Tania Lawrence (Hasluck, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Resources. How will the National Reconstruction Fund create jobs in the critical minerals sector?

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

I thank the member for Hasluck for her question, and I acknowledge her. She represents the Swan Valley and did an astounding job at the wonderful and very successful showcase of WA last night in this parliament.

As many people here would be aware, thousands of millions of years of geological activity has made Australia an offer we cannot refuse. It has provided us with the minerals and the metals needed to secure the earth's future and our own. Our critical minerals are essential for net zero technology, including electric vehicles, wind turbines, battery storage and, of course, everyday products that we use all the time, including mobile devices, laptops and other things. As I have said before, the road to net zero runs through the Australian resources sector. To get to net zero, we will need more mining, not less.

The International Energy Agency recently predicted that under a net zero emissions scenario by 2050, global demand for critical minerals will increase over the next seven years by 350 per cent. That is an extraordinary level of growth, and Australia has the natural resources that will enable us as a nation to respond to this international demand. We are the world's largest producers of lithium, the third-largest producer of cobalt and the fourth-largest producer of rare earth elements. This represents an unmissable opportunity for our nation—one that this government will not miss.

To highlight the current demand for critical minerals, I'd like to give a shout out to the annual Diggers and Dealers Mining Forum taking place right now in the Goldfields town of Kalgoorlie in my home state of WA. For over 30 years, Diggers & Dealers has traditionally been a conference of goldminers. However, for the first time in its history, Diggers & Dealers now has a larger official representation from battery minerals and metals companies than from goldminers, as the industry seeks to support that global push for a decarbonised economy. The push for this onshore processing is part of the drive that increased their presence at Diggers & Dealers.

Through this Labor government's $1 billion Value-Adding in Resources Fund, part of the broader $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund, the Albanese government will ensure a greater share of our raw materials is processed right here in Australia. We will support those businesses in these industries to secure capital, allowing them to expand their workforce, create more complex jobs, and bring manufacturing capability, refining capability and, all importantly, chemical processing back into our country. The critical minerals story of Australia will be one of expanded mining operations and, very importantly, that high-level chemical processing. We will use our own resources to do it. We mined it here; we should make it here. The Labor government will make sure that happens.