When Prime Minister John G. Gorton recently toured northern Australia's coal, oil, iron and bauxite fields, the trip turned out to be less than a happy inspection. The assessments that the fields are among the world's richest new natural resources are fair dinkum. But at each stop, when Gorton asked his hosts about the Australian share in their projects, the answers were disheartening.
At the Queensland Alumina Ltd. operation, for instance, Australian ownership is less than 1%; the remainder is held by British, Canadian, U.S. and French companies in consortium. Mount Goldsworthy Mining Associates, which ships 4,000,000 tons of...
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