Interview on ABC AM with Rachel Mealey

RACHEL MEALEY, HOST: Madeleine King, welcome to AM.

MADELINE KING, MINISTER FOR RESOURCES AND NORTHERN AUSTRALIA: It's a pleasure to be with you, Rachel.

MEALEY: Does this High Court ruling spell the end for fossil fuel industries in this country?

KING: Far from it. The High Court ruling is a pretty technical ruling about what a planning commission has to consider when it goes through a planning approvals process. I expect there'll be a lot of discussion obviously around this case and that's important to have those discussions, but really the main thing is that people should be reassured that there are no jobs at risk. Because of this ruling, the Mount Pleasant mine will continue. It will continue under its current operations in 2032. But I know the Minns Government will be talking to the company about how that might be reconsidered.

MEALEY: The High Court found that under NSW planning law, miners have to account for the climate damage done by their pollution. Does it set a precedent for other states?

KING: I haven't gone through the statutes of other states. No doubt every state will be looking at their own statutes and if their statutes do require the consideration of certain things, then planning commissions should meet those requirements. And that's a pretty simple, I guess, threshold that the High Court has explained must be met. So, each state will do that. Under federal law we don't have the same requirements as the NSW law does in this case, so this won't affect federal decisions or approvals.

MEALEY: You seem to be playing down the impact of this High Court decision, but Tania Constable, the CEO of the Minerals Council of Australia, says that she's deeply concerned about what it might mean for the coal industry and the mining industry as a whole. Are you saying she doesn't, she shouldn't be concerned?

KING: Oh, I think in every High Court decision people should have a good look at it and see how it does affect their industry. Of course, that's, that's sensible. But my understanding, and I haven't read the whole thing, and I will do it in due course, is that it is around a particular application under particular law, in a particular state, so it won't necessarily extend to other states. It really does depend what each of their legislations is. And I want to congratulate the Minns Labor Government for what they have done to provide certainty to the industry in the past six months through the release of their coal industry policy, which does provide certainty around which mines can be expanded, which brownfield sites can be expanded and …

MEALEY: Would you like to see the Minns Government step in and close this loophole?

KING: Well, they've already made, provided certainty through these planning reforms. So, this particular application for the Mount Pleasant coal mine was done under the former coalition, a Liberal government in NSW. And so it falls under that regime. As we have seen, the Hunter Valley operations HVO have got their approval to expand under the NSW coal industry policy, the one issued more recently. And that's brought on approximately, it will bring on about a billion dollars of investment into that mine, into jobs in the NSW Hunter Valley. So, they have provided certainty and I know the Minister Courtney Houssos, will be talking to the company about how they can look at the Mount Pleasant mine and whether that can be reconsidered through this new policy framework. So, I'm really confident the NSW Government will be able to manage this.

MEALEY: Minister, you're travelling to the site of a critical minerals project north of Alice Springs today. Where will those resources be used?

KING: Well, the project I'm visiting is the Arafura Nolans Rare Earth Project, one of global significance. A fully integrated ore to oxide facility, that means they mine and process all on the one site. So, those products that come out of the Nolan's Rare Earth products will be used around the world principally in offtakes in partner countries like Korea and Canada and the U.S. And indeed, whilst the Federal Government has supported this project, and indeed it is the first project of the world-leading Critical Mineral Strategic Reserve which this government has legislated - we also have significant contributions from governmental credit agencies from Canada, from Germany, from the Republic of Korea and from the United States. So, it's a really extraordinary global collaborative effort to make sure the Nolans Rare Earth mine and processing facility at Alice Springs gets up and starts to really make a difference to global supply chains. We will be in getting this project going which we start construction on this week. We will be changing the makeup of rare earth supplies of the world and that is a really significant moment for Australia and for our partners.

MEALEY: Resources Minister Madeleine King, thanks for your time.

KING: Thanks so much, Rachel.