Sam Lim (Tangney, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Resources. How is the Albanese Labor government building a future made in Australia by supporting a strong and resilient resources sector?

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

I thank the member for Tangney for his question, and I congratulate him on his re-election in the wonderful seat of Tangney.

As he knows, Australia's resources sector has been the bedrock of our nation's prosperity for decades. The sector underpins hundreds of thousands of jobs right across this great country, and will be integral to a future made in Australia. Today, the iron ore industry alone is exporting well north of $100 billion a year of this commodity, and investment in new iron ore mines remains strong.

Take, for instance, Mitsui's $8.4 billion investment in Rio Tinto's Rhodes Ridge iron ore project, which is a magnificent vote of confidence in the Pilbara. Mitsui is one of Japan's premier global investment houses and has been a driver of Australia's iron ore industry since the sixties. This $8 billion investment is the single largest investment Mitsui has ever made anywhere in the world in its nearly 80-year history in the Pilbara, in the resources sector, and its importance cannot be underestimated. It demonstrates the stable investment environment that policies of this Albanese Labor government are creating to ensure a future made in Australia.

In June, I attended the opening of Rio's $2 billion Western Ridge iron ore mine with Premier Cook, and that's a significant extension of the Channar mine and builds on the important relationship between the Australian resources sector and China's Baowu Group.

It says a great deal about how disconnected the coalition is from our exceptional resources sector. They all lined up to have a crack at our largest trading relationship while the CEOs of Rio Tinto, BHP, Fortescue and Hancock Prospecting lined up alongside this Prime Minister on his successful visit to China to support the ballast of our trading relationship, the great iron ore industry of the Pilbara that employs hundreds of thousands of Australians.

This blinkered and dense response of the coalition's is the same one that saw them vote against the production tax credits for critical minerals.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister will pause. The member for Wannon on a point of order?

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just on a point of order, Mr Speaker. The question said nothing about alternatives, the coalition or anything like that.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

So your point of order is on relevance?

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is, Mr Speaker.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister wasn't asked about alternative approaches; she wasn't asked about opposition policy. I'm going to draw her back to the question. If she continues her argument she will be sat down. Minister, I will ask you to be directly relevant to the question you were asked.

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

Rare earths from Eneabba, another site I visited last week, will be mined and refined here in Australia, supported by the production tax credits that this government introduced in legislation and passed last term.

Lithium is set to also benefit from production tax credits, which some have not agreed to. Liontown's Kathleen Valley lithium project, which I opened earlier this month, an hour from Leinster in the northern Gold Fields, is the world's first underground lithium mine. It is powered by 80 per cent renewable energy and includes the largest wind turbines in the country. That's a lithium mine powered by renewable energy. So while this government will support such endeavours in clean energy, we see those opposite, led by two former deputy prime ministers in particular, trying to scuttle the Leader of the Nationals as we focus on clean energy in this country.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be posted on the Notice Paper and give a shout out to Blake Solly and the great Cody Walker, who were in the gallery today for question time.