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

This is a landmark week for our country's resources industry. This week one of our nation's largest LNG processing facilities will be officially opened. Shipments from the IMPEX Ichthys project started a couple of weeks ago, and this week we look forward to welcoming the Japanese Prime Minister, other Japanese officials and IMPEX officials to officially open the IMPEX project. This is a landmark for the resources sector. It is also a landmark in the relationship between our two nations, which is already an incredibly strong one but which is being strengthened with this very important investment. This investment in the IMPEX project is the largest foreign investment by a Japanese company anywhere in the globe, and I think it is incredibly reflective of the strength of our two nations that this investment is occurring, in part, in Darwin, where we will welcome the first visit from a Japanese Prime Minister to Australia in history this week.

I also pay tribute to the Territorians who have helped build this project. It is the largest investment project in the Northern Territory and an incredibly important contributor to their economy. It has established Darwin, in particular, as a very important resources hub for our nation. It's an exporter of a huge amount of wealth and a creator of jobs. It is something we hope to build on in coming years with future resource projects in the Territory and elsewhere. There is so much expertise now in the Northern Territory that we can use as a platform to make the Northern Territory a stronger economy, to strengthen its relationships with Asian neighbours to the north and to take advantage of the enormous opportunities occurring in our part of the world with economic growth and economic development.