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

This Labor government has delivered the most significant budget for the future of Australia's resources sector in a generation. Overall, it's a total investment of over $20 billion. This is a game changer for the Australian resources sector. It will be the bedrock of a future made in Australia.

The government is providing a total of $3.4 billion over 35 years for the Resourcing Australia's Prosperity program. This will enable Geoscience Australia to fully map our nation's geological endowment by 2060. There has never been such a vote of confidence in the geoscience capability and ambition for Australia to grow our resources prosperity. This program will fund precompetitive public geoscience and map all of Australia's critical minerals, strategic materials and alternative energy sources such as hydrogen, and also the groundwater of Australia. We will search for geological storage and other resources essential for the transition to net zero. Precompetitive geoscience comes before private exploration and investment, not instead of it. It lays the groundwork for the private sector to explore and invest private capital in Australia's resources sector.

Related to the resources portfolio is the 10 per cent production tax credit for all 31 critical minerals, which will help drive critical minerals processing and value-adding in Australia, at a value of $17.6 billion over 14 years. This incentive is for processing critical minerals, and it is a zero-risk approach for Australia. If companies don't produce a value-added product, they don't receive a tax credit. If they do, it means they have grown our sovereign capability, they have attracted investment, they have diversified supply chains, they have value-added onshore, and they have grown new jobs in this future made in Australia. These are all good things.

But what do we get from those opposite about these policies? Instead of supporting these sensible policies, the Leader of the Opposition and the member for Hume have blitzed southern states' media outlets, attacking production tax credits and the resources policy of this government. There is weird class warfare going on in the Liberal and National parties. It is anti resources, anti Queensland, anti Western Australia and even anti Northern Territory. The thing about critical minerals and rare earths is that they are found in many places, including in the south of the country. So the stance of those opposite will also affect investment and impact development of projects in South Australia, Tasmania, New South Wales and Victoria.

Where are the Liberals and Nationals putting on the handbrake on critical minerals and resources projects? In Western Australia, the member for O'Connor and the member for Durack have had a thing or two to say about this approach. In New South Wales, the member for Parkes has an interest in critical minerals. In Queensland, the member for Flynn also hosts critical minerals projects. The members for Gippsland and Mallee, in Victoria, and the member for Braddon, in Tasmania, might want to register some protest to the view of the Leader of the Opposition in regard to this policy.

With our $3.4 billion investment into fully mapping our nation's geological endowment by 2060, I trust there'll be more critical minerals and rare earths in electorates such as Maranoa, New England and Riverina. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot! I never imagined the day where I'd see the Liberals and Nationals oppose and take an anti-resources stance to what is a very pro-resources budget.

Those opposite have been absolutely tone deaf to the work the Labor government is doing with key strategic partners such as the United States. We've been working with the Biden administration and senior officials in the US to ensure that Australia is enabled to take steps to support our critical minerals and rare earths industries, because the US and other partners recognise the importance of having diversified supply chains. So the opposition's irrational, quick, brash, unthinking response to production tax credits is truly staggering and shows their lack of understanding of the resources sector in thinking that you can bunch the critical minerals and rare earths thin supply chains and thin international markets with the vast bulk commodities such as iron ore and coal.

The truth is: the coalition have taken the resources sector for granted for far too long, and they have just stopped listening while keeping the cup out for resources sector donations. The opposition Liberal and National parties want to offshore a Future Made in Australia, to do things somewhere else. But this Albanese Labor government will ensure there will be a future made in Australia.

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