Zaneta Mascarenhas (Swan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

MASCARENHAS () (): My question is to the Minister for Resources and Minister for Northern Australia. What is the significance of critical minerals to Australia, and what role will they play in achieving net-zero emissions?

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

MADELEINE KING (—) (): Thank you very much to the incoming member for Swan. Her father was a nickel miner from Kambalda, and she knows the value of the resources sector. She worked in it for many years before coming to this place. So thank you to the member for Swan.

For Australia and the world, reaching the net-zero emissions target by 2050 is absolutely impossible without the critical minerals and our extraordinary endowment of them. These minerals will be a significant part of the global journey to net-zero emissions by 2050. Without the resources sector, we simply cannot reach net zero. The world needs more minerals, not less, because these minerals are essential for these low-emissions technologies such as wind turbines, electric vehicles and battery storage. The demand around the world is growing, and growing fast.

The technical expertise and know-how of Australia's resources industry will be absolutely essential to grow the critical minerals industry and our new resources economy, and Australia is especially well placed. We are the world's largest producer of lithium, with WA being home to some of the world's largest lithium deposits at Greenbushes and Wodgina, which I was very pleased to be able to visit just the other week in the Pilbara. We're the third-largest producer of cobalt, the fifth-largest producer of nickel and the fourth-largest producer of rare earth minerals.

In the first five months since the election, this government has been pursuing Australia's critical minerals opportunities with vigour. We have agreed to a critical minerals investment partnership with India. We have signed up to the US led Minerals Security Partnership alongside Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, the EU, the UK and Sweden. Just last week in Perth I signed a critical minerals partnership with Japan in the presence of our PM and also in the presence of the Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida. I was deeply honoured to be able to welcome our Prime Minister to BHP Nickel West for the second time—maybe even the third time—and to welcome the Japanese Prime Minister there. I'm quite certain that it's probably the first time a Japanese prime minister has visited the seat of Brand and, in particular, the Nickel West refinery in Kwinana, which provides 85 per cent of its nickel to the global battery material suppliers.

This government is investing a further $50 million over three years to the Critical Minerals Development Program and $50 million to the Australian Critical Minerals R&D Hub.

It is a fact that, before the election, the government had two critical minerals strategies overseen by two resources ministers, both at the same time. Those critical minerals strategies failed to make the connection between critical minerals and the global drive to net zero. This government is reviewing that strategy. It will make that important link because we don't have our heads in the sand about the need to address climate change. (Time expired)