Keith Pitt (Hinkler, National Party, Minister for Resources, Water and Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Dawson for his question. There are those who thought the member for Dawson wouldn't be here after the election, but, in a comeback worthy of the Australian economy, here he is. That is because he stands for regional jobs—manufacturing jobs, resources jobs, agricultural jobs. The member for Dawson knows how to deliver jobs in his electorate.

I visited Mainetec, in the member for Dawson's electorate. They design and manufacture buckets, would you believe, for the resources sector. Why is that important in terms of technology? If they improve efficiency for buckets for the resources sector, it means they can deliver Australia's resources to the world more efficiently. No matter whether it's iron ore, coal, gold—all the things we're well known for—there continues to be opportunities for the resources sector in our traditional sectors, our export sectors, our manufacturing sectors and our downstream processing sectors—none more so than in critical minerals. We know the critical minerals sector is one where we have a lot of advantages. In fact, we have the world's largest resources of lithium, cobalt, tungsten and titanium.

We know the member for Fairfax is out fighting for the Olympics, but the gold medal for us in critical minerals goes to lithium, tantalum and titanium; we have a silver for rare earths and a bronze for cobalt and manganese. And we'll be looking to ensure there are opportunities for downstream processing of critical minerals. I note the contributions from the minister for industry, because the Manufacturing Modernisation Fund will provide those opportunities for more manufacturing jobs in Australia, in regional Australia and in the member for Dawson's electorate, because we know that regional Australia will help deliver us out of the COVID pandemic as we continue to build the economy.

Ms Butler interjecting—

See this speech in context