BRICS keeps expanding, adding partner countries in January 2025, after admitting new members in 2024. It now makes up roughly half of the global population and more than 41% of world GDP (PPP). It’s an economic powerhouse, with top producers of key commodities like oil, gas, grains, meat, and minerals.
Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, and Indonesia have formed the world’s newest trading block and sanctions or tariffs against Russia or BRICS members by the US have not affected its growth.
Australia imposed sanctions on Russia, at the behest of the corrupt Biden administration three years ago and it seems Putin or Australia will not trade goods in the foreseeable future.
After US President Trump imposed crippling tariffs on Australian trade, we would have little to lose by applying for BRICS membership.
Indonesia, our nearest neighbour is the latest country to join up with nine other significant member countries. The US petro-dollar is almost dead in the water and world trade in dollars seems certain to come to an end particularly as its value is heading to the bottom after tariffs were imposed.
While Australia remains an outpost of the US being its unofficial 51st state, and it controls our trading policy and much of our political agenda, there could be significant ramifications for the ANZUS military pact and defence of the country could be shot to pieces should we join BRICS.
On the other hand if we joined as a trading and business partner having China as a member, their designs on our country would be diminished. Would we then need the US to defend us and from whom?
Meanwhile we could rebuild our depleted military without a US umbilical cord, negotiating new defence ties alongside that of our American arrangements.
Indonesia and India are members and already substantial trading partners with us for agricultural commodities and being a BRICS member, Australia could diversify and increase our markets.
The beef industry is already looking for new trading partners after Trump added 10 per cent to the cost of our beef exports to the US and now with bird flu being found in the American cattle herd, biosecurity agreements would never allow their beef to enter Australia under reciprocal trade.
In any event US domestic cattle prices are more then double that of Australia and our consumers would be unable to afford beef.
BRICS membership could see our grain exports expand and lift returns for our cereal, oil seed, sugar cane and cotton growers who have been stranded under stagnating prices for three decades.
The biggest hurdle for expanding our economy in the face of Labor’s de-industrialising of the nation would be a lack of political will.
Finding new markets for the relic of Australian manufacturing would be much easier for a BRICS member and would enable us to shrug off US apron strings while fortress America looks within.
We could re-invent our steel manufacturing which once produced some of the best steel in the world, double alumina and extrusions manufacturing provided the cost of electricity was slashed by a new government and not have fanciful US tariffs hovering over our heads. Crippling industrial laws would need to be revisited without union influence.
To keep pace with India and China, Australia would need to open more coal-fired power stations and offer significant tax incentives for re-emerging Australian-based industry including car production, all of which could be financed by our three trillion dollar superannuation fund.
Nuclear power for Australia is a pipe-dream of neo-Liberals which is unjustified considering the vast amount of coal we are sitting on and having unlimited fresh water next to already existing infrastructure..
Joining BRICS would be a venture only fresh political minds could contemplate and the current array of vision-less, political mandarins we are suffering at present are unable to see past their next pay check or backhander from Deep State.
We have such members, not of the political class but visionaries such as Bob Katter, Gerard Rennick, Clive Palmer, Malcolm Roberts, Alex Antic and Ralph Babet, et al who could join with the numerous entrepreneurs in the private sector such as Gina Reinhart just waiting for home-grown. low-interest development funds which would make Australia great again starting with nation-building projects like the ‘Iron Boomerang’.
Katter’s Copper String power line project has been supported by the Queensland Government and construction is up and running which will supply bulk electricity to the North West Minerals Province near Mt Isa which contains just about every known critical mineral and massive phosphate deposits crying out for reliable, cheap power.
Should Australia regain ownership of Darwin Port, the Northern Territory and West Australian minerals and agricultural production expansion could fire up with unlimited water from the Ord River scheme and huge untapped irrigation supplies across the Territory.
Australia could feed all of the BRICS member nations.
Joining the 10 BRICS members are eight partner countries that are on the path to full membership. These are:
- Belarus
- Bolivia
- Cuba
- Kazakhstan
- Malaysia
- Thailand
- Uganda
- Uzbekistan
Lets hope Australia can be added to this list before an adversary moves in.
