I begin today by acknowledging that we meet on the land of the Larrakia people, the Traditional Custodians, and pay my respects to their Elders past and present.

I extend that respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, including those here today.

I also acknowledge Northern Territory Chief Minister the Hon. Lia Finocchiaro;

And my federal Parliamentary colleagues, Senator Nita Green, the Assistant Minister for Tourism, Northern Australia and Pacific Island Affairs;

And Luke Gosling, the local Member for Solomon and Special Envoy for Defence, Veterans' Affairs and Northern Australia.

Thank you to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) for organising this dialogue, and for the kind invitation to speak.

I was delighted to address the inaugural Darwin Dialogue back in 2023, and it’s wonderful to be back in this beautiful city at such a great time of the year.

Darwin is the logical place for this dialogue.

Darwin is close to many of our critical minerals deposits and is home to important energy hubs like the INPEX-led Ichthys LNG plant.

Darwin is also the closest of our capitals to our major trading partners in the Indo-Pacific.

As the minister responsible for Northern Australia, I know that a strong north means a strong nation.

The Albanese Government is always working to make Northern Australia even stronger.

As I said in the foreword to the Dialogue compendium, this year’s event comes at a critical time in world affairs.

This year’s theme, From Exposure to Endurance, goes to the issues that are front of mind for policy makers, industry and analysts in Australia and around the world.

The conflict in the Middle East, the blocking of the Straits of Hormuz and the subsequent disruption to global energy supplies, as well as other trade impediments like unilateral imposition of tariffs and unilateral bans on commodity exports, have all combined to make the world more uncertain.

The Northern Territory and Northern Australia are uniquely vulnerable to these disruptions.

And Darwin, more than any other Australian city, knows the importance of fuel security.

As a city far removed from all the other capitals (over 3,000km to Sydney; nearly equally distant from Perth and Adelaide at over 2,500 km), Darwin relies on strong transport links.

The trucks, trains and planes that service this great northern city all rely on steady supplies of affordable fuel.

Agriculture and mining are also heavily reliant on diesel supplies. And trucking goods to market over long distances needs diesel.

In fact, the resources sector accounts for 25 per cent of all diesel use in Australia.

But it is important to remember that the largest purchasers of diesel in this country, and indeed globally, such as BHP and Rio Tinto, have over decades developed their own diesel fuel supply connections and their own storage capacity, to ensure operations continue, without impeding the supply to the wider community.

In fact, these resources companies support local remote community fuel supplies, and more broadly, their exports support the economic prosperity of our country.

Today, there are clearly major geopolitical, economic, and technological shifts going on around us.

When it comes to critical minerals and rare earths, these changes have been seismic.

My discussions with trading partners about critical minerals and rare earths elements have moved in recent years from the sidelines to the centre of global leadership talks such as the G7.

The world is more alert than ever to vulnerabilities from potential disruption to the supply of critical minerals and rare earths.

In fact, I am not sure there is a collection of people in this country more aware of these vulnerabilities than you here tonight, at the ASPI Darwin Dialogue.

While in the current global climate, we are quite rightly focussed on supply chain disruptions for oil and gas – the truth is countries have been grappling with increasing disruptions to supplies of rare earths and critical minerals for some years.

The Albanese Government has stepped up, produced the policy, and backed that policy with the legislation and funding to ensure Australia is at the centre of global negotiations on the diversification of supply chains in these commodities so vital for our future prosperity and sovereign independence.

The conflict in Iran and across the Middle East, reinforces what we learned from the ripple effects of the war between Russia and Ukraine, and makes abundantly clear what perhaps should have been more obvious: that, despite vast distances, the world has become intimately interconnected by virtue of globalised trade, and those interconnections equate to interdependence.

And now more than ever, we know the task of ensuring the strength and resilience of supply chains is critical to our national security.

We cannot shrink from the globalised world that Australia has helped develop, and enjoyed great economic benefit from. Nor can we secure these all-important supply chains alone.

Working together with friends and partners is integral.

This Government understands the importance of maintaining Australia’s gold standard reputation for being a trusted and reliable supplier of resources to the region.

I cannot think of a time in recent memory where this hard-won reputation has been more significant to our ability to weather global disruption.

We have seen in recent weeks just how important that reputation is as the Prime Minister has travelled the region to secure supplies of petrol and diesel and fertiliser inputs for Australia.

The current reality is that global critical mineral supply chains remain heavily concentrated, particularly in refining and processing.

In relation to critical minerals and rare earths, the extraordinary and unprecedented concentration of refining and processing within a single producer nation leaves our economic resilience and defence industries vulnerable to supply chain disruption, foreign export controls and economic coercion.

When one country alone accounts for 70 per cent of global critical minerals refining, and around 91 per cent of rare earth separation and refining – that presents a very real global supply chain vulnerability.

That vulnerability is emphasised when countries use their dominance as a geopolitical tool, through the application of export controls and restrictions in the trade of critical minerals and rare earths.

And it is made worse by extending these restrictions to the know-how and machinery that other countries once used for processing. 

This exposure is further exacerbated in markets that are opaque and are shaped by state interventions, which are designed to prevent the development of a level playing field on which our critical minerals producers can compete fairly and grow.

Global demand for critical minerals will only continue to accelerate.

This will put pressure on supply chains as economies electrify, build out AI infrastructure, bolster sovereign defence capabilities, and seek out advantages in advanced manufacturing.

Clearly, Australia cannot face these strategic challenges alone.

International collaboration is essential to building a world-leading critical minerals sector that supports diverse and resilient global supply chains.

The Australian Government is working with major trading and strategic partners in this endeavour, including Japan, the United States, Canada, and the Republic of Korea.

And just this past week, the Trade Minister of France was in Australia seeking to extend France’s engagement with the Australian industry.

The patient capital and long-term investment by Japan in Lynas is an example to the rest of the world of what needs to be done when restraints on trade threaten domestic industry.

This gathering knows well how a territorial dispute in the East China Sea brought on the ban of rare earths exports from China to Japan in 2010, which in turn drove Japan to ensure it had alternative supplies – its own strategic reserve – by supporting the development of Lynas Rare Earths, in Western Australia and in Malaysia.

This partnership is now paying off at a time of global uncertainty.

The payoff for this investment is stability of supply.

Lynas is a great example of what can be achieved.

Japan is Lynas’ longest standing partner and has been supporting the project since 2011.

This has paved the way for critical minerals collaboration and co-investment between our countries.

Lynas is the second largest non-Chinese miner of rare earth elements, and the only producer of separated heavy rare earths outside of China.

The Northern Territory’s own Nolan’s Rare Earths Project is another example of how Australia can contribute to global supply for priority industries alongside the Republic of Korea, Germany, Canada, and the United States.

We are working with partners to tackle the challenges in critical minerals markets, such as unfair trade practices and price volatility.

Our goal is to provide the much-needed certainty the world needs to protect against market shocks and distortions.

Collective action, by the partners represented here, will help address the global vulnerabilities I discussed earlier.

It will also help us develop new and sustainable critical minerals pipelines essential to our shared economic prosperity.

Our collective action has a direct impact on the market and on the diversified market we are working to create.

Last year, I was present to witness the Prime Minister sign the landmark critical minerals framework with the US to accelerate development of secure supply chains for our respective industrial bases.

Under that Framework, Australia and the US committed to at least US $1 billion each in financing to critical minerals projects.

Just last week, I was delighted to announce we had beaten that target.

Together, we are delivering more than $5 billion of support to back Australian critical minerals projects under the Framework.

I will take every opportunity I have to remind people that Australia has committed $28 billion to this great national endeavour of building a critical minerals mining, refining and processing industry in this country.

It is very important that this assembled group of thought leaders in our community, brought together by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, are aware that this is the greatest contribution any government in Australia has made to the resources sector.

The Australian Government under the leadership of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is stepping up to take responsibility to lead on the development of critical minerals and rare earths globally.

We are backing in our commitment with policy and the dollars – and this is how we have ensured that Australia has a seat at every significant international discussion on the reliable supply of remarkable commodities that are the subject of such great demand, and such market interference.  

We have also strengthened oversight of our foreign investments and introduced world-leading new investment tools – such as the Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve – to drive critical minerals supply chain diversity and security.

The reserve builds Australia’s reliability as a durable supplier who can meet critical mineral demand needs for us, and our international partners.  

Australia approaches the challenges within critical mineral markets with a clear sense of responsibility.

We have a unique endowment of critical minerals – with a breadth, quality, and stability in access – not readily found elsewhere in the world.

This is why my government has made the commitments we have to critical minerals – to help drive diversity and security in supply.

Just as the development of Australia’s energy exports like gas and coal has delivered us the geostrategic relevance now so obviously vital in a disrupted world, pursuing a critical minerals and rare earths industry will ensure Australia’s ongoing importance to the region.

But again, this is not something we can do in isolation.

That is why dialogues like this matter.

By working together — across government, industry and borders — we can strengthen confidence in markets, reduce risk, and ensure critical minerals supply chains are resilient, diverse and fit for purpose.

Thank you for this opportunity, and please enjoy the rest of the evening.