Speech to the Minerals Council of Australia

Thank you to the Minerals Council of Australia for inviting me here to speak at Minerals Week.

I would particularly like to recognise the Minerals Council Chair Andrew Michelmore, CEO Tania Constable, and MCA Board members.

I’d like to also acknowledge the attendance and engagement of members of the diplomatic corps and my parliamentary colleagues in these important discussions this week. 

And I acknowledge the Traditional Owners of this land, the Ngunnawal people, and pay my respects to their elders past and present.

Australia’s world-class mining industry is a great success story.

I understand the important role the industry plays in creating good jobs and supporting households and manufacturing, in particular.

This support is now more important than ever, as our nation makes the transition to a clean energy future.

In you, our government has an important partner.

We are working together to lay the building blocks of a Future Made in Australia and a clean energy economy, to support our nation’s future prosperity and jobs.

APPROVALS

I wanted to start by saying a few words about approvals.

Sometimes people will like the decisions a Minister makes. 

This audience, for example, will appreciate the fact I have ticked off on more than 40 mining projects since becoming Minister.

As recently as yesterday I signed off on a salt and sulphate of potash project near Karratha.

There are times I won’t. 

Hard decisions are part of the job – and I won’t shy away from them. 

What you get from me, and this Government, is a commitment to carefully weigh the evidence, listen to advice, and apply the law. 

And a commitment to make approvals quicker, and easier, wherever we can.

Since coming to Government, we’ve invested more than $420 million to speed up and improve approvals process.

We’ve got about 80 additional staff working on environmental approvals.

We’ve converted around 50 contractors to permanent, massively reducing turnover.

We have around 85 approvals staff based in WA, with 50 in Perth. 

When I talk to you about your experience with our department, many of you say service is improving because you’re not having to talk to different assessment officers each time you pick up the phone.   

All these things make a difference.

We have doubled the average on time approval rate. 

Just recently, I ticked off on a project in just nine weeks – because it was in the right place, done in the right way.

But there’s more to do on approvals - and that will be a focus of the next stage of our law reforms.

IMPROVEMENTS TO ENVIRONMENT LAWS

The current stage of improvements to environment laws are now before the Senate, having passed the House of Representatives in July.

These laws have something for everyone – the environment and business. And I’m speaking to colleagues from across the Parliament to get them passed. 

The Government has committed to setting up Environment Protection Australia.

The EPA will be responsible for compliance and enforcement, because everyone agrees that Ministers shouldn’t be involved in law enforcement.

But importantly the Minister will still be able to make project approval decisions. 

I would be able to delegate these decisions to the EPA – as I currently may to the department.

We’re also setting up Environment Information Australia. 

We’re investing more than $116 million in this initiative including $65m for better environmental data and science. 

Because we know that providing you with access to better data is one the best way to get faster decisions. 

Reducing the time needed to collect data for projects can save months and potentially years from the approval pathway.

We’ve listened to you on what you would like from this legislation.

In the Minerals Council of Australia’s submission to the Samuel Review you asked for a central data repository like EIA:

You said, 

“Australia does not have a reliable and consistent environmental dataset to support national or regional scale planning, national reporting on environmental conditions, policy development or decision making.”

So, we’re delighted to be delivering one. 

NEXT STAGE OF ENVIRONMENT LAW REFORM

The Government will keep working to fix our environment laws so they work better for nature and business. 

A full exposure draft of the next stage of environment law reform will be released publicly before anything is introduced to Parliament.

Thank you for working with us through the consultations.

My commitment is that we will road test, review, and revise, where necessary. 

I’ve said from the beginning that we’ll need a bit of cooperation, compromise, and common sense to get this done properly. And that’s how I’ll continue approaching this work. 

CULTURAL HERITAGE

I wanted to finish by touching on cultural heritage.

Your industry witnessed firsthand the disastrous attempt at cultural heritage law reform in WA. 

All those years of work you spent assisting government develop those reforms were wasted – leaving you with no progress and no greater certainty.

We have learned the lessons from their approach. 

We will methodically and carefully continue to work through any proposed changes and test them broadly before introduction. 

We need to respect and protect our cultural heritage.

We are lucky to be home to the oldest continuing culture in the world and that comes with special responsibilities.

No one wants another Juukan Gorge.

As you all know, the best way to ensure cultural heritage is protected is to engage early with the right people.

But for that to happen, business needs to know who they need to consult – ‘who are the right people to talk for Country?’

And engagement requirements need to be clear – so everyone knows when the process is complete.

Requirements can’t be open ended. 

That’s what the First Nations Engagement Standard under our new laws will need to do – provide certainty about requirements and certainty about who to talk to. 

We’ll take our time to get it right. We won’t be rushed.

And everyone will get a chance to have a say. 

CONCLUSION

As the Prime Minister and my Cabinet colleagues have said to you this week, we respect your industry and the contribution you make to our national prosperity.

We will govern for all Australians – conscious of our responsibilities including in areas like cultural heritage and nature – but also aware of the vital role industry plays in helping create prosperity for our people.

As we reform our laws and our processes, we will do so in close consultation – maybe not always agreeing on every issue – but with an open mind and a willingness to genuinely engage with the issues you raise.

Thank you.