Australian Labor Party attempts to protect China-based mining profits Last week saw a remarkable display of the Australian Labor Party’s efforts to shore up Australia’s wealthy elite, and its own political fortunes, by ramping up its commitment to the mining giants whose booming exports, especially to China, are currently keeping the economy afloat. Prominent Labor Party representatives, including federal leader Anthony Albanese, were featured speakers or guests at the annual Minerals Week gathering in Canberra, hosted by the Minerals Council of Australia, the industry’s main lobbying and propaganda arm. Albanese delivered a keynote luncheon address, vying with Liberal-National Prime Minister Scott Morrison to claim which party was the best guarantor of mining profits, while accusing Morrison’s government of threatening the export bonanza to China by making unduly provocative remarks about a coming war against Beijing.