MINISTER MADELEINE KING: So thanks everyone for coming along today. It’s wonderful for me to be here in Washington DC. It’s my fourth visit here as the Resources Minister for Australia, and a really interesting time to be here with the CSIS discussions happening just across the road from the embassy, talking about the critical minerals and the challenges the world faces to have diversified supply chains. As you all know, I was here last October with the Prime Minister signing the Critical Minerals Framework with the United States in the Cabinet Office of the White House. We have progressed much, certainly in Australia working on the Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve which is a $1.2 billion commitment to ensure that Australia has the reserves of the critical minerals and rare earths that it needs for its purposes, but also to work with our partners around the world to make sure they have the necessary ingredients for the technology we need, whether that be the modern technology we see around us every day or defence technologies as well.

As part of my visit this week, we are also releasing Australia’s critical minerals prospectus, which sets out a list of investment-ready projects – 49 mines and 29 midstream projects that are all looking for further investment internationally. And as everyone knows, Australia’s resources industry is always dependent on international investment to come into these projects to make them more able to commence and then to go on and produce the rare earths and critical minerals we need. It is my view that Australia has a great obligation because of our geology to lead on critical minerals and rare earths globally. The Australian Government has stepped up to this responsibility through a combined investment of $28 billion into this industry. Now we stand at a moment where the United States has made certain announcements around its commitment to developing a critical minerals and rare earths industry and the Australian Government stands here ready to work with the US and our other partners to develop this industry in our national interest, but also in the interests of partners around the world. With that, I’m really happy to take some questions.

JOURNALIST: Minister, Australia and the US have obviously been in talks about critical minerals for a long time and look to be taking a leadership role, particularly around questions on supply. What’s your message to the allies who are here, particularly European nations, on what they need to be doing on the demand side?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Yeah. Well, we have been working and talking with a great many nations around this exact question – on the demand side. It is important that other countries that have examined their supply chains that go into their manufacturing industries and have a look at how diversified they want it. We would say that a diversified supply chain is a good thing. It provides more competition. It also provides for less vulnerability for those manufacturers. So to those countries, I would hope that they encourage their manufacturing industry to look to invest in those alternative supply chains. Australia is a natural competitor in this space. We are a fair way behind and we have to work hard to catch up to our competitor in China, and we’re determined to do that. But we will need international partners to help us with that.

JOURNALIST: Should they do more than just encourage those manufacturers to look at alternative supply chains? Are there like, policies they could put around forcing them to consider other sources of supplies?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: There are certainly policies around encouraging corporate entities to look at those diversified supply chains. It’s – often countries look to their security needs around why it would be wise to lessen that vulnerability. And I imagine they’re doing exactly that. We also have a different set of standards too, of course, in Australia, and we find that consumers are looking deeper into the production lines of particular products, and that will be an important factor as well.

JOURNALIST: Minister, you mentioned catching up with China. To what extent do you think that America’s drive for this now is about trying to catch up with China?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, I think we all are. The truth is – and, you know, you must acknowledge and recognise China has invested a lot of research, a lot of money, a lot of capital into developing a rare earths and critical minerals industry decades ago whilst the – you know, practically the Western World outsourced mining and minerals processing. What we have seen in recent times is that with the pandemic that you do have issues when there’s only one supplier of something. I think that came to very great focus for Australia and other countries around the world during the pandemic. So, my view is that Australia needs to compete, and we should compete because we have the geology. We have these extraordinary reserves of critical minerals and rare earths, and many mining companies and exploration companies have been working on trying to compete. But as the market is so dominated by China, they are unable to. And so this is why governments have to step in and step up, make sure we can compete globally. And that’s what we intend to do with the US, with other partners that have already started this. Japan is an excellent example.

JOURNALIST: Minister, how long do you think it will be before we get some dollar figures around what the US equity investment will be in the gallium project and also some of the other projects they’ve expressed interest in?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Yeah, we keep in great – in close contact with EXIM  - the US export-import bank – who is providing that funding and those commitments into the Alcoa-Sojitz Gallium Project. I hope we have clarity around that soon, and as soon as we do, we’ll let you know.

JOURNALIST: What’s Australia’s position going into tomorrow on the price floors within the so-called club of nations, as they’re called. And is it your understanding the Americans now seem okay with this, right?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: With price floors? Well, as you know, the American – the US administration has already invested in one very significant price floor with MP Materials, and that was a game changer, there’s no doubt, for the industry and it sent signals right around the world which are very important. Australia’s view is we are building a pricing mechanism within the Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve, so that will grant – we will work to make sure Export Finance Australia has the right financial tools to be able to introduce price floors. And that may be through offtake agreements, for instance. And the reason for it is we need to be able to set a price that makes projects competitive and, quite frankly, investable. And the government has that financial backing that provides the heft at the start of a project and then as that investment comes in, which we expect it will, as it has with MP, the government can then move out of that space.

JOURNALIST: And for a lot of Australians who keep hearing terms like rare earths and critical minerals, could you explain exactly what they are and why Australia has an advantage in this?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, critical minerals and – well, there are 31 critical minerals on Australia’s critical minerals list. Rare earths is a subset of that. Critical minerals are identified as mineral resources that are subject to scarcity, challenges in the supply chain, difficult to extract and then their ultimate commodity (is) difficult to process. Also products that are subject to international market manipulation. And rare earths sit at the top end of all those factors, and they are – they’re actually quite bountiful around the world – they’re just really hard to find in the concentrated ore bodies that make them viable to extract. Australia fortunately does have those – Mount Weld is a great example, and there are other examples right around the country. The Iluka stockpile is one of the more remarkable heavy rare earths – it’s not a deposit; it’s a stockpile from waste from many, many years ago. So they are important because they go into everyday items, as we know – our mobile phones, laptops, motor vehicles, electric or otherwise, all manner of things. But they also – and it’s important to note – go into the most advanced military technologies. So there’s – in fighter jets there’s something like 400 kilograms of rare earths. In the submarines that we’re building for AUKUS there’s something like 4 tonnes. So these commodities will be necessary for the long-term national security interests of our country and others.

JOURNALIST: And with the 55 or so countries attending this conference here, where does Australia sit in terms of our richness of critical minerals and what we have to offer to the United States?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: We’re at the top of that list in terms of just our deposits. The most identified through our Geoscience Australia programs and private exploration as well. So we have – of all the ingredients that go into clean energy technologies but also defence technologies, Australia has the greatest collection of those resources in one place. That one place is vast, obviously, being the continent, so it has got its own challenges, I do admit. But that’s what puts us in a very good place. But not only the deposits; it’s the fact that we have a very mature resources industry that has been built up over many decades within the traditional resources capacity of the country, through historic iron ore and coal extraction and gold, of course, as well as many other things. That all lends itself to being in the perfect place to work with the United States and other countries to lead on critical minerals globally. And that is something that the Albanese Labor Government is determined to pursue and, indeed, we have been pursuing since coming into government.

JOURNALIST: If [indistinct] government were successful in creating this new market for critical minerals that’s outside of Beijing’s supplies, it seems that those minerals are going to come at a high price because that’s what’s needed to get these new plants off the ground. And so will that ultimately mean higher prices for the end consumers, so people like people buying smartphones or buying weapons and defence tech?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Yeah, it goes straight to your point, the point really of the question is – and to something that was raised earlier, how do you motivate a manufacturer to produce something that’s more expensive when the consumer ultimately would pay the price, yes. So that is the nub of the problem, I think. So that’s why price floors come in where the government can set a pricing mechanism which does inflate the value of the market but then all boats rise on that tide. So it – we expect then – as that market increases more will be built using products from that market. It will be difficult at times across what’s accessible to the consumer. To be honest, most of these right now, and through our Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve, they are focused on elements that go into defence materials. So it’s a quite defined area as opposed to, say, lithium that goes into car batteries for motor vehicles. Until large motor manufacturers decide that they’re going to change who they buy lithium hydroxide and other metals from, the price probably won’t change for consumers. Also the materials in the phones are more like silica, so they’re quite bountiful, so they don’t need the price floor. It’s really the high end stuff that will need it that’s really difficult to obtain. So I don’t think that – mines are pretty expensive, right? So I don’t think that will change.

JOURNALIST: Do you think Australia should join up with Donald Trump’s Board of Peace?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: The Foreign Minister and the Prime Minister have addressed the questions on the Board of Peace.

JOURNALIST: Well, let me try it in a different way then. I mean, under a Donald Trump-led Board of Peace is going to be particularly interested in conflicts where there are resources and critical minerals involved. We’ve already seen that. Do you think there would be an advantage to Australia in being involved in that?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: I would say again that the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister have addressed the questions around the Board of Peace. We are working with the United States all the time on ensuring that there is peace and stability in our region. Having secure supply chains is part of that. As you can imagine, it requires careful consideration, so, again, I’ll refer back to the comments of the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister.

JOURNALIST: [Indistinct]

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: My view is that I will leave that response as I have already said.

JOURNALIST: One other issue in your patch at home is the debate around the fuel tax credits. Would you commit to keeping them as they are for this term of parliament or, you know, is there discussions there that you’re open to changes?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: I’m not open to changes, no. And I’ve said there is no intention to change the fuel tax credit scheme for the reasons I’ve stated, which I’m happy to go through. This is about – it’s not a subsidy for fossil fuels, no matter what some institutions might want to tell people. It is a scheme where companies, whether they be agricultural companies or individual tourist operators, fisheries and miners, get a rebate of the fuel excise because they don’t use those machines on public roads that the full tax pays for.