Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator O'Sullivan, for the question. It is good news today for the resources sector. It is good news for our country that commodity prices are improving. In a week here in parliament which is Minerals Week—and many from our resources sector are here—we can report, and it is on the front page of the Financial Review today, that prices are increasing, that the revenue coming to this country is going up and that, potentially, our budget will improve as well, thanks to this good news. This good news in the Financial Review indicates that Australian coal companies have been able to reach agreement with Japanese customers. According to the Financial Review, the prices that have been increased are consistent with what we have seen in stock markets over the past two months—potentially more than a 100 per cent increase in coking coal prices compared with the $80 per tonne we saw only a few months ago. So this is great news for the country. If these prices were to be sustained, we potentially would increase our budget revenue by $7 billion and would increase our national income by two per cent.

There is a question about whether these prices will stay high, but it does put a lie to the fact that those out there are saying that somehow the resources industry is no longer important to our country. It is extremely important. It is extremely important to our economic growth, it is extremely important to the jobs that are created in regional areas and of course it is very, very important to the budget situation of our nation. So it is good news that the resources sector is bouncing back. It is good news that our coal is still demanded right across the world, particularly in those parts of Asia that need these resources to produce the steel that goes into products all around the world, including things like wind turbines and electric cars. All of these other types of technologies as well need this vital input from the Bowen Basin. Here in this country we have some of the world's best resources. They are well in demand and prices are increasing.