Thank you Chris [Chris Rodwell CEO, CCIWA] and all involved in the Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA. 

I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land we are meeting on here in Perth, the Whadjuk Noongar people, and pay my respects to their elders.

I extend that respect to all First Nations peoples present.

Hello all and thank you for the opportunity to speak today.

The Chamber does important work. It is vital that our State has a forum like this where we can come together and discuss the big ideas and policies that will help ensure Western Australia remains the envy of the nation for generations to come. 

So thank you for inviting me and thank you for allowing me to continue that discussion. 

Introduction 

Here in Western Australia we have a long tradition of understanding the importance of the resources industry to our prosperity and energy security. 

Most of us probably find ourselves living here with thanks to the resources industry. 

That connection might date back, months, decades or even a century. 

My family moved to the Goldfields from Victoria during the 1800s goldrush.

My grandmother was born in Coolgardie and my great great grandfather, Eli Pizer, is still there – at rest among the other pioneers in the ochre dirt of the Kalgoorlie cemetery. 

They came for the jobs and the promise of a better life. And as a result we find ourselves many years later living in the best place in the world. 

Beautiful beaches. Great weather. And the best people. 

Thousands of people are still coming to Western Australia today from all over the world to find a job in the resources industry and to improve their lot or to help their family get ahead. 

All of us want to see the resources industry continue to well. 

The Government I am a part of – the Albanese Labor Government – wants the resources industry to continue to do well. 

We want the resources industry to be there for future generations of Western Australians. 

We want it to be there to provide well paid and highly skilled jobs for a long time to come. 

I don’t need to give you all the stats about how much the resources industry contributes to gross domestic product. Or how many people are employed. 

You’ve heard all that. 

But what I want you to take away from this speech is that the Albanese Labor Government understands the importance of our resources sector. 

We live in an age of alternative facts. 

And in the weeks and months ahead I’m betting you will hear a few alternative facts about a great many things. 

The resources industry is one that is built on actual facts and data. 

It is an industry run by geologists, engineers and accountants. 

The facts matter. 

So let me give you a few facts about the Albanese Government and it’s very real support for the resources sector. 

What Labor is doing

I was proud of the Federal Budget handed down in May by my good friend, Treasurer Jim Chalmers. 

This was a budget of generational importance to the resources sector. 

The Budget placed the resources industry at the centre of the Government’s key economic policy of a Future Made in Australia. 

By extension – the Budget placed Western Australia at the heart of this Government’s economic policies. 

I’ve said many times that the road to net zero runs through the resources sector. 

Our budget is backing WA to drive this nation’s economy along that road into the future. 

Because if we want a strong economy providing well paid jobs for future generations of Australians, we need to ensure we have the policies in place to support industries for the future like critical minerals and rare earths. 

As part of the Future Made in Australia plan, we announced a $17.6 billion Critical Minerals Production Tax Incentive, which will provide a refundable tax offset of ten per cent for eligible Australian projects.

The Critical Minerals Production Tax Incentive will cover all 31 critical minerals currently on the Critical Minerals List. 

These incentives are a direct response to the challenges facing the critical minerals industry. 

These incentives have broad support from industry because industry helped design them. 

Let me say that again.

These policies are backed by industry – because it’s what industry asked for. 

This is sensible policy, designed by experts, with consensus from industry. 

But that was not all. 

The budget included generational funding for geoscience. 

$3.4 billion dollars to fully fund Geoscience Australia to provide data to industry to help Australian mining companies – from the big end of town to the smallest start-ups in West Perth…

… To help those companies identify those big, economy-making discoveries of minerals to create future jobs and prosperity. 

Another major piece of work was our Future Gas Strategy. 

If you listen to the Opposition they say Labor does not support the gas industry. 

Serious support for the gas industry doesn’t mean turning up to a corporate dinner at Crown. 

Serious support for the gas industry means doing the hard policy work to ensure the industry continues to prosper, while retaining its social licence. 

Through the Future Gas Strategy, for the first time, the Federal Government has mapped out a plan for the role of gas in the road to achieving net zero. 

I would remind you this was something the industry itself had been leaning into for a long time. The gas industry had adopted net zero targets well before the Liberals and Nationals even conceded net zero was a thing. 

This Government understands that without reliable and affordable energy, you can’t do business. 

Without adequate energy, modern societies fall apart. 

Without affordable and reliable energy, social licence for climate action evaporates.

And the role of Australian energy in the net zero transition does not stop at our borders. 

Gas is vital to support manufacturing, food processing, refining of critical minerals and the firming of grids needed in the energy transition. 

Australian gas, exported as LNG, will have a significant role to play in decarbonising our region and supporting energy security in the region.  

Labor’s Future Gas Strategy aims to safeguard energy security and affordability while supporting decarbonisation of the Australian economy. 

The Strategy reinforces Australia’s reputation as an attractive trade and investment destination.

It does this while helping our trade partners on their own paths to net zero.

We must act to secure a future supply of gas to meet our energy needs and fulfil our international obligations and to secure energy security and stability for our region. 

To do that we need more exploration.

To that end, a few weeks ago, I announced new exploration permits for Chevron, INPEX, Melbana and Woodside Energy on the west coast, and permits for Esso and Beach Energy in the Otway and Sorrell Basins in the east. 

Exploration only ensures gas supply if identified resources are developed in a timely fashion.

So I am working with industry, and with my colleagues in the Western Australian Government to make sure gas resources are developed and brought to market.

I note that the CCIWA is campaigning for Carbon Capture and Storage as a means to offset new gas developments and to help to decarbonise other hard to abate sectors. 

I am very happy to remind you yet again that I am and have long been a very strong supporter of CCS and trust in the science. 

To put it simply: 

We need to mobilise every tool at our disposal to get to net zero. 

In that context, we need CCS. 

I might also add that we need to show the public that CCS can work effectively. 

Industry simply must get runs on the board in that respect. 

I am happy to confirm to you today that the Government has now granted nine greenhouse gas storage assessment permits to companies that applied in last year’s acreage release. 

Those permits will support the development of new CCS projects in the Perth Basin, the Northern Carnarvon Basin, offshore in the Bonaparte Basin and in the Otway Basin offshore Victoria and Tasmania. 

So I warmly welcome CCIWA’s CCS report and look forward I look forward to ongoing engagement with the chamber and its members on the policy details.

But back to facts, and alternative facts. 

I am not going to get personal here but it is important to talk facts. 

Alternate facts are not facts. They are simply mistruths. 

In the coming weeks and months Peter Dutton and the Coalition will attempt to argue that they better understand the resources industry and would make better stewards of the resources industry if they were in government. 

That friends, is an alternative fact. 

Mr Dutton, his Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Michaelia Cash, and Shadow Minister for Resources, Senator Susan McDonald claim that all of the challenges facing the resources industry could be fixed through changes to industrial relations laws and by removing what they call red tape.  

This is false and they know it. 

The challenges presently facing our resources sector are complex. 

The health of our resources sector has always and always will be dependent on international markets. 

But these markets, particularly for critical minerals and rare earths, are opaque and subject to manipulation. 

We have seen clear examples of the results of this here in Western Australia in recent months, with very real results for workers who have lost their jobs. 

And when companies made tough decisions because of those market conditions, they were very clear about the cause. 

When BHP suspended operations at Nickel West in July, the company was explicit that the decision was a direct result of the economic challenges driven by a global oversupply of nickel. 

Likewise, when lithium producer Albemarle announced it would scale back operations at its Kemerton plant, the company said the decision had nothing to do with state or federal government policies in any way.

Despite these statements, the Opposition sought to make political mileage, blaming industrial relations laws and delays in approval times. 

As I say, these attacks from the Opposition deliberately ignore the facts about the significant challenges facing our resources industry. 

It is a juvenile response to a serious problem. 

Ignoring or distorting the facts will not help our resources industry. 

The Federal Coalition oppose Labor’s plan for production credits and have called the plan “welfare for billionaires”. 

I’d point out that as well as having the support of industry as I mentioned earlier, these incentives have the support the Western Australian State Government and – notably – the State Liberals and WA Nationals. 

State Opposition leader Shane Love says the incentives are critically important for the industry. 

Mr Love has also shot down any talk that this might somehow be welfare for billionaires. 

A couple of other matters. 

The Coalition are also claiming one of the biggest problems facing the resources sector is approval times. 

Again – a few facts. 

Environmental approvals are almost twice as ‘on time’ under Labor than the former Coalition Governments.

The Liberals and Nationals like to claim that approvals were easier to obtain under their government.

But the facts show that their cuts to the public service ground the approvals process to a halt, leaving industry in limbo.

Across the previous Liberal National Government, only 46% of decisions were made on time. Thanks to Labor’s commitment, 84% of decisions have been made on time.

And one last thing. 

I’m seeing a bit of hysteria about unions in the resources industry. 

Yes. We are a Labor Government. 

The Government’s bargaining reforms are working as intended – our reforms were designed to encourage employers back to the bargaining table. 

Working in the resources industry is difficult and often dangerous work. Workers can be away from family on swings for long periods. 

Bargaining can deliver better pay and conditions for workers and better productivity and flexibility for employers. 

And in WA at least, I suspect the huge demand for labour is having a far bigger impact on company HR departments that agreement bargaining. 

Conclusion

Resources have long underpinned the prosperity of Australia and are essential to our energy transition. 

Labor is determined that this remains the case long into the future. 

The Albanese Government is doing the work to ensure our resources industry is there to create the jobs we need and to power our economy for future generations. 

The road to net zero runs through WA’s resources sector, which is the foundation upon which we are building a future made in Australia.

Thank you.