Speaking at a breakfast sponsored by tax and regulatory consultants BDO this morning, Paladin Energy manager of international affairs Greg Walker said that mining companies were becoming the de facto “face of Australia” in Africa, and junior explorers looking at the region needed more support from the Australian diplomatic missions in Africa.
Walker told MiningNews.net he has enormous respect for Australian diplomats working in Africa, but said they were spread too thin and lacked the presence of our major mining competitors.
MNN understands that there are only seven diplomatic missions in Africa, with a total of around 50 staff in total. In comparison, Walker said Australia-based companies were active in more than 40 of the 54 African nations, most of which have no diplomatic presence at all.
“Our [diplomatic] staff are on the ball and understand the country they’re working in. Within the country they reside and are familiar with they’re very well versed,” he said.
Australian diplomatic employees are an invaluable resource for Australian mining companies working in the region, according to Walker, as they can help quickly ground companies in local issues, regulations and politics.
They are one of the important stopping-off points for any local company considering the region as an exploration or mining target.
But Walker told delegates at the BDO breakfast that Australian diplomatic missions covered up to seven countries each, with a staff of three to four in each mission, and often only visit some African nations once or twice in their posting – to present their credentials at the start of their posting, and when they are about the leave the region.
“It’s a standing joke with them – they stand up and reel off the six or seven countries they’re responsible for, and they’re lucky if they get in there to present their credentials,” he said.
“If they get in there once or twice their terms, that’s about as much as they can manage. And I know there’s a level of frustration on their part that they’re not able to do more. And I mean no disrespect to the people there, but we’re asking a lot of the resources we have in Africa.”
Walker compared the Australian diplomatic effort in Africa to that of Canada, which he said has a much larger diplomatic presence compared to Australia.
He said there has been some improvement in recent years, saying his experience is that Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has acted to increase the Australian diplomatic presence in Africa slightly, but said more needed to be done.
Others familiar with the region also warned Australia needs to be careful it doesn’t decrease its commitment to the region in pursuit of cost cutting or other policy goals.
One former senior diplomatic official who spoke to MNN said there were some dangers for mining companies in Africa if the government changed hands.
The previous Labor government had been aggressively pursuing efforts to regain a seat on the United Nations Security Council. Tony Abbott’s Liberal Opposition has promised to end that effort if it wins government, describing it as a vanity project for the former prime minister, Kevin Rudd.
But the former diplomatic official, who spoke to MNN on condition of anonymity, warned that pulling those efforts should not come at the expense of downgrading Australia’s diplomatic efforts in Africa.
He said Australia’s intense lobbying with African nations to secure that seat was also helping the nation form closer relationships with African governments, and had seen additional diplomatic and aid efforts allocated to Africa.
That will be in the long-term interests of the Australian mining sector, according to the former diplomat, and pulling resources from the region at this point may put at risk the country’s effort to this point.
Walker agreed that Australia needed to continue to increase diplomatic engagement in African countries.
He said that while it was obviously unrealistic to expect the government to establish a permanent presence in each country Australian mining companies are active in, it would be of commercial benefit for Australia to increase the number of diplomatic missions it has in Africa.
