Andrew Goledzinowski said the claims were false as Canberra had never requested the Malaysian government to remove or change the conditions in the six-month licence the rare earths processing firm was granted on Aug 15, 2019.

“In fact, the Australian government welcomed the decision by the Malaysian government to grant Lynas a six-month licence in August 2019 and a three-year licence in February 2020.

“Likewise, Lynas announced it expected to satisfy the new conditions in its licence,” he said in a statement.

Goledzinowski was responding to repeated claims published in the media recently that Morrison had asked his then counterpart Dr Mahathir Mohamad to drop licence conditions imposed on Lynas in August 2019.

The claims, as reported by the media, were linked to comments made by DAP’s Liew Chin Tong in a book, stating that Mahathir had wanted to sack then energy, science, technology, environment and climate change minister Yeo Bee Yin over the Lynas issue.

During her tenure, Yeo had set new conditions for the renewal of the operating licence for the Lynas rare earth plant.

Goledzinowski went on to say that he had published an opinion piece in 2019 in Sin Chew Daily and The Star, praising Putrajaya’s “pro-science decision for signalling that Malaysia is a safe destination for serious investment in advanced manufacturing”.

He added that the regulation of industry in Malaysia was a matter for the Malaysian government.

“All Australia had ever asked is for that these decisions to be based on the scientific evidence, which shows Lynas is intrinsically low-risk and well-managed,” he said.

Lynas, Goledzinowski added, had been subject to a robust public debate, including in the media.

“This is appropriate for a free and democratic society. But participants in this debate, including the media, should get their facts right.”