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

I thank Senator O'Sullivan for his question. He is absolutely right about how important our resources sector is, not just for Central Queensland but for our entire nation, and it is good for our nation that our resources sector is in rude health at the moment. It is on track this financial year to produce a record result in terms of exports at $215 billion, thanks to prices being up, and it is 35 per cent higher than the comparable period last year. Included in that result is our sometimes maligned coal sector, which is our second biggest export for our nation—we should always remember that—and it is contributing $55 billion to that result. Indeed, our thermal coal exports themselves are headed for a record year of $37 billion, and this is particularly great news for the 44,000 Australians who rely on the coal sector for their jobs and the 200,000 Australians who rely on their jobs in the mining sector and resources sector more generally. That amounts to, in the coal sector alone, $5.7 billion in wages and salaries every year to Australians, thanks to that industry and thanks to those exports.

But we sometimes take it too much for granted. It has only been really in the last half a century that the mining sector has contributed so strongly to our nation's growth, and that has, not coincidentally, coincided with the development of Asia and the increasing demand for our resources in our region. We now have the opportunity, particularly with India growing very fast, to meet their demand for resources as well, and we have huge opportunities in opening up areas of our country like the Galilee Basin to more coal exports than we have seen in the past, to more jobs and to more exporting income than we have seen. If we open up the Galilee Basin, more than 15,000 direct jobs in mining can be created from six different coalmines in the sector. Just keep in mind that our current coal industry employs 44,000 Australians, so it is an enormous increase in the wealth and opportunity that is created from our coal sector. It is an enormous opportunity for our country, and it is one that we, as a government, are committed to taking.