The PR Blog

Critical Minerals: The Deal That Could Turn Australia Into the World’s Quarry 

There’s a new chorus echoing through Canberra: “Critical minerals will secure our future.” With fanfare and funding, the Albanese government recently sealed a multi-billion-dollar deal with the United States to ramp up Australia’s role as a key supplier of rare earth minerals -  the elements that power electric vehicles, wind turbines, smartphones, and missiles.

On October 20, 2025, President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese shook hands at the White House, creating a glittering new partnership -  the U.S.–Australia Critical Minerals Framework.

It all sounds like the perfect marriage of mutual interest -  until you look beneath the polished policy language.

We stopped teaching goodness. Now we’re living with the consequences.

There was a time when Sunday School was part of almost every child’s life. In the early 1960s, one in seven children under fourteen went every Sunday to hear Bible stories, talk about God, and learn Christian values. We put on our best clothes and headed off to join our friends in fellowship and safety -  in a place of love.

The idea of Sunday School began in 18th-century England. Robert Raikes, a Gloucester printer and philanthropist, saw the suffering of child labourers in factories and mines. Their only day off was Sunday, so he created schools where they could learn to read -  first the alphabet, then the Bible.

As Raikes said, “Vice could be better prevented than cured.”

In an Australia grappling with division and a search for identity, it’s time to rediscover Andrew Barton “Banjo” Paterson -  not merely as the poet of Waltzing Matilda and The Man from Snowy River, but as a patriot, horseman, and wartime contributor whose life speaks to the strength and unity we need today.

Known for turning the bush into verse, Paterson’s lesser-known story -  his wartime service, shaped by a childhood injury that left one arm shorter than the other -  reveals a man who overcame limitation to serve his country.

His legacy, from training horses for the Light Horse Brigades to penning poems like We’re All Australians Now, offers a blueprint for rediscovering national pride in 2025.

Ratty News: Dusty Gulch Dispatch — “When the Ghosts Came Rolling In”

Filed by: Roderick (Whiskers) McNibble, Senior Correspondent, Dusty Gulch Bureau

It’s been a curious sort of week here in Dusty Gulch -  the kind of quiet that makes you think something’s up. The ghosts of Banjo Paterson, Ned Kelly, and Henry Lawson left town some time ago, promising to return, and not a whisper since. The Dusty Dingo gossip circle’s been silent, McFookit Burgers has been ticking along without incident, and even the bin chickens have been strangely absent.

Jeffrey Epstein remains in the freezer behind McFookit’s -  for “historical preservation,” according to the CWA -  and Trevor’s knees, having been temporarily confiscated during the first equal rights uprising, are awaiting reinstatement pending CWA approval. All in all, Dusty Gulch was as settled as a cat waiting for a zoomie episode at 3 am.

Then we heard the sound.