Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

I'm happy to tell you, Senator Scarr, and you might learn something today.

The American legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act, provides that, starting at 40 per cent and then moving to 80 per cent, all of the critical minerals that are going to go into the batteries of electric cars in the United States have to come from countries that have two criteria. Firstly, they have the resources and, of course, once again Australia is the lucky country because we have either the largest or the second-largest deposit of all of the critical minerals that are going to go into the batteries of the future. Secondly, they have to have a free trade agreement with the United States. Australia is one of very few countries which have both of those criteria. What that means is a huge amount of investment, not just from the United States but also from Japan, Korea, Singapore—if we get lucky—maybe even the Europeans. So you can talk down the Inflation Reduction Act. In addition to that, what has California done? Well, California has mandated that by 20— (Time expired)