Thank you Vanessa. (Vanessa Torres, Chief Operating Officer South 32). 

I’d like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land where we are gathered, the Ngunnawal People, and pay my respects to their elders past, present and emerging. 

I also want to thank Chief Executive of CEDA Melinda Cilento and everyone involved in organising and hosting this event. And I look forward to the panel discussion to follow this speech.

Hello all and thank you for the opportunity to speak today.

One of the great Shakespearean themes is the difference between what seems to be happening on the surface and what is really going on beneath it. 

What lies on the surface might appear to show one thing, but it is only when we take a deeper look that we can know what is really going on. 

A bit like this place …

The Australian resources industry supports this nation by looking beneath the physical surface of the earth to tap into the riches that lie below.

Instinct and luck have played a part in unearthing some underground mineral deposits.

But for the most part it has been science and technology and hard work based on reason and experience that has resulted in our largest, economy-making discoveries. 

Where I come from in Western Australia lots of people and families have had long and proud connections with the mining sector. 

Go to Perth airport at 5 AM on a Monday morning and see the army of workers in hi vis waiting for a flight to Karratha or Paraburdoo to begin a swing at a mine site, in a processing plant or on an offshore rig. 

For these workers the resources industry is a source of highly skilled and well-paid work. 

But there are many Australians who have no connection to resources operations of Western Australia or Queensland or in the Hunter Valley. 

They may never have been to a mine site. They haven’t been able to see how sophisticated and innovative modern mining is. 

And as a result, many may not understand how their lives have benefited from resources industry and how much our modern lives depend on it. 

And indeed, how modern and technologically advanced mining in Australia is. 

I’d like to see more Members of Parliament and members of the media visit resources projects to see them firsthand. 

And on that point I should thank the Minerals Council of Australia and the Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia for organising visits to resources projects for MPs. 

It is unfortunate that such visits are subject to political and activist attack from some who seem to think MPs can simply rock up to the front gate and knock on the boom gate for entry.

Never mind the remote location or safety concerns or even the quarantine requirements to protect the environment.

When it comes to learning more about the industry and the workers in it, it doesn’t matter where an elected representative stands on the resources sector or the use and extraction of fossil fuels. 

After all, we know we don’t all agree on everything. 

What remains important is that people shouldn’t be demonised for visiting and learning about - indeed questioning - the sector that is the backbone of the economy.

The resources industry has laid the foundations of our nation’s prosperity. It provides the building blocks of our modern economy. It generates economic activity in the regions. 

And it will continue to deliver, year after year. 

It did so through the darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The closure of Western Australia’s state borders kept our nation’s mineral and gas exports flowing, and directly saved our economy from collapse.

Royalties from mining go to the building of roads and hospitals. The revenue Australia earns from the resources industry contributes to paying for our defence force. 

Australia’s resources play a key role in our alliances and in our relationship with the rest of the world. Our resources are vital to the energy security of nations such as India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, China, Singapore and Vietnam.

And crucially, our resources will be of central importance in the energy transition taking place in this nation and in the economies of our trading partners. 

Resources and critical minerals opportunities

The government’s plan for a Future Made in Australia will maximise the economic and industrial benefits of the resources sector. 

It will secure Australia’s place in a changing global economic and strategic landscape.

Through a Future Made in Australia, we are investing in the skills, industries and manufacturing that will be vital to our net zero future.

The Future Made in Australia plan puts the resources industry at the heart of the Albanese Government’s plan to grow the economy, to create jobs and to secure our future. 

This was the most significant budget for the resources sector in a generation. 

That’s because this Government backs the resources sector and its future. 

Because we can’t make a future for this nation without the resources industry. 

But to support our resources sector, we need to first know what lies beneath the surface. 

We need to know what our country is made of. 

That is why this Government has locked in generational funding for Geoscience Australia. 

We are providing $3.4 billion to Geoscience Australia through the Resourcing Australia’s Prosperity program to help find those economy-making discoveries to support future generations of Australians. 

This is an investment in science so that we can build a better future. 

This is a very important, nation building commitment that will drive growth in the resources sector through future decades of precompetitive data collection. 

An investment in science to find out what is beneath our feet so that we can build our future. 

The program will focus on critical minerals, strategic materials, and ground water, naturally occurring hydrogen or potential sites for hydrogen storage. 

Under this plan we will progressively map the entire continent, and share that data with the community for free as public science so explorers can prioritise where they look deeper for the minerals we need to keep our economy humming.

And there was more. 

One of the most significant measures announced as part of the Budget was a ten per cent production tax credit totalling $17.6 billion over 14 years for all critical minerals to drive critical minerals processing in Australia. 

These tax credits will drive greater capital investment and provide an incentive for domestic processing for future projects.

They will only be paid when producers turn a profit. This is no handout. 

It provides incentives for investment and miners will be investing their own hard-earned money before they get access to a tax credit. 

Two weeks ago I would have said that Angus Taylor’s opposition to the Critical Minerals Production Tax Incentive was one of the most tin eared and bizarre policy decisions of any party in recent memory. 

Yet here we are talking about nuclear reactors in Collie!

To quote Ferris Bueller – life moves pretty fast! 

In addition to our tax credits and generational support for precompetitive data, the Government will work with states and territories to look at developing common user minerals processing hubs.

This might sound like a small thing. But targeted and smart government support for common user infrastructure in places like Kalgoorlie or Gladstone will cut costs for producers, increase profits and create jobs. 

These are all smart measures designed to play to this country’s strengths.

I want thank both the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers for supporting and backing these important initiatives. 

Both the Prime Minister and Treasurer understand the important role our resources sector plays in supporting our economy and in building those industries of the future. 

Now I can hear some of you thinking these measures – investments in the science of geology, production tax credits for resource companies, scoping investments in road and rail –  are all things you would have thought the Liberal Party might support. 

Perhaps back in the day. 

But not now. 

Not in the alternate universe of the modern Liberal Party. 

I know we hope that at events like CEDA that we could depoliticise subjects like resources or development of the critical minerals industry. 

But we simply cannot do that when with outrageous haste, the Dutton Opposition has announced it will oppose tax credits for resources companies and will instead …

… nationalise the national power grid and build a national network of state-owned nuclear reactors!

Peter Dutton has complained that production tax credits is welfare for billionaires. 

But a state-owned network of uncosted nuclear reactors is somehow economically rational?  

It is important when we talk about growth in the future of the resources sector that we are clear about the choices before Australians and Australian industry. 

A sensible, well planned policy to incentivise critical minerals and processing or an uncosted nuclear industry with so many known unknowns I don’t know where to start. 

And mark my words, the Coalition will seek to claim savings from opposing our critical minerals plans to fund their nuclear fantasy. 

The business community gets this is flat out bonkers. 

Production tax credits on the other hand have the full support of the business community. 

They have the strong support of the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies, the Chamber of Minerals and Energy WA, Wesfarmers, Lynas Rare Earths, Liontown, Ardea Resources, Australian Vanadium and Mineral Resources just to name a few. 

The road to net zero runs through the resources sector. 

Australia’s critical minerals and rare earths are key to building renewable technologies such as solar panels, batteries and wind farms, as well as defence and medical technologies.

And our ambition through the Future Made in Australia is to do just that – mine, process, and make more here in Australia.

I know that members of CEDA have a good understanding of the central importance of resources to Australia’s economy and standing of living.

But it is important that groups like CEDA keep talking widely about the industry and its importance to our economy and the energy transition.

Because resources need to be supported in the face of people who do not understand or who do not want to understand.

As part of a Future Made in Australia we want to ensure that we do more of the refining and processing of our valuable commodities here where they are found.

Our production tax credits and investment in geoscience will help make this a reality. 

We have not come to this plan at the last minute. 

This Government has long understood that the answers to the great economic challenges of our time would be underwritten by our world leading resources industry. 

We have been working closely with our international partners to develop our critical minerals and rare earths industries. 

We have partnerships with Japan, the Republic of Korea, the United States, Canada, India, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and the European Union. 

We have been working hard to get the world to understand and recognise the importance of environmental, social and governance standards in pricing of minerals. 

I would argue there is a certain hypocrisy in some countries racing to build more wind turbines, batteries and solar panels with the aim of bettering our world, if the minerals used to build those things are sourced from projects with low ESG standards. 

So we are accelerating trade efforts to realise the market premium of these high ESG standards in critical minerals.

And can I say on that point I would very much like to thank the work of our Ambassador to the United States Kevin Rudd for his advocacy in this area. 

Supply chains for critical minerals and rare earth elements face numerous risks, including high market concentration.

Production is concentrated in a small number of countries outside Australia, making their supply vulnerable to trade disruption. 

Australia wants to help to diversify supply chains and both reduce global reliance on minerals produced with lower ESG credentials and withstand geopolitical disruptions.

Conclusion

Reaching net zero will require more mining, not less. 

This will mean more exploration and more investment.

This might seem contradictory to some. But reason tells us otherwise. 

Australia’s critical minerals will be central to reaching net zero and we want to do more than just mine and export them.

That is why this Government has placed the resources industry at the heart of its economic policy making. 

That is why this Government is supporting our resources industry. 

Because we understand that resources industry is crucial to creating jobs and wealth for future generations. 

Thank you.