Madeleine King (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Kennedy is, of course, quite right to say that agriculture depends on fertiliser. I congratulate the Treasurer and the minister for agriculture for the fuel security and resilience package in this budget. Part of that is a $7.5 billion fuel and fertiliser security package. I'll turn to the way forward in a moment. We have secured, through the new powers given to Export Finance Australia, 90,000 tonnes of urea to Australia—we're supporting Incitec Pivot and CSBP—and 250,000 tonnes of urea from Indonesia. That's through that new mechanism. You're right to identify the supply chain challenge.

Moving to the future—this government has invested, as many will be aware, over $475 million through the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility for the Perdaman urea facility in Karratha. The government, and I as the Minister for Northern Australia, have supported a $220 million loan to Perdaman to build the largest urea plant, a $160 million loan to the Pilbara Ports Authority and a $95 million loan to the Water Corporation. This in total $475 million federal commitment to the project and supporting infrastructure will see over $8 billion of investment. I know those opposite want to take credit, but the thing is that they didn't secure the approvals for the project. That is the truth. They talk a big game, but they don't do anything and they failed to invest more in NAIF. Member for Kennedy, as you know, we will make this country urea independent. By the middle of next year is when production will commence. I think we can look forward to that.

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