MINISTER MADELEINE KING: It's great to be here today. I'm Madeleine King, the Minister for Resources. It's really fantastic to be here in Dubbo with Mark Coulton, the Member for Parkes, and I want to announce that we will be the Federal Government providing Australian strategic materials with a $5 million grant under the International Partnerships and Critical Minerals Fund to help them work on their refining processes. So, what is a globally strategic rare earths project known as the 'Dubbo Project'. That's in addition to $6.5 million the Dubbo project has already received under the Critical Minerals Development programme and also a letter of support from Export Finance Australia for a $200 million loan to Australian Strategic Materials to develop what is an integrated rare earth mine and processing facility. Dubbo will be at the heart of New South Wales' critical minerals and rare earth industry. It is a globally important deposit and a globally important processing facility that Australian Strategic Materials are creating right here in Dubbo. A thousand jobs during construction and hundreds of jobs in an ongoing mining and processing project. It's a real game changer for the region and I'm super proud to be here and really glad to be here with Mark as a local member to go and see the site a bit later today.

INTERVIEWER: I guess, running through. What will the grant actually do?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, this grant, the $5 million, the latest grant, in addition to another $10 million of grants for this project, it's about helping fund a study to improve the refining and processing of rare earths metals here in Dubbo.

INTERVIEWER: How crucial are rare earths, especially in our transition to renewable energy?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, as I've said a lot of times, the path to net zero runs straight through the resources sector of Australia. Rare earths and what they produce, like permanent magnets, will go into all the green technologies that we need for a clean energy future. But really importantly, they're also there for defence purposes. They are part of our national security story. There are 4 million tonnes of rare earths in a Virginia class submarine. And we know that's really important to the AUKUS programme. These mineral deposits and metals and the oxides that we’ll produce right here will be integral not only to our national security, to that of our friends and partners.

INTERVIEWER: Mark, do you want to say a few words as well?

MARK COULTON MP: Yeah, yeah, sure. Look, I'm pleased that Minister King is here today.

INTERVIEWER: So, can I get you just smidge this way? Go another.

MARK COULTON MP: Look, I am pleased that Minister King is here today. Projects like this are beyond party politics. You know, I've been speaking to Madeleine King about this for some time. And this project up and running is a multi-generational project, so generations of people in the central west, centred on Dubbo, will find employment here, apart from the significant benefit to the global community for the products that come out of here. So, this is a long time coming. I think I've been meeting with the proponents of this mine now probably for a decade or so. It's a slow process, but because of the magnitude of this project, the importance of this project, and I guess the difficulty of bringing so many players together, whether it's the customers, the financiers, the different countries involved, to get to this point where we're on the verge of starting to see major changes happening on that mine site. It's really important for Minister King to be out there and see this, see what it looks like. Because from time to time there will still be difficulties that pop up that will need a Minister's attention. And if the Minister has first hand knowledge of that site, then it's a much easier issue to deal with when you're in an office somewhere else.

INTERVIEWER: I suppose you spoke about it before, but how crucial is this project to the electorate of Parkes?

MARK COULTON MP: Well, Parkes now is a significant mining electorate, so we've had copper for some time, we've got the silver lead, we've got significant gold mining happening now and developments happening. Cobalt is under development at Broken Hill. We've got magnetite, which is the oil that's required for green steel. Broken Hill in the far west, we've got lithium, we've got scandium, and we've also got coal. And sometimes, as coal is demonised, it's important to remember that for 43 minutes of every day, all the electricity generated in Japan comes from the coal at Narrabri. So, other countries are recognising the importance of coal from Australia because of its low sulphur, low ash. It's clean burning. And so the mining industry is very important for the future of this country and the future of the globe. And the Parkes electorate is at the centre of all of those things.

INTERVIEWER: Just, I mean, look at the banner behind some of the things that can come from this project. What are we looking at?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, I mean, as you said, the banner says 275 full time ongoing jobs. So, that's really important for the regions and the regions right across Australia and parts of it. There are many others as well. They are where mining happens for the most part. They are where all these jobs are produced. They are the backbone of the national economy, no matter what the resource Mark mentioned coal, but there's also, of course, iron ore and gold. And in the energy system, there's our gas industry. All of these commodities come together to form the backbone of the Australian economy, and they're all in the regions, and that's why these jobs in the regions are so important.