MATTHEW DORAN: Madeleine King, welcome back to Afternoon Briefing. I’m keen to get a sense from you as to exactly how this sort of proposal will work in your portfolio responsibilities. Critical minerals is something that you’ve spoken at length about since taking over this portfolio, and the Prime Minister has referred to other countries’ actions here, including Canada, looking at how the rules around investment are tinkered with there. Is that something that you would see being implemented here in Australia? 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Hi, Matt, and good to speak with you again. It’s great to be here on a beautiful Friday afternoon in Perth. I hope it’s good weather there in Canberra as well. On to the Future Made in Australia, it’s a really important vision the Prime Minister is talking to the country about, about how we can ensure hour long-term economic prosperity. And in the areas of critical minerals which you’ve asked about, why this kind of plan and project is really important is because of the challenges that critical minerals and rare earths development faces in Australia. And that’s because of international markets as well. So we see the case where there is – whilst there is a lot of demand for many critical minerals and rare earths, because they’re in such low volumes and we have competitors that have flooded the markets and plunged pricing, it means that they become difficult to have the economics stack up for financiers. And this is where the government needs to step in, and we intend to step in. And, indeed, we have been stepping in with the national – Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility and the Critical Minerals Facility, to make sure that these projects get off the ground, because we know we’ll need those critical minerals and rare earths as the underlying bedrock of all the ingredients that go into clean and green technologies as well as certain defence applications. So it is a challenge, a challenge sector. They’re up for the challenge, but the government needs to be there with the private sector to make sure we make this happen. 

MATTHEW DORAN: So a lot of that is focusing on the issue of processing some of that mineral in Australia rather than the dig-and-ship approach. And you’ll forgive me for using that language, because I was reading a transcript of yours earlier today where I know that language irks you a little bit, so sorry about that. But, you know, we are quite good at digging stuff out of the ground and then it has been processed overseas. Isn’t part of the issue here, though, as you pointed out, that these rare earths are in such short supply that you also need to look at who’s actually investing and whether or not those suppliers do need to be sort of ring-fenced for domestic use or use by our allies as well? 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Yeah, I mean, you’re right that the idea of the dig-and-ship language does irk me, only because of the logistical challenges in the Pilbara that the iron ore industry face and they’ve overcome to make us uber competitive in terms of iron ore exports and a very important cornerstone of the national economy. So it’s a complex operation, iron ore, and the more MPs that get up there and see it I think the better. But on to your question around investment in critical minerals – you are right, we have a Foreign Investment Review Board that does analyse investments into all parts of the economy, and critical minerals and rare earths are no different. Canada has introduced particular restrictions on investment, and while at the moment the package I'm talking about is how we encourage more investment, as with everything, we need to be mindful of the level of investment from entities, foreign entities of concern, as the Americans use that language. And Australia is no different. We have to be mindful of such investments. 

MATTHEW DORAN: I want to put to you some comments that have come from the new head of the Productivity Commission, Danielle Wood, a very renowned and respected economist. She’s warned that this Future Made in Australia Act could actually divert jobs and capital investments from everywhere else in the economy into these sort of industries and that would be detrimental. How would you respond to that assessment?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, the Productivity Commission produces a great number of really useful reports, and I do go into some of their work from time to time. But I think the commissioner is – you know, it’s right to point out that we need to have very clear objectives around what the Future Made in Australia Act will have, what those government – work with private enterprise will be. Government needs to be accountable, so I think on those things I agree entirely with the Productivity Commission and what they say. But on the other hand, the government will not – the Albanese government and me as the Resources Minister won’t stand by while other countries get ahead of the game in critical minerals and rare earths because we’re a bit too fearful of stepping up to the plate to make sure we get this industry off the ground. So I accept we have to be very fulsome in our thinking of how we implement any such plan, but, you know, I would dare say that anyone that has applied for a loan from the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility or the Critical Minerals Facility or other government financing institutions, they know they have to go through a lot of really good process and a lot of due diligence before any money, any of government money, gets loaned to entities wanting to start up these operations. 

MATTHEW DORAN: So when are we actually going to start seeing where some of those guardrails are put to sort of map out how this proposal will actually be implemented? 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, we’re working right now on – and we have been working for some time. So, when you think about it, we’ve got a number of ministers in this government that have been working on plans in their various portfolios. And the Future Made in Australia really is bringing together the work we’ve all been doing – Minister Chris Bowen, Minister Ed Husic, myself, the Treasurer, the PM, of course – and bringing that all together into that policy principle of the Future Made in Australia, and making sure we compound that effort and concentrate what we’ve done into something even better by working together and taking a whole-of-government approach. So we’re bringing that together now. There’s a very complex budget process going on. There’s the Treasury, the Treasurer’s office, the Minister for Finance, all of the ERC are working very hard on these things. So that will be a matter for the Treasurer to announce, the further plans. And I wouldn’t want to step on his toes at all. But then there’ll be, of course, an implementation period, which there always is with any new plan or policy of government. And there’ll be much more to say about it in the days ahead. 

MATTHEW DORAN: No toe-stepping here on Afternoon Briefing on a Friday afternoon. 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Absolutely. 

MATTHEW DORAN: Madeleine King, thanks for your company. 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Thanks very much, Matt. And have a great weekend.