Tesla boss calls on Chalmers to give tax breaks for lithium processing

afr.com:

Tesla chairman Robyn Denholm has urged Treasurer Jim Chalmers to lure at least 30 battery-grade lithium processing facilities to Australia with tax breaks or risk the country losing out to North America and Europe.

Delivering the keynote address at Minerals Week in Canberra, Ms Denholm said government loans and handouts were welcome but not enough to make Australia-based, battery-grade lithium hydroxide processing globally competitive.

A production tax credit of “less than 10 per cent” would put Australia on the map as a global lithium hydroxide processor, Ms Denholm said, referring to research commissioned by the Nasdaq-listed electric carmaker she chairs.

Tesla chairman Robyn Denholm: “It’s our economic opportunity to lose.” Paul Harris

Ms Denholm told the miners, public servants and politicians assembled in Canberra that Australia needed to build 30 processors, on top of the existing three in Western Australia, to competitively slot into the battery grade lithium processing supply chain.

But the Tesla boss, who hails from Australia and worked at Toyota in Victoria, urged Dr Chalmers to ink the tax breaks soon or else the United States and Europe would cut Australia’s grass with multibillion-dollar incentives.

“The longer we wait, the greater risk we have of this opportunity passing us by as other countries – without any or as much of the underlying material – leapfrog us into capturing the most value parts of the battery supply chain,” Ms Denholm said. “It’s our economic opportunity to lose.”

“Every month we delay will only make it harder. I therefore cheekily suggest this kind of approach be taken to the mid-economic and fiscal outlook and further expanded in next year’s budget, to actually put Australia back in the