Doorstop interview

BRENDAN CLARK: It’s great to be on Whadjuk land. I am very proud. And I’d like to acknowledge the Wajarri Yamaji people for the land that our tenement is held.

And firstly, starting off by acknowledging and welcoming the Honourable Madeleine King. Minister, you have done a lot for this rare earth industry, and you’re leading the way for Australia to become a major player in this sector. At the moment, we’re relying on one country – or the world is relying on one country to produce rare earths and specifically heavy rare earths, which is a very scary thing. So, it’s great that you and your government are, you know, changing that, along with our allies Japan and the US. So that’s a very comforting thing.  

I also welcome Namali Mackay from the Critical Minerals Association. Thank you for what your association is doing for this industry as well. It’s very important.

And today it’s not been an easy task; it’s been three years of millions of dollars of investment to achieve this milestone into research and development. And, again, most of the IP for rare earths and separation comes from China and very protected. So to be able to crack the code like we are, it’s a very, very big milestone for our company. And, you know, these rare earths are not only important for the renewable energy transmission, but they’re critical for our national defence. So it’s a very important thing, and for Australia to, you know, host – you know, Australia is just an oyster for these critical minerals, and we’re just blessed that our project in Cue has what the world needs.

I’m also very excited for the opportunity that this is going to bring to the region, the remote region of Cue. We’re looking at, you know, employing over 200 people as we get into production. And that’s going to be a great outcome. We’ve also formed some great partnerships during this journey with the likes of Curtin University, and the researchers there are also learning a lot from this project as well.

So what I’d like to do now is welcome the Honourable Minister to say a few words.

SPEAKER: Sorry, before you jump off the mic, could you just state your name and your title.

BRENDAN CLARK: Sure. Brendan Clark. I’m the CEO and Executive Director for Victory Metals.

SPEAKER: Thanks very much. Now you can pass on the mic.

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Thanks very much. And, for the record, my name is Madeleine King; I’m the Minister for Resources and Minister for Northern Australia.

Thanks, Brendan, and thanks to the whole Victory Metals team for having me here today, and my friend Alannah MacTiernan as well, who’s done such a great job before in the federal parliament and state parliament and also, of course, as a mayor of local government. Thanks, Alannah, for the work you’re doing here with Victory Metals.

To the team of young work experience geologists that are here, scientists and all the people doing all the operations here, I want to thank you for your efforts. I, too, want to acknowledge we’re on Whadjuk Noongar land and pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging. And also to acknowledge, of course, the traditional owners of the lands from which these heavy rare earths are coming from at the North Stanmore deposit right about 6 kilometres from Cue, which is, you know, a remarkable place and a remarkable deposit that I’ve been hearing about for some time, thanks to Brendan and Alannah and, more recently this morning, from Ken. So thank you very much for that. And thanks to the traditional owners.

Today is a really important milestone not only for Victory Metals as a company here in Burswood, Western Australia, but also for Australia and the Australian rare earths industry. Plants like this, pilot plants like this and getting this right, the technology right, is a really important step in our sovereign intellectual property on how we not only extract these materials from some of these ancient deposits but how we process them to make them useful to go into all the products they are required for, whether that be for green technologies but really important for the heavier rare earths it’s defence applications and just important modern-day technology.

So to have this pilot plant behind me here that Victory Metals have built through their own blood, sweat and tears – not to mention money – is a really important moment. And what they will produce will be a refined product which goes to offtake – potential offtake partners around the world. That means Australia becomes a significant provider of heavy rare earths to partners so that we diversify that supply chain. And what that can lead to, and I expect it will lead to, thanks to the efforts of Victory Metals and that really special government, is a larger plant in due course. But there’s a lot of work to go on. I do appreciate that. A lot of work has already gone on.

The Albanese Labor government has been very clear about Australia’s responsibility to step up and lead globally in critical minerals and rare earths. We’ve been doing that from the very day we came into government in 2022. We’ve invested over $28 billion into this industry through various programs, particularly production tax incentives, but also through bolstering the work of Geoscience Australia to find more deposits as well as through the Critical Minerals Facility and Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility, among others.

So it is certainly one of my greatest pleasures to be at openings of plants like this, but also to be part of a government that really wants to drive this industry so that Australia has sovereign capability not just in the extraction of these really important metals and minerals but also in the development of the refining processes.

And I should take this moment to, of course, acknowledge Curtin University, part of the trailblazer program, and the work scientists do in making sure this can actually happen. A lot of research goes into how we process and refine these materials that we find on the earth’s surface or just beneath it, and that is vitally important work. And, as I said before, it goes back to that idea of sovereign IP. Because we know there are a lot of trade restrictions on not only the product but on the know-how that goes into making that product. And to be able to have that knowledge developed here in Western Australia and in other places in the country – but particularly here today – is of such vital strategic importance to our country. And I can’t emphasise that enough.

So thanks to Victory Metals. Thanks, Brendan, thanks to your whole team for having me here and for including me along with your journey as well. It’s been a real honour to see how this has developed, and I can’t wait to see the next steps. So with that, I hand back to you, Brendan. I don’t know if we’re going to take some questions.

SPEAKER: Yeah, yeah. And thank you, Minister, for all the work that you’ve done for the resources sector but also particularly in rare earths and coming out here to support. So the Minister and Brendan will be available for some brief questions.

JOURNALIST: So, sorry, [indistinct] explanatory on today’s announcement. So I’ll just go straight to questions of the day. The unions are asking for more money for the Collie transition. Will the Commonwealth commit to that?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: I believe there’s been a press conference – I haven’t seen it myself; I’ve just been getting here – but what I think is really important to acknowledge is the great work the unions have done in developing plans around how we need to transition Collie well as these coal mines end and the power station uses change. I take my hat off to the good work they’ve done and a lot of research they’ve done into what’s possible in Collie and for that community.

As for the funding itself, look, that’s something, you know, we’ve, of course, take on board what they have said and those proposals. My experience in particular with Steve McCartney of the AMWU is he’s a very thoughtful union leader who comes up with some good ideas. I’ve not seen this proposal today. But, nonetheless, we will engage respectfully and with the knowledge that these union leaders act in the best interests of those workers. And we want to see a future in Collie. It’s a really beautiful part of the world. It’s an important part of the world, and the community is really important as well.  

JOURNALIST: Is it strange for state Labor to be asking federal Labor for more money to implement a state policy [indistinct]?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, what we see right around the country is there are coal-fired power stations closing. Every single one of the coal-fired power stations now has an end date. A lot of those coal-fired power stations have a coal mine attached to them that is not for export. Whilst exports of coal will remain as long as there is demand, those particular mines, that future is not so assured because of the associated power station closure.

So it is a national responsibility to look after all those communities that are affected by the transition, the transition out of coal. And so, just as we talk with our communities in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales and parts of Queensland, of course, we would talk as a federal government to the people and the workers of Collie and to the state government. That makes sense. It’s just the right thing to do.

JOURNALIST: Yeah, sure. The Premier understands the Offshore Alliance has reached an in-principle agreement on the Pilbara strike. Do you have any update on that?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: My understanding is that there’s an agreement that’s been reached with the INPEX matter in Darwin. I think – because that is an offshore thing. The other dispute that’s going on at the moment is an onshore mining around Port Hedland, and that’s more onshore. So there might just be a little bit of misunderstanding on which disruption is which. But really importantly on the offshore side of things, there has been a resolution between INPEX and the Offshore Alliance.

JOURNALIST: And just on the Port Hedland dispute that’s going on at the moment, you’ve sort of made your comments clear that you feel that, you know, unions they, you know, deserve to, you know, progress industrial action if that needs be. You know, have you heard from BHP in regards to that? Have they given you any update? Is there some sort of a resolution that’s coming, or is it still sort of a frosty relationship?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Yeah, I mean, as it stands, I think we’ve all seen the public reporting. Both parties – the unions and BHP – have their respective positions. My position is that those parties should continue to be at the negotiating table. We want to avoid disruptions to the operation of the port because it is the powerhouse of not only Western Australia but the whole of the nation.

And I believe that is happening, if not right now, you know, around these times. So I would just urge all parties to make sure they keep negotiating. But I stand by what I’ve said before – workers are entitled to fight for better conditions, to make their claims known. And that’s exactly what they are doing.

JOURNALIST: So BHP aren’t giving you any sort of specific update over the last few days?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Not in the relatively recent days or anything. But I don’t want that to be misunderstood. We speak with BHP and many other miners very frequently. We have a very good relationship with them as we do with the union movement.

JOURNALIST: The Premier says he thinks the PM is locked in on the WA GST deal. But that’s under a lot of pressure – but that he’s under a lot of pressure from other states. Are you worried about changes to the arrangements?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: The Premier is right – the Prime Minister is locked in on the GST deal. There may well be pressure, but the Prime Minister has very strong shoulders and, rest assured, that is very locked in.

JOURNALIST: A very confident answer.

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, I’m very confident of that.

JOURNALIST: All right, thank you for that.

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: I’m not as confident about Fremantle at the moment. Did you have one more?

JOURNALIST: Just one more. Just another sort of broader mining-related question: so, you know, obviously from Gina Rinehart’s Hancock making the announcement recently that they are going to sack, you know, a few hundred workers at least, you know, she is sort of investing in a lot of other, you know, jurisdictions at the moment and other sort of interests that she has. You know, are you worried as to, you know, what this potentially means for the iron ore industry, and what do you make of, you know, what she’s done by sacking these workers?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Sure. Well, these are obviously commercial matters. And I just want to be really clear, you know, my thoughts are with these workers. Yesterday, I think the announcement was made. But they are going through an uncertain time, and that’s very difficult for them, but also their families and the communities in which these workers go back to. My understanding, and correct me if I’m wrong, is that they are all fly-in/fly-out. So that’s disruptive, I would expect, and I’ve not heard anything otherwise that Hancock will make sure that all those workers affected will, you know, get their entitlements and so forth promptly. And traditionally, what we do, or companies often do is they try to move some of that workforce into other parts of the workforce. Hancock is a desirable place to work. And I don’t know if that’s happening. I hope there’s consideration being given to how you re-deploy workers, because that’s what we always hope does happen and, indeed, expect happens.

As for the other investments of Mrs Rinehart, that is clearly a matter for her. My care and priority is to make sure that those workers are able to be – if able to be redeployed, that they indeed are, or that they are made sure that they get all their commissions and all their entitlements.

JOURNALIST: Thanks.