Address to Minerals Week dinner
I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and I pay my respects to their elders past, present and emerging.
I am proud to lead a Government that will give every Australian the opportunity to vote Yes for Recognition, Listening and Better Results on the 14th of October.
And I thank the Minerals Council and so many of the firms here tonight for the positive and constructive role that you have played in the national conversation to date.
I acknowledge and welcome all my colleagues here tonight, from across the Parliament.
Minerals Week is a valuable opportunity for us to celebrate the contribution that all the employers and workers represented in this room make to Australia’s national prosperity.
Over 14 per cent of our GDP.
Over two-thirds of Australia’s export value.
And more than a million jobs.
Our Government will keep working with you, to ensure that as you continue to create good, secure jobs, you can rely on a skilled and productive workforce.
This has been the focus of our constructive engagement on industrial relations reform, on overdue changes to the migration system and boosting skills.
And while we will not always agree on every aspect of every issue, we do all agree on the overarching objective: a more productive and prosperous Australia.
I’ve always had great respect for the vital role your industry plays in our nation.
And since being elected as Prime Minister, I’ve gained a deeper understanding of the central role you play in our region.
Because arguably the single-biggest change in our lifetimes has been the economic transformation of North Asia.
And the Australian resources industry is acknowledged, everywhere I go, as one of the most significant and ongoing contributors to this unprecedented growth.
The economies of our region, the fastest-growing economies in human history, have been powered and built and modernised by the hard work of the people in this room and the Australians you employ.
Our Government appreciates that and so do the nations who have benefited.
Japan and South Korea understand the contribution that Australian resources, particularly our iron ore, gas and coal, have made to their economic development.
Just as importantly, although what we export will change as the world moves to reduce emissions, our trading partners know they can count on Australia as a stable and reliable provider of energy, metals and minerals into the future.
And when you look at the work our Government has done, from our first days in office, to stabilise Australia’s relationship with China.
There is no doubt that the value and quality of Australian resources has given us a strong foundation to work from.
A real and compelling proof-point that the removal of trade impediments between our two countries, always serves the interests of both our nations.
But, above all, Minerals Week, like the work of the Minerals Council, is about looking to the future.
Because the next big wave of economic change is already underway.
And later this week, when I’m in Jakarta for ASEAN and the East Asia Summit and then New Delhi for the G20.
I can guarantee you that so many of the leaders at those gatherings will want to discuss the future of your industry.
Over the past few decades, Australian minerals have been sought-after by every nation looking to industrialise.
Now Australian minerals are vital to every nation seeking to decarbonise.
And they are doubly important for economies like Indonesia and India that are looking to do both at the same time, to grow their economies and lift their living standards while reducing their emissions.
For a long time, those two ambitions were framed as competing priorities.
A false choice between economic growth or action on climate change, between creating jobs or protecting the environment.
The work you do proves that these two goals can work together, indeed they must work together for the world’s fastest-growing countries to meet their net zero targets.
The Minerals Council committed to net zero two years ago, many of your member companies well before that.
From our first day in Government, my colleagues and I have been building the framework that will enable you to deliver on these commitments.
That’s what our Safeguard Mechanism is about, incentivising new technology to reduce emissions, as well as delivering the certainty and stability that enables you to plan for the future.
Because you already work on long-term timeframes, you invest in 10 and 20 year projects and Government policy should enable this, not undercut it.
That’s the same approach we take to energy, including last week in Western Australia, where Premier Roger Cook and I announced the next stage of our $20 billion Rewiring the Nation program.
Up to $3 billion to finance the upgrade of the energy grid in Western Australia.
As well as Perth and the south west, this will mean major projects and new jobs and infrastructure in communities from Onslow to Port Hedland, Karratha to Newman.
And a way of ensuring your operations can be powered by reliable and affordable renewable energy.
But it doesn’t end there.
In fact, the most significant contribution your industry can make to reducing emissions is not confined to Australia’s shores.
We sometimes hear it said that because Australia represents only around 1 per cent of global emissions, our contribution to climate change is too small to be relevant to the world’s direction.
But as Professor Ross Garnaut has made clear, if Australia can become a renewable energy superpower, then we have the potential to cut up to another 7 per cent of the world’s emissions.
That’s the opportunity we have.
Not just achieving our climate goals, helping other nations reach theirs.
The pursuit of net zero is going to be the great driver of the global economy over the next two decades.
Lithium. Cobalt. Rare earths. Critical minerals.
The building blocks of a clean-energy economy.
Essential to every battery, electric vehicle, wind turbine and solar panel around the world.
All of them, found here in Australia.
We stand at an extraordinary intersection of unprecedented global demand and abundant national supply.
And this is a chance Australia will only get once.
That’s why our Government is determined to work with you to convert this moment of opportunity into a generation of prosperity.
I know Minister King has been consulting with all of you as we work to update the Critical Minerals List, to reflect the rapid advances in technology and demand.
We’re supporting Geoscience Australia, to enable new discoveries in the 80 per cent of our continent, which is still considered ‘under-explored’.
We’ve established the National Reconstruction Fund and appointed its independent board to invest in value-adding of our resources endowments.
Building on the important work of the Critical Minerals Facility, Export Finance Australia in creating secure supply chains here at home.
Moving Australia up the international value chain and expanding our trade relationships.
Promoting greater diversity in what we trade and greater diversity in who we trade with.
New critical minerals and green hydrogen partnerships with India.
Opening discussions with the European Union to establish a new Critical Minerals Partnership.
Forming new clean energy partnerships with Japan.
And the new ‘Australia-United States Climate, Critical Minerals, and Clean Energy Transformation Compact’ that President Biden and I signed in May.
So Australian projects can benefit from the billions of US dollars being invested in critical minerals and clean energy.
And of course, there are new frontiers, particularly in green hydrogen, the key to the Australia of 2030 and 2040 being not just an exporter of clean energy to our region but an exporter of energy-intensive products.
Green steel, green aluminium, green ammonia.
There’s a global race to make this technology work, safely and efficiently.
Our Government’s $2 billion Hydrogen Headstart program is about making sure Australian innovators can compete and win.
Shaping the future, not merely waiting for the future to shape us.
That’s what drives our Government.
The belief that Australian workers and Australian businesses can shape the big economic changes underway in our world and make them work for us.
To build an economy where productivity, wages and living standards grow together and all Australians share in the benefits.
Your industry, your innovation, your continuing investment in skills and technology is absolutely central to realising this vision.
What you do is fundamental to our future prosperity, our future security and our future sustainability.
Let’s keep working together, to build a better future for Australia.