ANDREW CLENNELL: Joining us live now is the Resources Minister, Madeleine King. Thanks for being brave enough to front the panel, Madeleine King. Simon Birmingham, what have you got to say about his retirement?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, Simon has served the Parliament and the people of South Australia and the nation as a Minister and a Senator for a long time and my dealings with him were fairly extensive. And I was Shadow Minister for Trade in Opposition, he was the Minister, I found him to be always professional, wise, and a good Trade Minister. I mean, not as good as Don Farrell, of course, but the South Australians have a habit of getting into these jobs, don't they?

ANDREW CLENNELL: So, you have a West Australian as Opposition Leader in the Senate, Michaelia Cash. How do you think that will go?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, that'll be a wild ride, I'm sure, for everyone in the Senate. Michaelia has also been in Parliament for a long time and a great advocate for Western Australia. But, you know, I guess we'll wait and see.

ANDREW CLENNELL: And now Future Made in Australia legislation. You must be pretty happy that looks like getting through.

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Yeah, I'm really happy. I mean the whole framework of it is really important. The fact that we have a government in our government, the Albanese Labor government, that does want to produce more things here in Australia, which means more jobs for Australians and jobs over generations.

For my part, on the production tax credit for critical minerals, that is going to be a game changer in terms of the investment we'll bring into this country to refine rare earths and critical minerals right here.

OLIVIA CAISLEY: The Greens are claiming it as a bit of a win that the Future Australia Fund will get $0 from coal and gas. Was that ever really a prospect?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: No. I mean, that's fine. It's kind of a - if they think that's great, well, that's great, I suppose. The production tax credit's always about processing for critical minerals and rare earths. Obviously, green hydrogen production tax credit is also very important for the development of that industry. It aligns with the programs of our partners right around the world. So, I'm really focused on what we want to achieve and it doesn't impinge on them.

ANDREW CLENNELL: Now, what has the WA mining industry got against the Nature Positive legislation? Why have Roger Cook and Anthony Albanese pulled the plug on that? Do they just not want any sort of federal environment agency, the mining industry in WA?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, the mining industry in WA is obviously well established. It's the backbone obviously of the Western Australian economy and therefore the Australian economy as well. And the mining industry is well aware of the need to, you know, respect the environment and they've been doing work with the environment and making sure it's protected for many, many years. So, they've engaged with the government in developing this policy. What I do know is that in the final negotiations that there simply wasn't agreement, we didn't reach agreement. And that's as simple as it is. And I respect the views that they came in for many months from the resources industry. As you'd imagine I speak with them a lot, regularly, almost all the time, and that's my job and I'm really pleased to do it.

TRUDY MCINTOSH: If that had got through, would that have been used against Labour at the upcoming federal election in the West?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: I mean, perhaps. I mean that's a --

TRUDY MCINTOSH: Is that part of the consideration though is you don't want to hurt the election [indistinct]?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: No, no. It was really more about the agreement was not reached between us and others. And the thing is, the Greens didn't negotiate for many months. So, you can't turn up on the last day of Parliament or the last week of Parliament and suddenly put demands on without giving the government of the day time to consider it. That's entirely unreasonable and that's what the Greens did. So, you know, we're, you know, a sensible government that will look at changes, we're not just going to agree out of hand.

ANDREW CLENNELL: Is this a slap down from the PM to Tanya Plibersek?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Absolutely not. Tanya Plibersek has an extraordinarily large portfolio to deal with. A country of our size and with its unique environment, there's a lot to do. There's a lot to protect and there's a lot to enable in terms of resources projects and renewables projects. But we have to do it right. If we don't protect the environment with a proper environmental watchdog, you're going to lose social licence for mining and other projects. And that's precisely what's happened in other parts of the world, in the European Union.

ANDREW CLENNELL: If you look up there, you see the shot of it. A big ten minute conversation today between Jim Chalmers and Tanya Plibersek.

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: We were caught in the chamber for a long time.

ANDREW CLENNELL: Okay, but I - you know, it hasn't been denied to me they were talking Nature Positive. They're quite close those two, aren't they?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, I mean we were stuck in divisions - not stuck, this is democracy, we're happy to be, you know, most pleased to vote. But we, I mean, I've probably done exactly the same thing with Tanya and or Jim at all sorts of times through the Parliament. So, to be honest, when we have that quiet time in the Chamber without our respective staff and department officials, it's a really good time.

ANDREW CLENNELL: Why have we got to a stage we've had these guillotining of bills? It doesn't look great to the punters, does it? You're shutting down debate on just so many bills at the end of the year.

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, I mean, I guess it's not a tradition, it's something that does tend to happen at the end of every year. And the reason for it is sometimes debate goes on much longer than expected on other bills. So, we wouldn't necessarily have had to have this guillotine today if, for instance, the Parliament hadn't spent some six days - well, the Senate in particular, actually. The Senate spent six days debating the London Protocol around the movement of carbon dioxide. So, that was enabled by the Liberal National Coalition in the upper house, allowed the Greens to spread misinformation around the London Protocol. So, if you are going to spend, if you're a Senate and a party, and the Coalition is prepared to allow nearly 20 hours of debate on a fairly uncontroversial bill - should be debate, I don't argue with that - or some things won't get debated because you only have a limited amount of time in this platform.

TRUDY MCINTOSH: At the WA election, if you were to have to move that, how would that go down? If Albo wanted to go in March, what would be the reaction from WA to having to have their state election move?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Obviously it wouldn't be me. And that's a matter for the Premier. When legislation comes in from each of the states, when they have those mandatory terms, there is always a provision around moving it if there's a clash with a federal election. Federal elections are called for many reasons of course too. You know, I don't think they will clash, but it's not up to me, of course, the timing of the federal election.

TRUDY MCINTOSH: Do you advise the PM not to be in that March window?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Oh, no, I'm not going to go there. I really am not. What I know is that Western Australians support the Prime Minister. He's been a regular visitor both for many, many years, whether it be in opposition, the former government, Labor was in government, and then now as the Prime Minister. And in fact, you know, I look forward to seeing him again in Perth soon.

CAMERON REDDIN: Can I just quickly get your read on the situation at the Port of Darwin with Landbridge being in a lot of debt, they've missed a bond that is now maturing. They've defaulted on that. Are you concerned about the state of their finances and would you be happy to see the lease of the term terminated if it's not in good shape?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Yeah, well, we all remember, I suppose, when the former government allowed that to happen and the Defence Department at the time didn't object to the transfer to Landbridge up in Darwin. You know, we'll have to see how that plays out. I really, you know, I'm not the expert on those finances, but, you know, if there's a breach of the lease, well, there's opportunity there, too.

ANDREW CLENNELL: Resources Minister Madeleine King. Thanks so much for joining us on Politics Now.

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Thanks so much.