Well, Milton, thank you, very much. And thank you – I think the speaking order has been changed due to the fact that the Senate is in a volatile position today, so I may be required to run over there. I’m very grateful for that video. If it assists in feedback, the message is very clear. And we share the sense of urgency and the questions of substance that sit behind what is happening.

Now, I want to acknowledge Bob Katter as the local member for Mount Isa and Robbie Katter who, too, is the local state member, Madeleine King as the Minister for Resources, all of the people who are here from local government, the trade unions who represent these workers and the Australian Workers Union and the Australian Manufacturing Workers, union, and all of my parliamentary colleagues.

It was absolutely clear to me from the very first time, before the election, that I met with representatives of the community here that this region – I remember as a schoolkid, even in north west New South Wales, that we understood the value of Mount Isa for Australia. We understood the place that it holds in Australia’s industrial and mining and political and cultural history. It’s foundational for regional Australia and outback Australia. It’s foundational for the future, our economy, as the globe changes its industrial processes, engages new technologies – copper and zinc and critical minerals are absolutely foundational as the global economy changes and the industrial processes of our partner economies change.

It is an area rich in future mineral resources. It should be the Silicon Valley of critical minerals and mineral resources. Mount Isa Mines has been there for more than a century – more than a century. And I won’t bore you, who know more than me, about the history of Mount Isa Mines. It has been a very profitable, productive enterprise and it has a profitable and productive future, and we have a series of challenges that are very difficult indeed.

I just want to underscore for this group what you already know: the outcome here is uncertain. If we are going to land a future for this facility and a future for this region it is going to require all of us. You know, we see this sort of language about bailouts and, you know, subsidies. Well, the Commonwealth is there at the table. I am really grateful for the approach that the Queensland Government has taken as well working in lockstep with us carefully with the owners.

I want to see all of the supply chain – I know, I’m confident that the unions and the community will be there, the miners. And I want to see a contribution from the owners as well to making sure not just that there is the investment in this facility that is required, but also the decisions that are required every day to make this facility productive and efficient and capable are being made. And there’s no point – there is no point – pointing fingers. There is no point engaging in a sort of blame-shifting exercise. The only way we get to an exit here is if we do it together.

This facility is facing challenging circumstances. There are a range of other facilities around the country. But they all have a different set of challenges. Some of them challenges in terms of their energy markets. Some of them face challenges in terms of the markets that they’re selling into. They all face the challenge of overcapacity and subsidisation in a series of other economies as well, and a response to the global trading environment becomes more volatile. That’s the challenge that, as Australians, we have to meet together. The outcome is uncertain, let’s all of us just recommit here in the Parliament of Australia to doing the right thing by Mt Isa, the right thing by northwest Queensland, the right thing by Queensland and Australia. Thank you very much.

And having said that – just forgive me if I have to bolt when the bells ring; a number of my Senate colleagues who I acknowledged before will have to do the bulk as well – I’d like to welcome my friend and partner in this endeavour, Madeleine King, the Minister for Resources and the Minister for Northern Australia.