MIM HOOK, HOST: Senator Tim Ayres, Federal Minister for Industry and Innovation, welcome to Gippsland. Thank you for speaking to us.

SENATOR TIM AYRES, MINISTER FOR INDUSTRY AND INNOVATION AND MINISTER FOR SCIENCE: Oh, g’day, Mim. It’s really good to be on the show.

HOST: What is Major Project Status? How much teeth does this actually have, or is it – how much does it mean?

AYRES: That’s a good question. What it means is, it’s a priority project for the Federal Government. It means that it will get some support from my department, making sure that it can make its way through all of the approval processes, get support from the various bits of government that provide support. This is a project that – 400 jobs in construction, 260 jobs or thereabouts in ongoing minerals processing and other ongoing jobs. So, it’s important. It’s got real economic value. And, of course, as critical minerals and rare earths become increasingly important in modern industrial economies, it’s got real strategic value as well.

HOST: Now, does this mean that this project at Glenaladale is definitely going ahead?

AYRES: It doesn’t mean that it gets any environmental shortcuts. It has to go through those processes, like any project – a mining project, a forestry, agriculture –

HOST: But it will go through them faster? It will happen faster, those processes?

AYRES: Look, we want to get with these kinds of projects to a fast yes or a fast no. That’s the principle here. The reforms that the Albanese Government made to the EPBC Act, our Federal Government environmental regulations, are designed to achieve that objective so that project proponents know that they’ll get to a yes, so that projects can begin; but also, if a project is deficient in some way, it gets to a fast no, and people can get on with their lives. Every single one of these projects, you know, in an area like Gippsland, which has great environmental value and has always been – whether it’s the forestry industry, agriculture, mining, or other parts of industry – there’s always going to be some interaction between the activity that people do and the environment. That’s what the state and commonwealth environmental regulation is there to deal with. There’s no shortcuts for this project. But Major Project Status means that we are elevating it as a project of national importance.  

HOST: There are areas in Australia that don’t – aren’t as populated, don’t have as much agriculture happening. There are vegetable farms near this area, and it’s literally in people’s backyards. People have farms, family farms, that they look out and their vista is across to where this mining site is. Would you be happy to look over your back fence – I have no idea where you live, Tim – and see a mine? Would you be concerned about dust for your family?

AYRES: I think in inner-city Sydney, people would be confronted to see a mine arrive there. It’s not possible. But I grew up in the bush. I grew up in a country town, and I grew up in my early life on a farm. I understand what those environmental and agricultural and cultural values are that are attached to living in areas like the ones that your listeners live in. But there’s economic activity, there’s resources there. The balance has to be struck. That’s what the environmental law is designed to achieve. Those approval processes will deal with those questions. It’s very common for not everybody to be happy with the outcomes of those assessments, but they will be done properly.

And I just remind you that in an area that needs economic development, that needs growth, in a country where critical minerals are a very important part of our economic future, in a world where these minerals have real strategic value to make sure that Australia is in a safer and stronger and more prosperous position, these kinds of projects are priorities for the Albanese Government. We’re for mining and resources and more manufacturing onshore. We want to see more manufacturing jobs, more value-add, re-industrialising our economy. But these projects have to meet their environmental approvals.

HOST: Is it a bit of a furphy this – we call them rare earth minerals, critical minerals? I was speaking to a geologist who said they’re not that rare. Is that a bit of jargon by the industry to make them feel more valuable and like we can only get them from certain places? But surely there’s other places we could mine for these, not near vegetable farmers?

AYRES: Well, they are hard to extract, hard to process, and it’s where there is a coincidence of different minerals being provided, being available in particular concentrations, that leads to interest from these kinds of projects. So this project – if it reaches approval, if it’s built, if it commences production – will not just employ 262 people locally but will also contribute a very large part of the world’s ex-China rare earths production. That is significant for information technology, for clean energy projects; these magnets that are made from these substances are critical for those, for defence purposes and new technology areas. These are rare and critical minerals, and that’s why the Albanese Government is so invested in making sure we’re not just digging them up and shipping them offshore, but that we’re processing them here in Australia. Our environmental regulations –

HOST: So they’ll be processed at the site as well? This is – the site at Glenaladale?

AYRES: This is a mining and production facility. That’s why there’s so many jobs associated with the project.

HOST: Senator Tim Ayres, Federal Minister for Industry and Innovation, on ABC Gippsland, talking about the Federal Government granting Gippsland Critical Minerals, the project that’s proposed for near Glenaladale, Major Project Status.

Tim, you’ve said this means it speeds up the process to either a faster yes or a faster no for the project. I imagine people in the area who are – there’s a big group of people who are very anti this project, a grassroots community group – are feeling pretty nervous right now. Will you meet with local community? Will anyone from the Federal Government come down and have a conversation?

AYRES: Well, I’d be delighted to talk with people about this project. But just let me stress one element. I just want to be very precise: Major Project Status means that there’s facilitation from the Commonwealth making sure that the project proponents find the support that they need from the various agencies. It does not mean any shortcuts on environmental approvals. Largely, they will rest at the state level. The project will need to go through all of those steps. And I make the point about a faster yes or no as a principle of environmental law regulation. That’s why we made the changes: to provide not just a new EPA, the first time Australia has ever had an Environment Protection Authority, an agency at the Commonwealth level, but also so that projects like this make their way through the system more quickly, and you get a faster yes or a faster no. That’s better for communities, it’s better for jobs, it’s better for project proponents, and it’s better for the environment.  

HOST: Three of the main concerns we hear from people who live in that area for the proposed mineral sands mine in the Glenaladale area – this is kind of near Lindenow, it’s near the Mitchell River – three of the major concerns are dust, water – the usage of water and also potential contamination of water. People love the Mitchell River, it leads into the Gippsland Lakes. And then the third one is rehabilitation. We here in Gippsland, well, most people have driven past Hazelwood. We know that Yallourn is next to close, and then there’s that big gaping hole there. Rehabilitation is something we see a lack of and have talked about for a long time. How can you guarantee that even if your Federal Government is unelected at an election coming up – this mine will go for at least a couple of decades, I believe – or the companies that are currently running the mine sell to other companies, how do we guarantee that whoever is in charge of any level of government or the mining companies, they have to rehabilitate to a standard that community are absolutely happy with and that community have a voice in that rehabilitation and that it is definitely going to happen?

AYRES: Well, these are the kinds of issues that are always engaged in every mining project around Australia. I spent a lot of my working life in the Hunter Valley, where agriculture and mining co-exist and compete for land and resources. And those questions of rehabilitation must be dealt with in the project approval process, are largely dealt with, of course, at the state level, and, of course, require binding commitments that go – that’s why you need stable environmental regulation that goes beyond the lives of governments. This project, as you say, will have decades in it. And that means stable environmental regulation that captures future owners or future developments.

And I think many of your listeners will, you know, look around the world and see some of these projects overseas where there are weaker environmental protections. And some of these projects overseas are very confronting and are horrifying. One of Australia’s advantages here – my strong view is that our advantages are having strong environmental laws and strong environmental protections, which means we are producing for the world cleaner product that has strong ESG principles sitting behind it. And that means that for customers, they can be confident that the Australian product is clean and green and has those kinds of values attached to it. Don’t forget, though, in the end: 400 jobs in construction, temporary jobs, but then 260 good-quality blue-collar and engineering jobs. A very important outcome from a project like this, and I’m –

HOST: Hopefully for locals, there’ll be caveats on that –

AYRES: That’s right. I’ll be sure – not just jobs for locals, but opportunities for local firms in the ongoing support of this business. Not just in construction, but over the life of the whole project over decades, I want to see – one of the principles of the Albanese Government’s Future Made in Australia agenda is that community benefit. Making sure that local communities benefit: apprenticeships for their kids, engineering cadetship opportunities, and opportunities for contractors and supply chains and local firms.

HOST: Tim, thank you for your time today. Senator Tim Ayres, Federal Minister for Industry and Innovation on ABC Gippsland.