GARY ADSHEAD: Madeleine King is the Federal Resources Minister and joins me on the line. Thanks for your time, Minister.

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Yeah, good morning Gary.

GARY ADSHEAD: So, we're talking around sort of 3000 positions. I mean, how many of those have you been told are actually at risk of going?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, you would have heard BHP statements that they're intending - and, you know, we'll hold them to that, as will the state government, I'm sure - intending to make sure all the frontline workers can be redeployed across BHPs facilities of which there are a number in Western Australia. Of course, that won't suit everybody. I mean, if you live in Kambalda or Kalgoorlie, you like to work near to where you live. Not everyone is able to, or indeed wants to do fly in and fly out. So, that'll be a matter for the workers themselves. I noticed they've also committed to redundancy packages for workers who wish to take it and that can be suitable for many. But there is no doubt that today many workers right across all the BHP nickel west facilities will be facing a tough day. Well, it started yesterday, of course, realising that the future maybe is not what they had hoped for. And that's something I feel very strongly about given that a very important part of this supply chain sits in my electorate in Kwinana and a lot of people that have worked on it in the past. It's a 50 year old facility. People that work on it now, people have been part of the upgrades that they've done over many years. So, there's no doubt the blow to the workforce of Western Australia. But BHP has committed and will make sure they carry out this commitment to redeploy as many as they can.

GARY ADSHEAD: Are you worried? As Resources Minister, we all know that the nation rests largely on the economy of Western Australia and what we do in terms of the resource and mining sector. You know, we had announcements by Woodside recently. We've certainly had mineral resources talking about redeploying staff from one particular operation. Things looking a bit shaky at the moment, Minister?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, clearly with nickel, absolutely. I mean, it is shaky and it's international markets that have led us to this point. It's investment in a zero to all guns blazing industry in Indonesia that has led us to this point with nickel and oversupply, which leads to an extraordinary decline in pricing in the space of a mere five or six years. It's very rapid change in that market. I don't think it reflects on the wider resources sector at all. Iron ore prices remain quite strong. We know they can fluctuate depending on demand for steel, of course, but they remain strong. And as you know, gas prices are also healthy. Although thankfully they've come down from their stratospheric international prices a year or so ago. But I don't think it's any indicator for the wider resources sector. I think what we've seen happen in nickel does indicate how important the government's investment in the other critical minerals are - the Production Tax Credit. It just shows that you do need government support to make sure these industries can get off the ground and remain strong where they are. Now nickel's a 50 year old industry in this country so it sits in a bit of a different place to commodities like lithium or cobalt or graphite, which are all part of the whole critical mineral story, but also the green clean technology we want for the future of our country and the world for that matter.

GARY ADSHEAD: Well that's right because I mean, of course electric vehicles that rely in some way on nickel. And so that's probably the surprising thing that is we're seeing this boom in electric vehicles around the world that, you know, suddenly a company like BHP has to put into care and maintenance operations in WA. But I suppose the theory is that what Indonesia is producing has a sort of a timeline on it and that that might start to dry up.

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, also because of that extraordinary boost in supply, the Indonesian Government itself has restrained growth in their own industry because it's a - obviously it's affecting all their pricing too. So, but it's much, it's a much bigger industry now. So, they could take more of the shocks than say BHP could. But we do predict, and BHP predicts, that demand for nickel will increase again. And once that glut has kind of been, I guess, consumed within the global market, there'll be a different position and then that's why the temporary suspension will be reviewed in a couple of years or a few years, sorry. So, I think that's important. No consolation to the workers and the communities affected though from the announcement yesterday, I've got to say Gary, and they can't hang on for a few years hoping, of course, hoping for this to reopen and I totally understand that and so I'm glad. And BHP should redeploy these workers so that their families can have the future they deserve as well. Fortunately the resources sector in this country, in this state in particular, is very strong and we do expect that many of the workers across these facilities will in time find other work.

GARY ADSHEAD: Can I just ask you, you talked about Kwinana there. I mean you talked about the nickel refinery down there. I mean, it's been around and part of that landscape. Not exactly a pretty landscape, I might say down that way, but 1960s -

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: But it's the heart of economic development of this state and therefore the country. I love that place.

GARY ADSHEAD: All right, okay. Well, 1960s though, it's been around. I mean, when you've had talks with BHP, what sort of assurances did you seek that it might not be the end of that particular refinery at this stage?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, the assurance we sought and the assurance they've given is that they'll review the temporary suspension. And it's a commercial operation, I mean, we aren't actually Soviet Russia where we can take over large scale operations like this and have them government run. But that's just not feasible nor nothing we would choose -

GARY ADSHEAD: Were you asked to? You weren't asked to were you?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: No, no, absolutely not. I mean, it's not like we're trying to build the nuclear power plants that Peter Dutton's trying to build and owned by the government in that weird kind of soviet sense. So, we're not doing that. We wouldn't do that. The challenges to the operation were so large that government intervention became impossible. And I said that was put in train five or six years ago for factors way beyond the control of BHP or the Australian Federal Government.

GARY ADSHEAD: Right out of interest. I mean, did BHP ask for any government subsidies to try and get through this period on nickel?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Look, we had significant discussions around what might be possible and those challenges were great. I mean, I know BHP were part of the discussions around Production Tax Credits for the industry into the future. And I think they've acknowledged that will be important in the future if there is indeed a restart of this. And it will be important to other nickel producers. I mean, what's less well known is that there is other technology, more modern technology than the 50 year old asset in Kwinana that can produce battery-grade nickel in a more efficient manner. So, the government, we've recently invested in that at Queensland Pacific Metals and we'll be looking for other projects to try and help out as well. Because we know there are other means of making nickel that don't need the scale or the upgrading of facilities that were primarily built for nickel to go into stainless steel. So, we'll keep working with BHP. Obviously, I work with BHP a lot for their other commodities with iron ore and coal and copper and so forth. So, I know it's a big step for them and not something they particularly wanted to do because they know how important nickel is to some of their customers as well and I know they're working on that supply chain issue, too.

GARY ADSHEAD: All right, just last question off the text line someone's phoned in and suggesting that the Yandi iron ore mine will close before the end of the year there had been some sort of talk of it closing around 2027 but what do you know about that? Have you heard anything?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: I haven't heard anything specifically in relation to that mine -

GARY ADSHEAD: Which is a BHP operation, of course.

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Yeah, and BHP has quite a lot of mines and facilities and they have to make decisions based on ore grade as well as to whether they can extend the mine or, whether that's even feasible so I don't know if that's what relates to the Yandi mine but now that I've heard about this I will make sure I find out more.

GARY ADSHEAD: All right thanks very much for joining us, Minister.

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Great. No worries Gary, take care.

GARY ADSHEAD: Madeleine King, Federal Resources Minister.