Barry Haase (Kalgoorlie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources. Would the minister update the House on the export potential of Australia’s resources sector? Are there opportunities for further export growth? In particular, is there potential for uranium exports to expand from new mines in my electorate?

Ian Macfarlane (Groom, Liberal Party, Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Kalgoorlie for his question and also for the hard work he does for the resources sector in Australia in creating jobs and exports out of his electorate of Kalgoorlie. Australia’s resources sector has reached another milestone today, with ABARE releasing figures that show Australia’s mineral and energy sector has exported a massive $90.5 billion worth of exports in 2005-06. This is a record amount representing an increase of 32 per cent on 2004-05. Commodities leading that charge include coking coal, up 59 per cent; iron ore and pellets, up 54 per cent; and copper, up 79 per cent. It is an outstanding result by any measure, with some 90 advanced resources projects underway with further opportunities for growth.

I am asked by the member for Kalgoorlie about uranium export potential from his electorate. Unfortunately, the outlook is not as positive. In Western Australia alone, five mining leases over uranium deposits were granted before 2002. The uranium deposits are estimated to be worth some $2 billion and under Labor’s no new mines policy have no prospect of ever being developed. This is a ridiculous situation and made even more farcical by the fact that last month Australia announced its fourth uranium mine in South Australia, and that uranium mine has been given its commercial go-ahead.

It just goes to show that in pro uranium mining states like South Australia the no new mines policy is an outdated inconvenience which is simply sidestepped by those Labor members who understand the importance of exports and jobs. Yet, in anti-uranium states like WA, where the WA Labor government opposes uranium mining, it is used to deny the opportunity of exports and dollars to that state. Either way, the no new mines policy is a complete shambles. It has completely divided Labor as to where it should go and, while the Labor Party ties itself in knots, the Howard government continues to grow the resources sector and do everything it can to build exports and build jobs.