senator Canavan will argue that business leaders have a duty to lead the debate about Australia’s defence capabilities and help “restore our industrial strength and ability to fight any coming conflict”.

He will suggest superannuation funds could pool their finances to purchase Chinese investor-owned assets such as the Port of Darwin, which is likely to come under the federal government’s microscope because of new foreign relations laws.

Last week, the Morrison government vetoed the Victorian government’s Belt and Road agreements with Beijing.

“I don’t expect companies to pay back JobKeeper directly, but indirectly there is a moral obligation for Australian companies to be part of a NationKeeper program that sees them invest in industries that can strengthen Australia’s defence capabilities,” Senator Canavan will say.

He will argue that there is a “distinctive” lack of patriotism in Australia’s business world that has left the country vulnerable, particularly in the face of rising tensions between China and the West. “I would gamble that you are more likely to find rainbow flags flying in our nation’s corporate offices than Australian flags,” Senator Canavan will say.

“We need a new era of business leaders willing to unashamedly fly our flag and defend all the good that it represents.”

He will argue that social media has created a stigma surrounding patriotism in modern Australia, and call on business leaders to help shift this by injecting their patriotism in public discourse.

Senator Canavan, one of the Coalition’s most vocal opponents to carbon neutrality by 2050, will argue that the corporate sector has prioritised environmental, social and governance principles over patriotic values.

“Most large Australian companies have climate change plans. We are told these are in place to protect the viability of the business from the impacts of climate change, or climate change policies that may be implemented by us or others. Yet when I ask Australian mining companies whether they have a China plan, I normally get a blank response,” he will say.

Senator Canavan will argue that China’s potential to trigger a conflict in the Indo-Pacific region, with Taiwan a region of concern, poses a “much greater impact” than climate change for Australian businesses, especially the iron ore industry. “Instead of organising press conferences with Chinese government officials, our corporations should develop plans to tackle the Chinese Communist Party,” he will say.

Senator Canavan will say there are a multitude of paths Australian businesses could take to “help defend the country” such as large companies investing in steel manufacturing, matching China’s building of coal-powered fire stations and spearheading the ­nation’s building of military equipment.