Interview with Laura Jayes, News24 AM Agenda

LAURA JAYES, HOST: Joining me live now is Resources and Northern Australian Minister Madeleine King. Madeleine King, what does this say to investors that want to invest in Australia when this mine was approved in 2022 and here we are in 2026.

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Thanks, Laura. It's great to be on your show. Really - it's really important that we all take a bit of a deep breath around this decision. This is a really specific technical decision around an approval under a regime that has changed since then. The New South Wales Government has introduced its coal industry framework to 2050, which does take account and does set the conditions around scope 3 emissions. I mean the example we can all look to is the up to $1 billion of investment that now will come through the Hunter Valley operations that were recently approved. So, what's really important for the workers involved and the communities connected to Mount Pleasant is that this mine will continue to operate under its current approvals. The New South Wales Government will be working with the operators to make sure they look at how they do have their application for expansion reconsidered under the new coal industry framework of the New South Wales Government. So, there is in fact a lot of certainty around this. It's a High Court decision on a technical issue.

LAURA JAYES: I know, but there's a, this is a New South Wales planning rule and isn't this clause in the New South Wales planning laws helping to enable this to then be delayed through the courts for up to four years? That's the problem here, isn't it?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, my understanding is what, what the New South Wales Government has done is had a look at its planning laws, gone through a process of setting up the coal industry policy. This framework that I mentioned earlier, which is what is enabling certainty to exist in that approvals process and that does exist, and the proof is in the pudding with the expansion of the HVO -

LAURA JAYES: Can I just quickly – sorry to interrupt you, Madeleine, but I just think people are scratching their heads today saying how did this clause get there in the first place? Is it in other state legislation that a minor approval is in New South Wales can have some kind of dependence on what those coal exports do in terms of emissions in China, for example? That is crazy to me.

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, my understanding is that this clause was introduced into the law by the former Liberal National Government of New South Wales. Was that a current Labor –

LAURA JAYES: Was that a mistake?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, I'm not going to pass any kind of judgement on what State Governments do. They each have their own motivations for particular laws. The same thing does not exist in federal law, I would be clear to point out, but I think the main point for the here and now and for the future is that the current New South Wales Government, under the leadership of their Resources Minister, Courtney Houssos and the Premier, Chris Minns, has set a certain framework that provides that certainty in the context of those planning commission laws so that these projects can go ahead, and indeed they are through the HVO. Now, I understand this is not helpful for the Mount Pleasant decision, and the court has interrupted that. Of course it has. But it's important that people have their say that we respect the systems of courts in this country. They have a role to play, and people have quite rightly looked at that provision and sought to have their voices heard. And I understand that. But the really, the main thing for the people concerned, for the miners concerned, for the workers concerned, is that the New South Wales Government backs coal mining. The Albanese Labor Government federally backs coal mining and what we will see is the state government, quite rightly in New South Wales, working with the operators of the Mount Pleasant mine to see how they move this forward. And that's what's really important, and I'm really sure they'll come to a good conclusion.

LAURA JAYES: Are you sure all your Labor colleagues at a federal level support coal mining?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: They absolutely do. I mean, we have coal miners in our caucus. Meryl Swanson, their member for Paterson, daughter of a coal miner, Dan Repacholi himself has been a coal miner. I've been down coal mines a couple of times myself. We are supporters of what is. I mean, coal is about an energy export, as is gas, which is really important for the future of our region. It is what provides energy security and therefore peace and prosperity across the Indo-Pacific. So, it's vitally important.

LAURA JAYES: Minister, can you do anything here? I know this is state law, but does this become a sovereignty issue when overseas emissions from our exports are now affecting - you can say in a small way - but they are affecting the approval of new mines and therefore our economic prosperity. Can you introduce - will you consider introducing anything at a federal level that can knock this out altogether? Avoid it?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, I want to be clear, this is not affecting the operation of a mine. It's affecting the expansion. That is for sure. But the New South Wales Government and governments make their choices, and as a Federal Government, we respect that. But really importantly, the current government has set up a framework that means there is a means to make this expansion possible. It's not in federal law. There is no need for us to intervene because, quite frankly, the New South Wales Government has thought this through and has got this, and I'm confident they will resolve the issue. These are things that come up in planning laws from time to time. I'm not aware of where it sits in each and every state, but I have no doubt every State Government and territory government should be checking their planning laws to make sure that they don't have this kind of thing if that's what they want to happen. So, it isn't a matter for them to make sure that they look at their own provisions. It's not in federal law. So, I don't, I don't. You know, this has an impact. It's a High Court decision. It's an important institution in our country. It's part of our constitution. So, you know, I respect the work that the High Court judges and all their associates do, but we really just need to put this in its context, that it's about a New South Wales planning issue. And right now that is where it sits. And for people to make a really pretty outrageous accusations of what this might mean. And they're drawing pretty long bows at the moment for their own political convenience. I'm going to leave them to that. Right now, in Alice Springs, I'm going to go help turn the first sod on what is an amazing national sovereign capability project in terms of the Arafura Nolans rare earths projects here in Alice Springs.

LAURA JAYES: Yeah, this was something that you promised to the United States or your government promised to the United States. So, is this one of those, you know, diplomatic essentials, if you like?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: It was a priority project for the US-Australia Critical Minerals Framework, a very important one, as is the Alcoa Gallium project in Wager up in WA. But really importantly, the whole world is backing the Arafura project. We have government agencies from Canada, from the public of Korea, from Germany, our own credit agencies, the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility, the Critical Minerals Facility, the National Reconstruction Fund as well as private investors are all being a part of building an extraordinary national sovereign capability in a ore to oxide refining processing facility here in Alice Springs, which is a great boon for the Northern Territory. But really importantly, it's good for the whole country.

LAURA JAYES: All right, we'll let you get to it. Minister, thank you for your time.

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: A pleasure. Laura, good to speak to you again.