KIERAN GILBERT: Welcome back to the program. Joining us on Newsday Live is the Resources Minister, Madeleine King. A lot to talk about. You've got the critical minerals tax credit; it's going to the Senate later this week. Confident of its passage?

MADELEINE KING: Well, I really hope the Liberals come on board and support what is a really important tax incentive for the production of critical minerals and rare earths right here in Australia. At the moment the Opposition are saying they don't support it. In my view and in most of the views of the countryside, that that's an anti-West Australian, anti-Queensland position to not support what is the biggest commitment to the resources sector that any government has ever made. So, hopefully, the Liberals and Nationals come around.

KIERAN GILBERT: Well, they’ve said they're not going to support it.

MADELEINE KING: Well, I know they keep saying it, but I’m optimistic 

KIERAN GILBERT: Can you get it through? You've got the numbers.

MADELEINE KING: Well, you know, we keep working with everyone across the Parliament to get those all-important numbers in the Senate. What everyone does know is how important this is.

KIERAN GILBERT: Well, the Greens aren't so pro-mining though, are they? So –

MADELEINE KING: Well, they're pretty pro-mining green energy and they know that you need critical minerals and rare earths to go into the contents and the super powerful magnets that you need for wind turbines, but equally you also need these for defence applications. And that's why it's so baffling that the Liberal and Nationals just dismissed the production tax credits on the night of the Budget without even having a look at it. That's irresponsible and that's why they're such a risk to Australia’s economy.

KIERAN GILBERT: Well, they're arguing a few other matters, and I'll get to the Nature Positive law in a moment because Peter Dutton was asked about this yesterday. He says no, we're not going to back it. There are other issues – but let's look at IR too, because the mining sector and Angus Taylor and others are saying that you're making industrial relations changes that are hitting the resources sector, and that's going to be their priority, to make things more productive on mine sites and in resources more broadly.

MADELEINE KING: The resources sector of Western Australia, you know, it fires the whole economy. We know that. It's the backbone of our economy. The resources sector across the country, whether that be in coal, in iron ore, in gold, as well as gas, employs hundreds of thousands of people. So, those people, the workers of the resources industry, is who we focus on when we think of how they should be treated in the whole economy. And that's why we've implemented the Same Job Same Pay because it is right and proper that if you're doing the same thing with the same qualifications, you get the same pay. So, we --

KIERAN GILBERT: But the BHP boss late last year, he said that you're going in the wrong direction when it comes to productivity.

MADELEINE KING: Mike Henry is entitled to his views, and I meet with Mike and other parts of the BHP management regularly and we do have differences on this. But the truth of the matter is people do deserve to be paid the same amount of money if they do the same work. This is sensible industrial relations reform. We will always keep talking to the resources industry, but equally, we will talk to the workers of this country because they have brought about this wealth for us, whether it be in coal, iron ore, gas or gold or any other part of the resources industry.

KIERAN GILBERT: Peter Dutton and Angus Taylor have argued that that's going to be their priority – IR. But also, yesterday Mr. Dutton was asked about the tax credits. He says no, we're not going to back it. But the biggest problem that WA's worried about right now is Labor's Nature Positive law. You've shelved it?

MADELEINE KING: Well –

KIERAN GILBERT: You've shelved it for now?

MADELEINE KING: Environmental reform is important. The former government, the former Coalition government started this process of reform off the Samuel Reviews. And the reason they did and the reason we are also seeking to do it is to make environmental approvals better for the environment, but importantly better for industry. We know there needs to be improvement. They have been, the Liberals and Nationals have been entirely obstructionist on this and so it has been difficult to get a consensus about how you do improve the approval process.

KIERAN GILBERT: Roger Cook's not happy with it either, though. He wanted it gone first.

MADELEINE KING: Well, the Premier of Western Australia, Roger Cook, has made his views well known and I speak with him frequently. We are neighbours in our electorates in Western Australia and he quite rightly stands up for the resources sector of WA, just like I do. But on the production tax credits, this is $17 billion worth of taxation incentives that will apply right across the country into regional areas. I think of Australian strategic materials in places like Dubbo, Arafura in Alice Springs, Iluka in Eneabba in the north of Western Australia. These are all – and that's just a handful, important projects worth billions of dollars will create jobs in the regions. Yet Peter Dutton is going to take that $17 billion and put it somewhere into his cuts that we all know aren't costed and he's not going to tell anyone what he's going to cut, and all to pay for a $600 billion nuclear fantasy. So, we know why they're not supporting the production tax credits.

KIERAN GILBERT: But he’s also –

MADELEINE KING: It’s not because of a policy position.

KIERAN GILBERT: But he's saying, on the Nature Positive law, he said that's the big priority for the resources sector and the concern, and if people vote for Labor, they'll get a Labor-Bandt, Greens-Labor alliance that will bring Nature Positive law back in, or that you will deliver that. Is that the plan?

MADELEINE KING: That is not true. And Peter Dutton is telling fibs, porky-pies there about -- We've been very clear that we will not enter into any alliances or share government. We are aiming to be a majority government, and in fact, I think that's what will happen because the Australian people know our record, whether it be in the resources sector, which is the largest multi-billion dollar investment in the resources sector, but also on the economy. We have lowered inflation, we've ensured higher wages, and all the meantime having low unemployment. So, this is, you know, very important steps forward for the Australian economy.

KIERAN GILBERT: Would you bring back a Nature Positive legislation?

MADELEINE KING: Everybody knows the approvals process in this country is under challenged circumstances. It does need to be improved. We have been trying to do that for the last three years. Peter Dutton's Liberals and the Nationals have been totally obstructionist and that's why it hasn't been able to go forward.

KIERAN GILBERT: So, you'll go again after the election?

MADELEINE KING: We will look at environmental reforms. We have the Samuel review, a bipartisan accepted review that we all know needs improvement. So, the Prime Minister being very clear we're not going to try and put the current bill through this term of Parliament, but we clearly have to make sure the approvals processes are improved.

KIERAN GILBERT: Madeleine King, thanks for your time. 

MADELEINE KING: Thank you 

KIERAN GILBERT: Resources Minister, we’ll talk to you soon.