Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have spoken previously in this place about Arafura's nation-building Nolans project in the Northern Territory. It is the largest and longest live resource project in the Northern Territory ever. The Nolans project has the power to transform Australia's rare earths sector, establishing the Northern Territory as an essential processing and logistics hub through vital collaboration between government, industry and, importantly, local communities. It will open up logistics chains and develop the local businesses required to provide critical support and benefit neighbouring minerals projects in that region north of Alice Springs.

The Australian government has invested in the Nolans project with support from Export Finance Australia; the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility, the NAIF; and the NRFC, the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation. The project will deliver over 600 construction jobs and a further 350 long-term operational roles. Arafura is a great example that Australia is home to some of the most valuable deposits of critical minerals and rare earths in the world—almost the whole periodic table, as the Prime Minster likes to remind us.

Critical minerals are critical to the world's transition to net zero, including for batteries, wind turbines and solar panels. Rare earths are essential for high-tech manufacturing and defence, the digital economy, artificial intelligence, data centres and clean energy. We've known for some time that our critical minerals are in demand, and we've been working to secure Australia's interest and create diverse resilient and sustainable critical minerals supply chains that reduce market concentration.

The United States-Australia Framework for Securing of Supply in the Mining and Processing of Critical Minerals and Rare Earths—otherwise known as the framework—which was announced during the visit to the United States last month by the PM and the Minister for Resources, Madeleine King, will take this cooperation forward with the United States. It will focus our bilateral efforts on overcoming barriers to the development of diversified liquid and free markets for critical minerals. It will strengthen investment in Australia's critical minerals sector by providing an architecture for Australian producers to access US financing—and vice versa; it goes both ways. It will also encourage greater investor confidence through enhanced market transparency and openness.

Through the framework we will invest in critical minerals projects, enhance the capabilities of our mining and processing sectors, promote trade in minerals produced to a high standard and encourage markets to reward those high standards of production. We will cooperate on challenges such as unfair trade practices and price volatility, and we'll improve regulatory processes and collaborate on mineral recycling and geological mapping. Australian consideration will be done in collaboration with our Australian financing facilities—the Critical Minerals Facility, the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility and the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation—as previously mentioned. This framework commits us to providing at least $1 billion in funding to each project located in Australia and the United States. The framework will leverage existing policy tools such as the United States' industrial demand and stockpiling infrastructure and Australia's critical minerals strategic reserve.

The establishment of a critical minerals strategic reserve by our Albanese Labor government will maximise the strategic value of Australia's resources. Australia has the critical minerals and rare earths that the world needs, but supply chains and markets are volatile. We saw this with our nickel and lithium sectors last year, and that also impacted my electorate and the Northern Territory. The reserve positions us as a reliable supplier and a global competitor. It will allow Australia to work with partners on trade and market disruptions from a position of strength. It supplements other measures we are implementing to support a critical minerals sector, such as the production tax incentive. We are committed to having the reserve operational by the end of 2026. That is a very important thing when you consider everything else we're doing for critical minerals and rare earths in our nation.

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