Ross Lightfoot (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources, Senator Minchin. Will the minister advise the Senate of the importance of the mining industry to the Australian economy? What possible threats are there to the economic contribution of the mining industry?

Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Lightfoot for that question. Certainly, Senator Lightfoot is well aware, more than most, of the importance of the mining industry to Australia. Indeed, minerals and mineral processing account for some eight per cent of our GDP but, even more importantly, annual exports are now around $68 billion, over one-third of our total exports out of this country. The industry now employs 320,000 Australians—most, of course, in regional and remote parts of the country.

Some sectors are very strong in particular. We are the world’s biggest exporter of black coal, the biggest exporter of iron ore and the biggest exporter of gold. Irrespective of where the world moves in future on CO emissions, coal will remain the predominant fuel for power generation world wide for many years to come—and we are, as I said, the biggest exporter. We are currently exporting $25 billion a year of coal. Uranium mining represents a very big opportunity for us. We are already exporting some $500 million of uranium and we hold 40 per cent of the world’s low-cost uranium reserves.

But the mining industry does face a number of threats to its long-term future. The biggest threat, in our view, is the election of a federal Labor government, irrespective of who might be the leader. Labor remains hopelessly divided on the question of uranium mining. In that context it is interesting to note that nuclear power now plays a vital role in power generation world wide. There are 443 nuclear power reactors operating in 31 countries around the world, in the absence of which CO emissions would be over two billion tonnes per annum higher than they are. It is in fact an act of national folly for the ALP and its state governments to restrict our ability to increase our supply of uranium to this world market. ABARE issued a report last week saying:

Australia has the potential to increase uranium mine production significantly, as it has the world’s largest resources of low-cost uranium and a number of advanced uranium projects. However, future growth in Australia’s production and exports of uranium will be determined to a large extent by whether or not new uranium mines can be developed.

The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Industry and Resources issued a report only today unanimously calling for the opening of new uranium mines. The Labor members of that committee joined with coalition members in saying that Labor’s three-mines policy is ‘illogical, inconsistent and anticompetitive’. Hear, hear! But we still have many in the Labor Party, including Mr Albanese from the House of Representatives, and the Western Australian Premier, Mr Carpenter, determined to block any new uranium mines developing.

The Labor Party remains a threat to the mining industry in other ways. Labor’s policy, now reaffirmed by the new leader, Mr Rudd, to abolish entirely Australian workplace agreements, would do enormous damage to Australia’s mining industry. Almost one in two workers in the minerals sector is now employed under an AWA. In the metals sector four out of five employees are on AWAs. The mining industry itself estimates that Labor’s policy would cost the industry $6 billion. Labor’s policy to unilaterally sign up to a domestic emissions-trading regime would drive many of our minerals-processing industries, like aluminium refining, offshore.

Our approach to the mining industry, on the other hand, demonstrates the very clear differences between the Labor Party and the government in relation to this vital industry. Labor is beholden to sectional interests such as the union movement, which is already telling Mr Rudd what to do, and of course the green movement. It is much more interested in keeping them happy than making Australia’s economy stronger. Our government, on the other hand, has a plan to keep our economy growing and to put even more Australians into jobs.