SENATOR TIM AYRES, MINISTER FOR INDUSTRY AND INNOVATION AND MINISTER FOR SCIENCE: It’s great to be here with my good friend Madeleine King. We jointly administer the Department of Industry, Science and Resources. And this announcement today underscores why it’s so important that Australia’s resources strategy, our minerals processing strategy, our Future Made in Australia approach to making sure that we’re turning Australia’s resources into onshore value-add critical minerals to critical metals – it demonstrates why the work that we do together as ministers in this portfolio is just so important. 

We saw late last year when Madeleine and I travelled with the Prime Minister to the United States to sign the Critical Minerals Agreement between Australia and the United States just how important industrial policy and resources policy is in a world that is less secure, that requires supply chain security for critical minerals and for critical metals. 

Yesterday Prime Minister Carney was in the parliament together with senior ministers from Canada underscoring the very same point – middle powers working together to deliver not just supply chain security but mutual prosperity, particularly good blue-collar jobs, good engineering jobs in our outer suburbs and in Australia’s regions. 

And what this all demonstrates is just how important the work is that this Cooperative Research Centre will do, making sure that in Australia we have world-leading technology, world-leading processes to turn Australian critical minerals into the metals that the world’s industrial supply chains are demanding. This is very much not just a commercial enterprise and an investment enterprise – with our Future Made in Australia architecture, $22.7 billion focused on making sure that we’re creating investment capital into Australia’s regions – but it’s also a scientific and a research and development enterprise. 

And it is just so wonderful that the Critical Metals for Critical Industries Cooperative Research Centre will engage so many of Australia’s experts, institutions, researchers, scientists, prospective PhDs, postdoctoral fellows, trades people and engineers all together on this extraordinary national enterprise. 

This project I can announce today: $53 million contribution from the Cooperative Research Centre scheme, that is matched with $185 million from Australian partners, institutions and industries, Australians working together at the science and research end to deliver a practical outcome for Australia and Australians, strengthening our economy, improving our economic resilience and delivering blue-collar jobs, good engineering jobs, new investment in our industrial regions and in our outer suburbs. I couldn’t be prouder to announce this work. 

I can say as well that today, round 27 of the Cooperative Research Centre grants open up. And at the end of the year, early next year, round 28, which will be the Artificial Intelligence Accelerator round of the CRC program, will open as well, thus following through on the National AI Plan that I released just a few months ago. 

So, this is – the Cooperative Research Centre program is one of Australia’s premier science programs. It dates back to the 1980s. It’s delivered hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars into Australian research and development. And today’s announcement here at Geoscience Australia of the Critical Metals for Critical Industries Cooperative Research Program is another giant step forward for Australian science. 

I want to welcome my friend Madeleine King to the lectern. There’ll be a number of other speakers, and then we’ll take questions. Madeleine. 

MADELEINE KING, MINISTER FOR RESOURCES: Thanks very much, Tim. It is a delight to be here with you here at Geoscience Australia. As all the good people, the whole team at Geoscience Australia knows, this is one of my favourite places to be in Canberra. But I’ve been to many sites around the country that Geoscience hosts, and it’s one of the most remarkable institutions of the Australian people – it serves the Australian people and, of course, the future prosperity of Australians through the remarkable work they do in the pre-competitive exploration right around the country. And I was really honoured to be able to shepherd through the $3.4 billion Resourcing Australia’s Prosperity Program, which will set Australia up for a bright future in mining and metals, which leads me neatly to say how pleased I am to be here with you, Tim, and your team around the announcement of the CRC Critical Metals for Critical Industries. 

I used to be in the university sector and I know how important our CRCs are to ongoing science and research and development and also to turning it into practical applications. And for the work we are doing in the resources sector, driving the critical minerals and rare earths industry, developing that new knowledge in refining and processing of critical minerals it is of unparalleled importance. We have seen bans on the export of intellectual property and know-how and hardware around turning the minerals of Australia into the metals and oxides and components that we need for green energy purposes but also for defence technologies. And when we don’t have that know-how, we sit many steps behind. 

So, this CRC is going to be really important for making sure Australia has that independent knowledge of its own to drive these industries right here in Australia, working with, I think it’s [62] different organisations that will participate in this, it’s a really important step. 

As I am here at Geoscience Australia I do want to acknowledge our Chief Executive Melissa Harris, who’s done a magnificent body of work here, and to all the team at Geoscience. 

In critical minerals, obviously the government is working very hard to build up this industry through our Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve and the Critical Minerals Production Tax Incentive. Tim mentioned the really important work we are now doing with Canada, and I wanted to thank Prime Minister Carney for his words yesterday in the Australian Parliament. I was delighted to be at meetings with the Prime Minister – our Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, and Prime Minister Mark Carney – to discuss the importance of really solid partnership between our two great countries. 

As Prime Minister Carney said, Australia and Canada both have extraordinary extractive resource ecosystems. We are natural partners in critical minerals. We are both major resources producers. And so working together to make sure we can align our policies, whether it be on the reserves that we both have but also in the science and technology and the research we’ll bring to bear in processing as well as developing markets based on standards and values in relation to the processing of critical minerals and rare earths and those extractive industries. 

So, it was a delight to be there. We both understand the responsibility that comes with supplying these minerals to the world and to our friends and partners around the world. And we look forward to working with Canada to make sure we have sound ecosystems in not only extraction but also the refining and processing of critical minerals and rare earths. 

I thank the Canadian Government also for supporting Australia becoming a member of the G7 Production Alliance, a very, very significant step. It just demonstrates Australia’s position on the global stage of critical minerals and rare earths. We need to step up. We need to take responsibility for critical minerals and rare earths globally, and we’ll do so with our friends and partners and, really importantly, with Canada. 

With that, I believe I’m handing over to Paul Dalby, the Chief Executive of the Rozetta Institute, to talk a little bit more about the CRC. Thank you, Paul. 

PAUL DALBY, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF THE ROZETTA INSTITUTE: Thank you very much, ministers. And also thank you for Geoscience Australia for hosting us here today. My first time here to Geoscience Australia, and I’m looking forward to spending some quality time with the display outside. Very exciting for me. 

Our ministers have both identified that to leverage Australia’s critical minerals advantage, we really need to create cost competitive refining capability. We have all of the components needed in Australia to achieve that, and what has been missing really is a catalyst that brings everybody together into a strategic initiative that has the focus and the drive to solve these problems. 

The Critical Metals for Critical Industries CRC is that catalyst. It convenes the key industry players and leading universities in partnership with the Australian Government to flex their collective innovation muscle and develop the refining industries that require less energy, a lower cost and which are modular and also connected to the supply chains. 

The critical industries alluded to in the title of the CRC are the very industries that are crucial for success in the 21st century – batteries, electronics, robotics and defence. The Critical Metals for Critical Industries CRC has a vision of a commercially sustainable – very important – and sovereign critical metals capability in Australia that will secure these metals for Australian industry. 

The Rozetta Institute, which is a private not-for-profit, self-funded innovation accelerator, has invested in this CRC, with Mining3, because our mission is to invest in industry-led, applied research initiatives that solve systematic and systemic challenges facing Australia. This CRC is one of those initiatives. It is a coordinated effort to solve systemic challenges in the industry in terms of improving technological capability but also forming market alliances, building advance skills and successfully commercialising world-class research into world-class technologies and companies. 

I’m going to hand over to the Chair of the CRC, Jacqui Coombes, and I wish to pass on my heartfelt thanks to Jacqui and Neville who put in so much hard work in bringing the industry together with leading universities, and also thank the ministers and the department for their support, which is so critical for the success of this CRC. So, thank you very much. 

JACQUI COOMBES, CHAIR OF CMCI CRC: So thank you. I have the enormous pleasure of being able to thank other people for their hard work. And firstly, I’d like to thank Minister Ayres for your and the Commonwealth’s support of the CRC and for your continued commitment to the CRC program, which has clearly delivered both opportunity but also a space for us to bring communities together. 

Minister King, it’s so delightful to have you here. Coming from the resources industry, it’s always good to know that our resources sector is well supported. Minister, thank you very much for hosting us today. And I, like Paul, will spend some time with the collection rocks – beautiful colours, too. 

So, I would like to acknowledge the many organisations and individuals that have actually contributed to making this CRC come to life. Developing a proposal of this scale and spanning as many sectors and partners takes a lot of courage, it takes a lot of time and energy, and it also takes a shared belief that through collaboration we can do something meaningful. 

What is particularly encouraging about this CRC is the breadth of the partnerships. The collaboration spans the supply chain, from resources in the ground, to minerals processing and extraction and refining, through to the partners who actually rely on the metals to enable their industries, and to bring such a diverse range of partners together has taken an enormous amount of forethought, engagement and energy and a lot of travel for Neville. 

So, I’d like to especially acknowledge Dr Neville Plint, Mining3 and the broader team, who have spent so much energy, passion and time to bring the research partners together to develop the proposal. A true collaboration in the spirit of the CRC. 

I’d also like to acknowledge Dr Paul Dalby and the Rozetta Institute whose support and wisdom has been enduring and, importantly, has been CRC-shaping. So having that leadership and having that influence has been very important to the CRC. 

Now, programs like this matter not only for the research they undertake but for the relationships they build – the relationships between industry, between research organisations, between governments, between regulators and investors. And bringing those relationships together is what ultimately strengthens the capability and innovation in the long run. It’s the enduring impact. 

Australia has long been a trusted supplier of resources that the world depends on. The opportunity ahead is to build capability that turns that natural advantage into a long-term strategic national strength, and that is the journey that begins today. Thank you. 

AYRES: So, are there any questions for Madeleine and I or the CRC team on the program, first of all? 

JOURNALIST: I understand the centres will be based in Brisbane and Perth. Can you tell us the benefit of having those centres in the mining states? Maybe if Madeleine wants to speak about that? 

AYRES: Yeah, absolutely, thank you. I can almost hear Madeleine’s response to this. I think the – I guess the way to describe what is happening here is this is a national story. It is of national importance for our future national security and Australia’s role in the region and with our partners. But it’s also an outer suburban and an industrial regions story. 

If you look at states like Queensland, minerals capacity right around the state, but the north west province where the Albanese Government has just intervened into Mount Isa to secure that facility, absolutely critical that we maintain copper, a copper refining and smelter capacity here in Australia, but also the north west province should be the Silicon Valley of critical minerals processing for our future. In the Northern Territory, and the great state of Western Australia – there you go – in South Australia, too, you can see the – Peter Malinauskas, if I can just say, in the middle of an election now, but there is a Premier who has stood up not just for South Australia’s interests with interventions in Whyalla and at Port Pirie that have a critical minerals aspect to them. So, he has moved to work with the Albanese Government to secure those capabilities and to build, for example, antimony production for the future, but it’s also in our national interest that those things happen. 

So, there’s a national story here and a regional story here. I’ve laid it on thick about Western Australia, but I’m sure Madeleine can lay it on thicker. 

KING: You’ve come to the right place. Just to say, of course, the universities around the country participate in this. In Western Australia, I know it’s Curtin University. The university I used to study and work for was the University of Western Australia. And, of course, they’ve always been focused on resources just because that’s what the economy is based on. And the same goes for the University of Queensland and other universities in that state. 

I don’t want to leave out New South Wales here – I wouldn’t dream of it. But there are – Tim is right to say, the critical minerals story is a national story, and I think of Australia’s ASM, Australian Strategic Materials based in Dubbo, a really important rare earths deposit that attracted significant investment out of the United States because of the really very positive prospects of building the mine and processing facility there in Dubbo. And I visited it there myself in the last term. And then last week I was in Tasmania with Anne Urquhart, the Member for Braddon, visiting King Island, where we went to the tungsten mine there which is the highest-grade tungsten deposit in the western world. So, it is remarkably important in a place like Tasmania, which depends on the resources sector for well over half of its economic prosperity. 

So – and then in the Northern Territory, of course, we have the Arafura Rare Earths Nolans project, a remarkable deposit and a remarkable project that has significant investment from the Australian Government but also the Korean Government and the German Government. So, these are not only nationally significant projects that will all benefit from the CRC the minister is announcing today, but they are internationally significant as well. There is international excitement and investment in them. 

AYRES: Anything else for us? 

JOURNALIST: [Indistinct]. 

AYRES: Sure. Just for a change of pace. 

JOURNALIST: Minister Ayres, you mentioned the Future Made in Australia program, the Critical Minerals Production Tax Incentive is a big part of that. How much money has been released to date and are we starting to see money flow through to that? 

AYRES: So, the production tax incentives, the design is occurring this year. Funding will flow for projects when they commence. And that does mean – some of these projects take time to develop. Anticipate 2027, 2028, 2029 that those projects will come on stream. I announced Major Project Status, for example, yesterday, for Stellar PV. That will be producing silicon wafers near Townsville in Queensland. It’s an investment that will create hundreds and hundreds of blue-collar jobs in and around Townsville. It will secure, like many of these critical minerals and critical metals, it will secure Australian capability in whether it’s in renewable energy, in computer chips, in a whole range of applications, it will secure Australia’s future capability. 

So, on the production tax incentives and the production incentives, those will unroll as projects commence producing. It is payment on results. Like, this model, it is – there is room for grants and there is room for supports, but these incentives are payments on results to drag investment through. And it is the biggest pro-manufacturing package in Australia’s history. 

The National Reconstruction Fund has been investing, too, in Australian minerals and Australian metals. Just a few weeks ago, Alpha HPA in Gladstone; it will be the world’s largest high-purity aluminium plant, in Gladstone. It will employ hundreds of people permanently; it will employ hundreds of people in its construction. It will contribute to that overall aluminium capability that we have there, that ecosystem of Australian resources and Australian manufacturing businesses that make Central Queensland such an important part of our industrial landscape. 

JOURNALIST: There’s speculation in the mining sector about the fuel tax credits, or any potential tax changes coming in the budget. Can you rule out that there’ll be any new tax on the mining sector? 

AYRES: Well, all I can say is that there’s – you know, I haven’t seen any discussion around those issues. It’s not something that is government policy. We won’t be playing a rule in, rule out game in the lead-up to the budget, no matter how tempting on these kinds of questions that is. But the fuel tax credits are an important part of the mosaic of tax arrangements that surround the resources industry. The resources industry make a substantial contribution to the Commonwealth in tax terms. And I am focused on developing, with Madeleine, with Jim Chalmers the Treasurer, and with colleagues, the tax incentives that are going to drive investment in onshore production in Australia. That’s my focus. 

KING: I might say a few words about the Diesel Fuel Rebate. It’s really important everyone understands what that is about. So, mining companies and farmers as well, they build roads that only they use and the vehicles that travel on them are not registered, not able to travel on public roads. So, when they pay for their diesel, the reason they’re getting this rebate is because they built the road, only they use the road and the vehicles that are on the road can only go on that road. So, it does make sense. 

There’s some talk of this as the rebate continuing is a disincentive into green technology. But I have discussions with especially the large mining companies that obviously spend the most on diesel, and their investment in changing their rail technology to be electrified trains is enormous. But the challenge is also enormous. They’ve got to move many hundreds of tonnes of iron ore – it’s very dense, very heavy – across hundreds of kilometres in what we know as the world’s largest robots, you know, the trains that are kilometres long. So, it’s an immense challenge. But they’re up for it and they’re doing it right now. And what I want to do is really encourage them to do that. But seeking to make it harder for that industry to continue to operate – and it is the backbone of our economy – it’s something I would resist very strongly whilst encouraging them to make sure they invest in green technology, which they are doing. 

JOURNALIST: Mark Carney talked about being collaborators, not competitors. 

AYRES: Yeah. 

JOURNALIST: Can you give a bit of an update on talks with Canada, even where we’re at with the United States critical minerals piece. 

AYRES: I think we’ll both, you know, want to contribute on this. 

KING: Sure. 

AYRES: I mean, one of the things about this set of issues is it does engage both the resources portfolio and the industry portfolio just so densely together. And that means that whether it’s discussions with Prime Minister Carney yesterday, or the discussions with our American partners late last year, Madeleine and I are as thick as thieves on these questions, because it’s in the national interest that we are. 

It’s in the national interest that Australians in the science and research community are working together closely with industry, as they are in this CRC, and that’s an opportunity to mobilise Australia, Australians and Australian institutions together in this giant national endeavour that’s going to reshape the future economy. It will make us more resilient. It will produce extraordinary new technologies that have spillover benefits for our whole society, it will create jobs for girls and boys who are at school now, thinking about what kind of role they want to play in a future Australia. 

And that’s the kind of aspiration that our partners in Canada have, too. To give you an example, the lithium market. Obviously it’s concentrated – processing in lithium is concentrated in one economy. We don’t think that’s in our interests or the interests of our partners, and that means building capability here in Australia. As Prime Minister Carney said yesterday, a third of the world’s lithium resources exists between Australia – in Australia and Canada. So, we can bring scale together. 

If we simply make this a competitive endeavour, then we will lose the benefits of scale. And that does mean deepening collaboration, having confidence about the market that there is for lithium products, whether it’s in batteries or in other applications, and doing things like the National Reconstruction Fund’s investment in Liontown, which crowded in hundreds of millions of dollars of investment in that facility and allowed them to extend their production capability. 

There are many other examples of that kind of investment from the Albanese Government through our broader Future Made in Australia ambitions to crowd in more investment. Madeleine and I’s trip to the United States late last year – immediately following from that was $8.5 billion worth of investment in specific projects – gallium projects in Western Australia in partnership with aluminium processing; direct investment from our overseas partners in other projects around the country that will make a real difference and shift the dial. 

I’m really encouraged by Prime Minister Carney’s approach to these questions and the approach of his senior ministers. We have got a lot of work to do now to deepen that collaboration, including through this CRC and its international engagement. 

KING: Yeah, the collaboration between Australia and many other countries is really important. And after Tim and I and the Prime Minister were in the White House with the President and his senior members of his cabinet, that was a really important moment. The $8 billion that is flowing from that, and there’s a framework agreement itself, the work we are doing with the US EXIM Bank is really vital. And, indeed, after that meeting I then represented Australia at the G7+ critical minerals meeting in Toronto, more recently in February back in Washington D.C. with the critical minerals ministerial that Secretary Rubio brought together. 

Now, all these meetings are really important, and the United States are very determined to build out a new market and supply chain for critical minerals and rare earths, and we will be a part of that. But we can be a part of it with our friends in Canada as well. And the thing Canada and Australia have that is different to most of the rest of the world is extractive production capacity, which is based on our geology, our respective geologies. 

So, working with the Canadians on that and the skills we have and the ecosystem and the standards we have in the traditional commodities is really an extraordinarily important base on which we build the critical minerals extraction then moving to the processing and refining, which is where the industrial portfolio comes into this. But as Tim said, we work together as ministers here to make sure that it’s a really cohesive train, so it works from start to finish as best we can but also replicate that with other nations as well. 

You know, I’ve been meeting with my counterpart, you know, Minister Tim Hodgson, who is the Minister for Natural Resources in Canada. I can tell you the time differences between Toronto and here are extraordinary and nearly unmanageable. But we manage it. Obviously with flight times is also awful, but it’s always a delight to go to Canada, and it was such a delight to have the Canadians here this week to reiterate and really get behind our collaborative efforts in this area. 

JOURNALIST: Just a final one, do Australians have a right to know our level of assistance and cooperation with the Americans and the Israelis in their conflict with Iran? There are questions about whether Australian submariners were on the American submarine that sunk an Iranian ship and which planes are based here. I know you have an interest in the AUKUS project. Do we have a right to know what that level of cooperation we’re giving? 

KING: Yeah, I think every Australian has an interest in the AUKUS project. The matter of the submarine; this is a third-country deployment issue. As I think everyone would understand, everyone here, Australians watching at home, these are important national security issues, and we won’t go into details on them. 

AYRES: Thank you.