Madeleine King (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

The motion was unavailable at the time of publication

The resources industry is the backbone of the Australian economy and, in turn, Australians' livelihoods. As this motion asserts, this nation's mining and energy sectors, such as iron ore, coal, gas, gold, uranium, bauxite and alumina, copper, nickel, zinc and lithium are all world class. This is a fact. I've been lucky enough to see operations going on all over the country to extract, develop and refine these resources, from the North West Shelf LNG operations in the Pilbara to the coalmines of Maitland and the Hunter Valley to the goldmines and nickel smelter of Kalgoorlie and to the lithium, aluminium and nickel refineries in my own electorate in Kwinana. And I hope to see even more, as shadow minister for resources, including in Queensland next month.

The resources industry continues to provide quality jobs for First Nations Australians. In fact, today, there are twice as many Indigenous Australians working in the minerals industry than there were in 2006. That's 6,599 direct jobs for Indigenous Australians—nearly four per cent of the resources industry's workforce. The resources industry knows it can do better in this regard, but also many other sectors around this country can learn from this proactive example of empowering and employing Indigenous Australians.

The resources industry also employs around 8½ thousand apprentices, reskilling and retraining essential workers, and, at the same time, training and skilling up our next generation of Australian workers. The Minerals Council is projecting that this number will continue to grow, with 5,000 new positions to be created over the next few years, mostly in rural and regional Australia.

The resources industry makes a huge contribution to the broader Australian economy. Worth $238 billion in 2019-20, the resources industry provided over half of Australia's total export share. In fact, it was closer to 60 per cent. On a more palpable micro level, the resources industrial provides 238,000 direct jobs for people in this country, and this trend is growing. The sector saw an increase of 67,000 direct jobs over the decade. These are quality, high-paying jobs, jobs that pay over $2,700 a week, or $144,000 a year—58 per cent above the Australian average. In the year 2019-20 this meant $26 billion in wages to Australian resources workers.

In addition to these jobs and their direct impact on the Australian economy, the surrounding services, such as Australia's innovative mining equipment and technology services sector, contribute similarly to our economy and our way of life. Across the supply chain, mining and METS support a total of 1.1 million direct and direct jobs, or one in every 10 jobs in this nation, as well as thousands of regional small and medium businesses.

When you visit these resources towns, you see the real and positive impact that local procurement decisions by big multinationals has on the SMEs in the area. In visiting these towns, I've seen firsthand the investment big companies have made in local communities—the schools and the hospitals, for instance. Some towns, like Dampier in the Pilbara, were literally built by mining companies—first, Hamersley Iron and now Rio Tinto and Woodside. Recently, I visited Onslow and saw the incredible work that Chevron does on the ground in supporting that remote community. And, through its local procurement program to support its offshore gas operations, INPEX has boosted the Kimberley town of Broome and helped it diversify away from the vulnerable tourism industry. The contribution of this Japanese company, INPEX, to both Broome and Darwin demonstrates how Japan and Australia have come together in peace and shared prosperity since the dark days of World War II.

In Kalgoorlie, I've seen the work of local companies Northern Star, Evolution, BHP and KCGM in supporting the community there—though I note there are still challenges, including affordable housing, that must be addressed. These companies know, more than anyone else, that this ongoing support is essential to their social licence to operate. Australia has more than 100 mining projects with completed feasibility studies, and the combined $50 billion investment flowing from these projects has the potential to create more than 32,000 construction jobs and 22,000 ongoing operating jobs across Australia in the years to come.

I would like to congratulate all of the resources industry—everyone who works in it, everyone who hopes to work in it and everyone who has forged this industry from its very start way back in the 1880s and 1890s with gold and coal in this country. The industry provides hundreds of thousands of jobs to so many Australians. It's an industry that is the backbone of our economy and will continue to be so for many years to come.

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