Press conference, Muswellbrook, NSW

LIZ SCOTT-IRVING, BHP NSWEC VICE-PRESIDENT: All right. Well, hi everyone and welcome. My name's Liz Scott-Irving. I'm the VP of New South Wales Energy Coal. Really excited to have everybody here today for this exciting announcement. Before I begin, I'd like to just acknowledge the lands of the Wannarua people upon whose lands that we’re meeting on today, and pay my respects to Elders, past and present. So, you know, Mt Arthur Coal Mine and the mining and the open cut mining that has been underway here has been, you know, underway since the 1960s, and in more recent times with BHP in the last 24 years. So today presents a unique opportunity for us to start to think about the future as we start to think about what could be left as a legacy from mining in the Hunter Valley. So, with that, we know that the collaborative effort of government, all levels of government, and ourselves as well as the community coming together. This announcement today is the first step to realising that as an outcome for our future. So with that, I would like to hand over to Clayton.

CLAYTON BARR MP, MEMBER FOR CESSNOCK: I am very, very excited to be here. I'll travel anywhere to talk about the creation of new jobs, and I'm so happy to be to be joined by my colleagues, of course, Federal Senator and Minister Tim Ayres. We've got Paul Scully, the Minister for Planning in New South Wales. We've got Yasmin Catley, the Minister for Police, but more importantly, the Minister for Hunter. Jeff Drayton, the mayor of Muswellbrook, and we've got Tony Farrell representing Lake Macquarie City Council, who are also going to benefit from these incredibly important announcements and arrangements that are being formalised. The creation of jobs is absolutely what the New South Wales Government is all about, and I've been fortunate enough over the past couple of weeks and months to be landing in a number of destinations across New South Wales, where the New South Wales Government is talking about creating jobs. It's all about jobs. It's all about the future. It's all about families being able to put a roof over their head, food on the table, and make a life for themselves. And that's what's really important here. So I'm going to hand over to the Mayor of Muswellbrook, Jeff Drayton, to give you a bit more detail about this particular site, and then we're going to hear from the various ministers.

MAYOR JEFF DRAYTON, MAYOR OF MUSWELLBROOK SHIRE COUNCIL: Thanks, Clayton. What you have seen today, is an example of what it takes and what it will take to create jobs and to replace jobs from you know what we all know is ahead of us in a few years’ time. Local government, state government, and federal government working together, along with obviously a willing partner in BHP, who of course none of this could have happened without yeah without, BHP's willingness to work with all those levels of government. And I think it shows how important it is, how critical it is for all those levels of government to work together to make sure this happens. So I'll now hand over to Minister Scully, the very person who I visited in his Sydney office on the day that this all began. Only a short time ago, some 12 months ago. So there's been an awful lot of work done in what is quite a short period of time. But certainly, I thank Minister Scully for that, and I'll hand over to him now.

PAUL SCULLY MP, MINISTER FOR PLANNING AND PUBLIC SPACES: He came with a compelling offer for the Hunter, though. This is a fantastic day for the future of jobs in the Hunter. Today we're putting on public exhibition two rezoning proposals and two draft master plans. One for the site here at Mt Arthur, the other for the Macquarie Coal Complex at Wallsend, and turning those post-mining land use environments into a jobs environment for the future. Making sure there's capacity there for around 7,000 jobs in the future of the Hunter.

These are massive sites, but these are massive opportunities for jobs and investment in the Hunter region for the future. Previously, under mining arrangements, there was a situation where rehabilitation requirements said that you had to rip everything out, and hopefully one day someone might want to start again. We're saying we can do better than that. We can still maintain rehabilitation requirements, and this is not about letting anyone off that requirement. But we're saying that there's a lot of great assets, as you can see behind us, that could be repurposed for future jobs growth. Whether that's in in manufacturing, whether that's in renewable energy production, in data centres, in renewable energy generation itself.

We're putting these documents on public exhibition between now and the 11th of August, asking for people to have their say on the plans. We think this is a really good and sensible way of maintaining and attracting investment into the Hunter for the long term.

You've seen the Minns Government recently announced that we're bringing train manufacturing back to the Hunter. The refurbishment of Tangara’s at Cardiff, the production of a new rolling stock either at Broadmeadow or at Wallsend there into the future. Years and years of jobs ahead of it, but there's great opportunities on every mine and power site in the Hunter to create jobs into the future. That's why this rezoning proposal is so important.

So here at Mt Arthur, we'll look at doing two stages, doing the preparation while the mine continues to operate to make sure that it's as seamless as possible a transfer of one job, a set of jobs, into another, at West Wallsend at the Macquarie Coal Complex, a similar process where we've got the opportunity to rezone areas for industrial use into the future, making sure there is a jobs future in that region.

I'm from the Illawarra, and I've just gone through the process of doing a similar sort of process in and around BlueScope Steel, freeing up 200 hectares of industrial land there, because the Minns Government understands that part of our jobs future is making sure that we have service and available industrial land ready to go. This is about doing the work in parallel to prepare the Hunter for the future, making sure that's as seamless as possible. But there's thousands and thousands of jobs for decades to come.

I’d like to acknowledge the work of not only the Department of Planning, but also the two councils in Lake Macquarie and Muswellbrook, as also the mining operators in BHP and Glencore, but also Emily Suvall in the chairing of these arrangements. All of these people have come together to do a really, really rapid fire job here, recognising the significance and the importance of these sites, and recognising the significance and the importance of the opportunity to the Hunter.

Also, I'd like to acknowledge the fact that funding for this $5 million came from the Federal Government, and Minister Ayres is here with us today to kick these two pilot sites off.

This is going to provide us a whole heap of detail about what we can do on other sites into the future, and already there's discussions between AGL, Origin, Bays[water], Liddell, and Eraring for their future, planning their future while they continue to operate. And I'll hand over to Minister Ayres to make some comments.

SENATOR TIM AYRES, MINISTER FOR INDUSTRY AND INNOVATION AND MINISTER FOR SCIENCE: Well, g'day! It has been quite a week for the Hunter Valley and for jobs in New South Wales. We've seen an announcement from the Minns Government, $12 billion investment in rail manufacturing, the opening of a food manufacturing precinct on the Central Coast that will support jobs across the whole region, the Lockheed Martin Air Power Facility at Williamtown Airport that will generate hundreds of high-quality manufacturing jobs, the announcement over the course of the week that the Minns Government and Albanese Government will be working in lockstep together to secure the future of the Tomago Aluminium facility and all of the investment in new generation and new power capacity for New South Wales that that will involve, and today here at Mt Arthur in Muswellbrook to announce this important set of projects out for public consultation.

It means that this giant mine, as it closes in 2030, all of the rehabilitation work that must go on will be accompanied by a plan for industrial jobs in an industrial park, good new blue-collar jobs here in Muswellbrook and down in the valley at West Wallsend, the same process, and what this has required is every part of government working together in a shared effort. Advocacy from local mayors like Jeff Drayton, the Mayor of Muswellbrook here, who's championed this project. Hard work from the New South Wales Government, New South Wales planning officials in particular have been working hard at this commitment and support from the Albanese Government, that has the biggest pro-manufacturing policy platform of any government in Australian history, and also the team from BHP, who I want to acknowledge, really useful work this morning, but the months and months and years and years of work that's gone into making sure that this project can happen.

There is so much work ahead of us. It is not job done. So much work ahead of us to secure every new factory, every new investment in the Hunter Valley, but this is a region of Australia that has been the beating heart of Australia's energy system and its industrial system. The Albanese Government and the Minns Government and local government working together to make sure we're delivering manufacturing jobs in the future. As you can see, very excited to be here. There's a lot more work to do. Thank you.

YASMIN CATLEY MP, MINISTER FOR POLICE AND COUNTER-TERRORISM, MINISTER FOR THE HUNTER: Thanks very much, Tim. The Hunter region is the powerhouse of economic success in New South Wales, and we're going to make sure that nothing changes. It's decisions like this that sets up the framework for the Hunter going forward. We came to government just a bit over three years ago, and we would not accept the status quo. It was through imagination, through hard work, through commitment, through three levels of government working hand in hand, that enabled a decision that has been made that sees the success of today.

Master planning what we know will be the industrial success of this region, therefore ensuring that the Hunter remains the economic powerhouse of this state. This will create jobs in our region and ensure that our communities, right through the Hunter, are successful, That they flourish. That is what we envisage, and that is what we imagine for these communities. And it's no longer just in our minds. It is now on paper, and we are actually delivering the results that these communities need to flourish into the future, to continue to be that powerhouse that it is.

It has already been said in relation to the three levels of government. Can I say that the cooperation between the three levels of government has been extraordinary. It is only when we work together that we succeed, and we succeed for the people of this region. And we know that collaboratively with the community, with the local government, with the state government, with the Federal Government, we've got so much more to achieve.

JOURNALIST: Could you just paint a picture of the split between the West Wallsend Macquarie Coal complex and obviously here at Mt Arthur, what different projects we’ll see at each precinct? Will it be renewables, defence? Will they be identical models or based on the area?

SCULLY: All of the above. So we've taken the approach of using a master plan and using the rezoning of SP4, which is a technical term for a really flexible industrial zoning, to give effect to that master plan.

The master plan allows for a wide range of opportunities, and the opportunities that will come along will depend on those who are interested in making those investments. Individual proposals will still need to go through their own development assessment processes. They're still subject to a merit-based assessment. They're still subject, and will only be able to happen on sites that have gone through the rehab process to make sure they're safe and secure and ready to go.

So this is about providing the utmost flexibility, but recognizing that there's some really good assets in water, electricity, in roads, in rail, in hard stands, in sheds, all the sort of things that anyone looking from heavy manufacturing through to renewable energy might be looking for in the voids. We've got opportunities for pumped hydro, there's a possibility. There's no end to the opportunity. It is only a matter of what might be suitable for the investment.

JOURNALIST: How do people get in touch with you and express their interest? When do we get to that sort of stage?

SCULLY: So what we're doing now is the first stage in that, but I imagine that the likes of Glencore and BHP are probably going to feel some interest from people initially now that these documents have gone on public exhibition, now that people can see what the real opportunity for the future of these sites will be.

Obviously, the New South Wales Government is contemplating the Teralba site as one of the options for rail manufacturing in the future, but that's not the only thing that can happen there. There's a lot of space. These are massive sites with massive opportunities. But right now, we're going through giving effect to the rezoning, and that's what the public consultation process is about, but I think that the phones will be running at BHP and Glenpool with interest.
           
JOURNALIST: Those jobs that you've mentioned, are they to actually build this precinct, or are they who'll move in and work on the site?

SCULLY: The 7,000 jobs is an estimate of what the capacity is based on the per square metreage calculation from what the rezoning presents. So obviously there will be work that still needs to happen in rehabilitation. So there's jobs there. There'll still need to be work that happens in the demolition of some elements that can't be reused and repurposed. So there's jobs there. There's obviously ongoing jobs here at Mt Arthur, and there'll be future jobs. We're talking about a rezoning that sets these sites up for decades of employment, just like they've had decades of employment on them with their mining activities today.

JOURNALIST: Who's actually building the industrial park and paying for that? Obviously, I assume BHP is paying for the remediation, but who's actually building this complex?

SCULLY: So a lot of the work will be done in partnership with the landowner, whether it's BHP or Glencore, depending on the site. A lot of the stuff is hopefully we're able to repurpose that is there, and a lot of things will happen as people come along and look at separate investment decisions. You've got to remember, there's already a lot of assets on site that, if you're looking at a greenfield industrial park, would have to be provided. There's water, there's electricity, there's access. So those sorts of things are there. Other investment will come as individual proposals move forward.

JOURNALIST: What's the state of play at that Macquarie Coal complex between West Wallsend and Teralba? Obviously, here they're closing in 2030, but what’s happening there?

SCULLY: Yeah, so mining operations shut down several years ago there, and there's been an ongoing rehabilitation task there. But there's an opportunity there for tens and dozens of hectares of industrial land with a connected rail loop, connected roads, and the like. So this is about making sure that we are maximising the opportunity of these sites. They've provided good jobs in the past, and they'll provide good jobs in the future

JOURNALIST: I understand obviously we'll go out to feedback until the end of this year –

SCULLY: No, feedback will be until the 11th of August, we are hoping to finalise the rezoning by the end of the year so we can get on with it.

JOURNALIST: In 2027, I assume that's when the master plan will start being delivered on. What does that timeline actually look like of when shovels go into the ground and things start taking shape?

SCULLY: Yeah look, obviously a bit earlier, you know, depending on the investment profile, but likely a bit earlier at West Wallsend than here because Mt Arthur continues to operate and will continue to operate till 2030. But look, I think given the level of interest that I saw, and I draw the parallel with the BlueScope land of Port Kembla. When the public exhibition period started, they started fielding inquiries, and they're close to having the first development applications for those sites now. And that's only been a less than 12 months. It's only been six or eight months since that happened. I think you'll start to see that process happening. Obviously, there's a period where someone has to come forward, put their development application in, and get approval before shovels go in the ground. But I think you'll see that people want to move pretty quick because they recognise that these are unique sites, unique opportunities, but massive opportunities in terms of the Hunter's future economy.

JOURNALIST: Is there a rough, you know, timeline of when you'd like to see at least say the Macquarie Coal complex precinct open, you know, by 2030? Could we see this within two, three years?

SCULLY: Look, hopefully, I'd like to see it done as quickly as possible because I'd like to see employment get back there. And obviously, you know, the New South Wales Government is looking at that as an opportunity for its own rail train fabrication facilities.

JOURNALIST: Could we just touch on I assume there's a woodland area being put aside? How are we looking at the biodiversity?

SCULLY: So the biodiverse areas won't be touched. They'll still have the same requirements, and all of that is subject to the merit assessment process that you go through with a standard DA. But there are areas that'll be zoned and continue to be essentially locked off for conservation. There's still requirements for people to do around rehabilitation. So this is not about avoiding any of that. This is not about diminishing any of the environmental sensitivities or high environmental value of some of these sites. This is about making sure that we've got good job opportunities as well as those environmental opportunities existing side by side.

JOURNALIST: The Property Council has reached out to us. They say they welcome this, but they're very concerned about a lack of housing. You know, transport infrastructure being able to handle heavy vehicles and be able to support all these workers. What do you say there?

SCULLY: Look, the investment in housing is happening at pace in New South Wales. New South Wales has more homes under construction at the moment than any other part of the country, and those numbers are growing. So the hunt is strong in terms of the interest and the DAs that are coming through in terms of housing development. So we'll see that progress. We're not talking about an overnight thing. We're talking about a years-long process in terms of the investment, there's a long-term investment horizon here for the jobs, a long-term investment horizon for infrastructure to support it, a long-term investment horizon for the homes that will need to come alongside it. But all of those are happening. What wouldn't have been happening without the cooperation of the Federal Government, the state, the Minns Government, and the local councils is this rezoning process. This wouldn't have happened without BHP and Glencore coming to the table, being willing and active participants in this process. We would have just had an area locked up, going through rehabilitation for the entire site, and missing out on this key opportunity where you've got good, high-quality service and available industrial land that provides a great jobs future.

JOURNALIST: So, will there be funding set aside for infrastructure projects around both of those areas?

SCULLY: The Minns Government is investing $30 billion a year in infrastructure. We'll continue to make those investments. It's why we've gone through a so made some difficult decisions over the last few years to get the budget back in control and make sure that we have got the capacity to continue to make the infrastructure investments that support job creation, that support housing delivery, that support good recreational spaces for people.

JOURNALIST: Have there been any economic forecasting of how much money will actually be pumped back into the local economies for these new precincts?

SCULLY: Look, at the moment we've been concentrating primarily on the rezoning aspect. But when you put 7,000 good jobs back into the Hunter, you're going to have a lot of economic activity going on, and that's just on two sites. Got to remember, these are the first two pilot sites that we're doing under this process to make sure that we test the process to make sure that we can get it better and get it more efficient into the future. There's interest already being expressed from around Eraring, around Lidell, around Bays[water], and around other mines in up and down the valley. So there's a wealth of opportunity in the Hunter to do this again and again and again to make sure that there's a long-term pipeline of jobs in this region,

JOURNALIST: And what does that look like? Is there yet a broader piece of legislation coming that will allow similar things across all sites?

SCULLY: Oh, look, we may have to make some slight legislative adjustments based on what we've learnt out of these two pilot projects, but that's why we've done these to see if there is any changes that we need to do to make it easier. So what we'll do is, you know, we'll complete the rezoning process here for these two pilot sites, and have an assessment report on the process and on the legal aspects of it by the end of the year, and look to see if we have to make any legislative or regulatory change off the back of that.

JOURNALIST: And does the rezoning affect the DA process at all? I know that sometimes that can take yeah multiple years to get projects up and running. Is there any streamlining of yeah projects on these sites?

SCULLY: All of the DAs in these sites will be State Significant Development Applications, and we're streamlining the planning process in New South Wales, and have been doing so over the last three years. The changes that were passed by the Parliament with almost unanimous support of the Parliament late last year means that the process of assessing sites and good projects will become easier, become quicker because we want to look at the outcome. It's important that we remember what is the outcome we're focusing on with planning, whether it's getting people into a home getting people into a job, or improving our local environment.

JOURNALIST: How important is it for the Musswellbrook’s future prosperity to see activity continue here post the BHP Mt Arthur?

DRAYTON: Oh, it's critical. It is critical. We all know we've, you know, we've reported plenty of times, we all know that two mines that are closing it’s about 12,000 jobs. As the industry throws up, sometimes we have the Ashton decision last week, which adds to those 12,000 jobs, and we don't expect that to change. That's the nature of the industry. It's been going on for a long time, and the decisions like the Ashton decision will continue. So we know how many jobs are ahead of us, but it is critical to try and we're not going to we're not going to replace all of those 12,000 jobs, but you know the two projects we speak of today, along with the AGL proposal, hopefully we'll put a pretty good hole in in those jobs. So it certainly is critical to communities like ours in Muswellbrook, in the Upper Hunter here, that projects like this go ahead.

JOURNALIST: What would you love to see here?

DRAYTON: If I said train building, I'm not sure how much support I'd get. Train building would be good. Just a perfect shed over here for the train building, and I haven't raised that yet with anyone behind me, but I guess now's a good time to do it. We've already done lots and lots. So even Muswellbrook Council has done lots of work, as have BHP, and had lots of interest, particularly in manufacturing. So smaller scale manufacturing, right through to, you know, the size of the infrastructure here, can handle that large scale manufacturing. But you know they're the type of industries that bring good long-term, well-paid jobs, which is which is what we're after.

JOURNALIST: How important is it for your community to have their say on the plans that are on exhibition now and down the track?

DRAYTON: Really important. Yeah, we encourage everyone in the in the community, particularly in the communities, careful, how I phrase this, Jess, but particularly in the communities that are affected. So we want the communities right here that are affected now, communities in the Upper Hunter and communities in the broader Hunter. Particularly, are those communities we want to have their say. We want to know what people think. We want to know what their views are, because ultimately, I mean, they're the people living it now. They're the people going to be affected, and they're the people we want to hear from the most.

JOURNALIST: Maybe just one for Minister Ayres. Just changing pace a little here. This is just from our Canberra journalist. The PM is giving a major AI speech tomorrow. What can Aussies expect when it comes to approvals of data centres in their neighbourhoods?

AYRES: Maybe two answers. Firstly, it's not my habit to front-run speeches that the Prime Minister is going to give tomorrow. It'll be an important contribution. The Albanese Government's made it really clear. We want to make sure that we capture the economic opportunity for Australia of this wave of investment and general-purpose technology that's going to do so much to shape our economy and the competitive position of our economy. Make sure that we share the benefits of that, including in regional Australia, and that we keep Australians safe. The Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute that we established earlier this year, that is funded all the way through to make sure that we've got that capability in the core of government to keep Australians safe. This is an important challenge for Australia. Can we secure the artificial intelligence investment here that means that we are shaping the future, not having the future shaping us? And the Prime Minister's speech tomorrow will be an important contribution.

JOURNALIST: Absolutely, AI companies are calling for clarity when it comes to copyright laws, and they want to use Australian materials in training their models. Is the government close to a position on the issue of copyright and AI?

AYRES: Well, tomorrow the Prime Minister will have something to say about all of this. We have made it very clear as a Government that there won't be a Text and Data Mining Exception in Australia, but we are working hard to secure these investments because they are in the Australian national interest.

JOURNALIST: Obviously, you're here in the Hunter. Tomago is not far away. Those workers are still telling us they feel like they're in limbo. They keep hearing the same thing that you guys are in discussions, obviously, with the state and with Tomago Aluminium itself. Is there any update or any timeline you can give us on that project?

AYRES: Well, this is a crucial industrial capability for New South Wales and for Australia. Both governments are working hard on what is a complex and large undertaking to make sure that we secure that capability, those jobs, the dozens and dozens of firms that rely upon that production, but also to secure new investment in new generation and transmission. This is an economic slam dunk for New South Wales, just the same as the Boyne Aluminium Smelter investment was a very good development for economic competitiveness and jobs in Queensland. We'll keep working on that in a careful way because it deserves that kind of careful attention. I'm very pleased with the public commitments that the Premier of New South Wales made last week, which are entirely consistent with the way that the two governments have been working together.

JOURNALIST: Are you making progress?

AYRES: Sure.

JOURNALIST: Okay, Yasmin, did you want to add from the State Government's perspective? Obviously, it's a hand-in-hand thing here. Where are things up to from your side of things?

CATLEY: Well, look, as Senator Ayres just said, it is incredibly complex. Both governments are at the table negotiating in good faith. We heard from both the Premier of New South Wales, Chris Minns, and the Prime Minister just two weekends ago at Labor Conference, giving assurance that front and centre of their mind are the workers, and they're front and centre of our minds as well, particularly those of us in the Hunter. Look, we envisage that the two governments will continue to negotiate, but ensuring the safety of those jobs and the security of those jobs is what is important here.

JOURNALIST: What's it going to take to finalise this?

CATLEY: Well, it's very complicated, and the negotiations are underway. That in itself is very successful.

JOURNALIST: I just have one more for the Mayor. Thank you, Jeff. Just on council announcing a $4.6 million upgrade to Thomas Mitchell Drive, just out the front here. Can you tell us a bit more about that and what that will look like?

DRAYTON: Oh, it's been long overdue, so it's been planned for quite a while. So there's both federal and state government money as well as council money in there. I mean, it's a fairly heavily used road, and it's the roads used primarily for mine workers and mining. So, but it is it is certainly well and truly overdue. It'd be, I would suggest, one of the busiest regional roads in the in the state. So certainly it'll, you know, as I say, here's a road that needed upgrading, and it'll be about 12 months that work will go for. So there'll be some interruptions at that time, but well overdue.

AYRES: Thanks everybody.