David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the importance of Australia's critical minerals industry. The federal coalition is resolute in our support for the growth of this industry, which holds a vital key to strengthening not only Australia's future prosperity but also the prosperity of the entire world. Delivering ongoing, genuine and rock-solid investment into critical minerals is crucial for building our national security, securing our economic development and meeting the demands of the future. It's crucial because Australia is fortunate to have a critical minerals sector with such extraordinary potential and which hosts vast deposits which are among the world's best. From mobile phones to computers, microchips to banknotes, defence to health, evidence of the importance of these resources is all around us.

The federal coalition is proud of what we achieved in critical minerals during our term in government, and it is worth going through this. Driven by the need to increase investment and promote quality production within Australia, our track record of delivering was underpinned by our dedicated commitment and backing for the sector. It was the federal coalition who created Australia's first Critical Mineral Strategy—a landmark document that affirmed our vision for the future of this industry. We updated the strategy in 2022, reflecting on the changing global mineral environment, and we also updated Australia's critical minerals list. Importantly, in 2019 former prime minister Morrison and the then US president coordinated the first US-Australian action plan for critical minerals cooperation. This strategic partnership was designed to boost our critical minerals industry and provide the US with a secure supply of minerals which are essential to their manufacturing. In addition to this, the federal coalition made it our priority to invest billions into developing critical minerals. In 2021 it was members on this side of the House who set up the $2 billion Critical Minerals Facility—a loan facility targeted to diversify the critical mineral value chain, including supply chains and downstream processing. In fact, in April last year, Iluka Resources was awarded a historic $1.25 billion loan to develop Australia's first integrated rare earth refinery in Eneabba, Western Australia.

Also, last year the federal coalition was pleased to set up the $200 million Critical Minerals Accelerator Initiative to provide targeted funding towards early and mid-stage critical mineral projects. This funding was directed at key activities which were designed to build our nation's production capability. The first six grants, totalling about $50 million of investment, were announced by our government in April 2022. Importantly, these projects will produce cobalt, graphite, high-purity aluminium, tungsten, tantalum and vanadium. These grants were awarded in a measure to encourage work in early to mid-stage projects, kickstarting the next generation of critical minerals ventures. Unfortunately, this program was cut to the tune of more than $100 million by the Albanese Labor government in what is a disappointing blow to other projects which are seeking to harness investment.

In government, the federal coalition also committed $50.5 million over three years in our budget last year to establish the virtual national critical minerals research and development centre. In more key measures, we extended the junior minerals exploration incentive with an additional $100 million in support, and created the $225 million Exploring for the Future program. Both of these initiatives were crucial to finding resources which are capable of creating hundreds of jobs and stimulating billions of dollars for the Australian economy. We also committed more than $20 million to the Global Resource Strategy to identify new markets for our resource exports such as critical minerals.

All of this highlights the proud and enduring legacy that the federal coalition, and in particular our last two resource ministers, the Honourable Keith Pitt and Senator Matt Canavan, delivered for the critical minerals sector. These achievements have left our nation stronger. Ultimately, this is a legacy that has set critical minerals up for a promising, sustainable and productive future.

This now brings us to the minister's announcement on Tuesday of the 2023 critical minerals strategy. First of all and disappointingly, the minister has ignored calls from both industry groups and the federal coalition to update Australia's critical minerals list. I note that the shadow minister for resources, Senator McDonald, wrote to Minister King advocating for the inclusion of potash, phosphate, aluminium, alumina, bauxite, nickel, copper and zinc. Both potash and phosphate are important for Australia's ongoing agricultural productivity and contribute to our food security. Potash is a valuable fertiliser, but currently Australia's emerging industry does not produce enough to meet our domestic requirements. Our farmers also need large quantities of phosphorus, of which rock phosphate is a key ingredient to maintain healthy productivity in the regions where the weather has eroded natural phosphorus in the soils. Having a secure source of these minerals will allow Australia to develop a reliable supply of efficient fertilisers countering any shortages of global supply. Crucially, increasing our domestic extraction of potash and phosphate, and including these on the minerals list, will help achieve our agricultural sector's ultimate goal of growing to $100 billion by 2030.

Further minerals identified on a number of international critical minerals lists—aluminium, copper and zinc—are essential for the functioning of modern technologies and, in an increasingly unstable world, are susceptible to the shocks of disrupted international supply chains. On this front, Australia has enormous potential. Our nation has a big production capacity for aluminium, nickel, copper and zinc. We are the world's largest producer of bauxite. We are the second-largest producer and largest exporter of alumina, we have the largest economic resource of zinc and we have the second-largest reserves of copper and nickel.

It is clear Australia has the capacity to play a major global role, as these strategic resources become more important to advanced technologies and emerging industries around the world. Countries that have identified the significance of these minerals to their economies include the United States, Canada, Japan, the European Union and South Korea. With copper demand set to double by 2050 and key suppliers that include China, Russia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, there are clear risks in securing a sufficient global supply.

As we have seen in recent years, global supply chain disruption can happen at a pace that far outstrips the development of required new mineral resources. As such, the increased uncertainty of reliable access has driven many nations to strengthen their supply chains for many of the minerals in which Australia is either globally dominant or competitive. However, despite these strong arguments in support of adding these minerals to the list, the government has instead chosen to postpone any further reviews or updates of the strategy to 2026, a disappointing outcome for the sector.

So what has the government's critical mineral strategy actually outlined? Three of the six key focus areas concern the coalition and these are: (1) promoting Australia as a world leader in environmental, social and governance performance; (2) unlocking investment-enabling infrastructure and services; (3) growing a skilled workforce. Firstly, on ESG performance, specifically the calls to streamline EPBC approvals, the government's work on the review of the EPBC Act does not give the coalition much confidence. Progress on new environmental laws and standards is stalling under Labor and, despite having been in the job for over a year, the environment minister still appears to be months away from finishing that work. It's also looking more likely that the government's approach will lead to more regulation, more red tape and fewer incentives and clarity for business and resource projects.

Secondly, on infrastructure, it's quite extraordinary that Labor now claim that one of their priorities is 'unlocking investment in enabling infrastructure and services' when they have already swung the axe over the infrastructure sector. In fact, in Labor's first budget their infrastructure cuts amounted to $9.6 billion. This was in addition to cutting more than $10 billion in regional programs and $7 billion in dams and water infrastructure. Further to this, in Labor's second budget they announced a 90-day infrastructure review which is expected to make further cuts to rail and road infrastructure projects across the regions. Compounding the damage, the government has also cut programs for regional airports and has made cuts to the road safety Black Spot Program.

Finally, on growing a skilled workforce, it's ironic that the Critical Minerals Strategy is calling for a skilled mining workforce when currently the government is trying to push through its 'same job, same pay' legislation, which is at odds with our nation's mining sector. Labor needs to stop taking directions from their union paymasters and stop pushing policies that will not work in reality. However, despite the issues in half of the government's objectives, what we find when we unpack the new investment in the sector is that it appears that Labor are relying on programs delivered by the former coalition government as the main investment to develop this sector and have committed no real programs or initiatives of their own to help invest in critical minerals projects.

Another major point was reflected in the government's budget, handed down in May, which was a major letdown for critical minerals. Labor's budget provided no real investment in the sector, with $57.1 million for the Critical Minerals International Partnerships program and $23.4 million for critical minerals policy development and project facilitation. Both of these funding pools are largely administrative, with neither going toward supporting new projects or investing in the development of our critical minerals reserves. This funding is a drop in the ocean, in contrast to the billions that the coalition invested. To quote Mineral Resources managing director Chris Ellison, this funding is the Australian government telling industry to 'go it alone.' The $500 million from the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility is not new funding but simply earmarked from the $2 billion increase that I, as the former minister for Northern Australia, along with the former special envoy for Northern Australia, Senator McDonald, announced back in December 2021.

To conclude my remarks, the federal coalition's support for the critical minerals sector is unwavering. We firmly believe there is a bright future for critical minerals to operate alongside vital traditional resources like iron, coal and gas. Ultimately, this update to the Critical Minerals Strategy provided the government with an opportunity to illustrate their plans for the development of this sector, but what we saw announced on Tuesday was more fluff than substance. Australia's on the cusp of reaping the generational rewards of building a vast and productive critical minerals sector. Every single day, our nation competes on the global market for investment dollars for our resources, dollars that create domestic jobs and put money back into our economy. The federal coalition set a secure foundation for the sector's growth, and it is now up to the government to ensure that this opportunity is not wasted.

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