SPEECH TO MINERALS WEEK CONFERENCE, CANBERRA – RE-ENERGISING THE FUTURE

MINERALS WEEK 2026

RE-ENERGISING THE FUTURE

 25 March 2026

AO&E

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Introduction

Mining pays the bills for Australia.

These words remain as true today as when I made the same statement two years ago, when we last gathered for Minerals Week, and as true as 100 years ago.

The copper fields of Cloncurry to the development of coal in Queensland transformed my state from an agrarian economy – and cheap electricity (as well as the removal of death duties) turbo-charged the state into a powerhouse of small businesses, manufacturing, tourism and the arts.

And It’s not just Queensland; the prosperity that iron ore and gas has provided to Western Australia is also fact, and even financially destitute Victoria built its regional infrastructure and wealth on gold.

That reminds me, when Queensland split from New South Wales, the fledgling government subsidised picks, buckets and ropes and encouraged exploration to build the treasury of the new state.  And it was the goldfields of Gympie that did that.

And despite myriad change and upheaval Australia, and what the global economy has faced, these words “that mining pays the bills’ remain truer than ever.

“The future of mining in Australia is not just about what we dig out of the ground, it’s about how we power industries, secure supply chains, support our allies, and create the next generation of jobs. That’s the opportunity in front of us.”

It is a privilege for me to be here today, representing the Federal Coalition, reaffirming our proud and long-standing support for this industry.

It is a privilege to be among you titans of industry; the job-creators, revenue-raisers, and wealth-generators. And it is a privilege to once again be here outlining my vision for Australia’s most critical industry: mining.

Thank you to Tania Constable, Andrew Michelmore AO, as well as to acknowledge your work Andrew, and that of Amanda Lacaze – and the Minerals Council, for inviting me to speak.

I was recently returned to the Shadow Resources – and Northern Australia – portfolio, and incredibly pleased to be able to continue. I’m such a tragic for the resources portfolio that on my recent holiday to Japan I actually went to a rehabilitated copper mine for a tour.

And on that recent trip, I overheard an Australian couple – where the man was promoting the economic message of Australian mining – royalties, taxes and jobs. I think he was from Western Australia. His partner’s response was “but what about the impact on the environment?” This perfectly summarises Australians’ views, an understanding of the economics on one hand, and a grim understanding of 1 per cent of Australia – impacted by mining to achieve every single thing we need and use.

Mining is the Economy

“It’s the economy, stupid.”

These words were first used to sharpen the focus of political campaigning to economic issues; from national debt to household finances, economics dominates political discourse.

And whilst these words were first uttered in an American context, it is clear that concerns about the economy and cost-of-living are dominating the minds of the Australian public.

These words hold deep meaning for us as passionate advocates for Australia’s resources industry.

For whilst we all know and understand the significant contribution that mining makes to the Australian economy, and every household across the country – for many, this sector is confined to being a regional issue; of extraction and export, boreholes and bulldozers, heavy machinery and hi-vis.

This mischaracterisation is a risk we need to correct – and one we can correct – to ensure the continued prosperity of your industry, and to the prosperity of Australia.

I was incredibly surprised and disappointed to hear the New South Wales Labor Government’s recent decision to ban all new greenfield coalmines, especially in the middle of a global energy crisis. When our long standing trading partners in Japan and South Korea are seeking to include more thermal coal in their energy mix. That kind of thinking from the NSW Government is unhelpful and short-sighted.

All of us here can stand and recite the staggering figures of mining’s economic contribution: billions in corporate taxes, royalties, wages and PAYG tax.

Thousands of Australian businesses supported by the strength of mining; hundreds of thousands of jobs generated; millions of Australian families who can rely on publicly-funded Medicare; all thanks to the resources sector.

In fact, for each dollar spent on pre-competitive geoscience exploration, over $1,500 is returned to the Australian economy.

As a former accountant, let me tell you – that is a good return on investment.

The fundamental truth is that our economy is wholly reliant on the strength and success of our resources sector, including New South Wales. Making their decision even more confusing to me, and I’m sure a few of you in this room.

The wealth and prosperity of Australia, relies on your companies, your workers, and Australia’s resources.

And if your sector comes under attack: from activist lawfare, cumbersome red-tape, the Safeguard Mechanism tax, unachievable emissions reduction legislation, and higher taxes, we know what the impact will be.

However, it is not good enough anymore to rely on good public awareness of these issues: events of the last few years prove that.

The public continues to rank the economy and cost-of-living as some of their highest priorities and concerns.

Yet they are not connecting the dots of how the resources sector contributes to the economy.

And this is our failure.

We need to ensure that these issues, which are harming Australia’s investment environment, harming new projects, stalling approvals, are not impacting the mining industry, and all that it contributes to.

These issues are actively undermining the very fabric of the Australian economy.

And by extension, every single Australian household and business.

The focus of this Minerals Week is ‘Re-energising the Future.’

It is clear that we need to re-energise our economy and re-energise support for mining. And that requires you.

We need more mines, more projects, more extensions, more jobs, more contractors, more small-town CWA halls repaired, more local footy teams sponsored, more drill rigs, more trucks, more excavators, more engineers, more young people passionate about mining, more coal trains, more diesel fitters, more hi-vis.

More growth.

More wealth.

More prosperity.

We cannot just re-energise the future, we must re-energise now.

We must re-energise our economy, rebuild investment confidence, and restore our way of life.

Because this is worth fighting for.

Strategic Issues

Australia faces the most dangerous strategic environment since the Second World War.

With ongoing market manipulation by foreign actors, ongoing trade uncertainty, and conflict in the Middle East causing havoc to energy security, supply chains and stability, Australia faces increasingly uncertain headwinds.

Australia has everything we need to navigate these challenges, but we need the right policy settings. And there’s a space for resources and minerals and coal in emissions reduction – because emissions reduction doesn’t exist without coal, and oil, and Australia’s capacity to be self-sufficient. Today has taught us that more than ever.

The collapse of our nickel industry in Western Australia was a dire indictment of the Government’s lack of preparedness, and should have been a clanging alarm-bell of what was to come.

Unfortunately, little action was taken, and we have since seen the collapse of our smelting capacity, and our aluminium and lithium sectors slashing jobs and shuttering their doors. And government funding smelters.

More recently, and perhaps more pressingly for the public, the crisis in the Middle East has exposed Australians to the extent of our over-reliance on international supply chains when we could be self-sufficient.

Trade is a critical part of the Australian story, however we must ensure that we are best maximising our resources for Australians first.

It is dumbfounding that for a country rich with energy, minerals and resources, our energy system faces regular blackout risks and some of the highest prices in the world. The three things we need – Australian gas, Australian coal, and Australian oil – are the unspoken words that we do not say, and instead we are allowing activist rhetoric to drastically alter Australia’s popular opinion – and risk the very capital-intensive investment that we need to change course.

All this impacts on your projects, and Australia’s prosperity.

We need to change course – urgently.

Instead of addressing the root causes of skyrocketing energy costs, unachievable emissions reduction legislation and unproductive industrial relations laws, Labor’s only response has been to throw cash at the problem and hope it disappears. Or worse, to tax it.

I was beyond frustrated to hear of the Albanese Government’s plans to tinker with the PRRT again last week for the gas sector. Investment into our resources sector is crucial right now. Sending mixed signals to any company wanting to invest here – be it drilling or digging – is not going to put Australia at the forefront of anyone’s business plans.

At a time when households are facing immense cost-of-living pressures, Labor seems content to continue reaching into the public purse on one hand, and damaging our investment environment with legislative overreach and ill-informed decision making.

We can do better, and we must.

We must approach these issues with a wider geo-strategic lens, and with a better focus on how to maximise our natural advantage.

We must ensure that our minerals and resources are best utilised to support our national and regional security, and safeguard our sovereignty and strategic supply chains, through providing clarity and certainty for long-term investments.

And we must identify new opportunities to leverage our strategic partnerships to build the next generation of mining investments.

Because the answer is not wasteful spending, but targeted red-tape reduction and lower taxes.

The Coalition has been calling on the Government to take action.

We wholeheartedly support the expansion of our resources: our minerals and our oil and gas.

We unashamedly back in the continued use of our abundant, cheap energy resources. Yet Labor will not.

As my colleague, the Shadow Minister for Industry and Sovereign Capability Andrew Hastie has said, “Australia could turn our energy abundance, political stability and massive landmass into a safe haven for AI investment.”

This outcome can only happen by the full use of all of our energy resources.

Australia has the opportunity to expand into new, fledgling technological markets – but Labor is holding us back.

Further to this, the Coalition is mindful that we have an international responsibility to ensure that our priorities, and our minerals, strongly support the supply chain security of our allies.

This is why the Coalition has been repeatedly calling on Labor to leverage our strategic partnerships to secure more investment in our critical minerals industry.

We have long-standing alliances and partnerships with the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Korea, and others.

We must utilise these partnerships to unlock new opportunities in Australia, and secure critical supply chains from foreign interference and malicious state actors.

I hope the free trade agreement with Europe, which Australia began negotiating under a Coalition Government, will secure more of these opportunities for our businesses – including in the critical minerals sector.

Exposing Clarity in foreign funding

However, there remains an ever-growing threat to this economic prosperity: activist lawfare and unidentified funding of populist anti-fossil fuel campaigns.

In 2024 I spoke to you all about the risks of groups like the Environmental Defenders Office, who were found to have coached Indigenous witnesses and confected evidence – not my words, but the words of Federal Court Judge Justice Charlesworth.

These risks are still present.

Over the last four years, we have seen activist groups emboldened to target crucial resources projects – not for environmental or cultural heritage concerns, but solely to destroy your industry, and our economy.

Whether it be in the Tipakalippa case, or providing legal advice in the Blayney gold mine case.

During this most recent crisis, one exacerbated by the Labor Government’s flat-footed response to fuel distribution shortages and fertiliser shortages, there have been statements made that the crisis is a response to a lack of planning over the last ten years.

And I’ll spend a moment outlining why that is wrong. Following the fertiliser shortage of Covid when Australia came within two weeks of running out – a similar predicament to where are today – in 2022, the Coalition Government approved and committed funding through the Northern Australian Infrastructure Fund, to the Perdaman project, that in full production will produce over 2 million tonnes of urea, almost the equivalent of Australia’s entire urea requirement, which we currently import.  As construction is now 75% complete, the facility will come online next year.

And for fuel, it was Angus Taylor as Energy Minister that drafted and introduced the minimum stockholding provisions, and saved two of the remaining three domestic fuel refineries – at Lytton, and Geelong.

It was the Coalition that released offshore tenure to replace the declining Bass Strait oil fields – the real reason why refining capacity has left Australia. What has Labor done, taken four years to release new tenure but hamstrung it with the removal of seismic exploration – which returns us to the days of wildcat drilling at over 100 million dollars per well.

Under Labor, over the last four years, we have seen the devastation of skyrocketing electricity prices making ore processing in Australia uncompetitive for nickel, lithium, copper, and now bauxite – and most critically, the ongoing funding for these activists.

The Environmental Defenders Office alone, in addition to tax holding deductible gift recipient status, is receiving $6.7 million in Federal funding from the Albanese Labor Government over the next three years – despite being publicly condemned by the Federal Court.

And even more worryingly, they received a blind grant from unknown sources paying off the costs they were ordered to pay.

This funding has come with no strings attached – and no disclosure as to where it has come from.

Australia has some of the strictest political disclosure laws in the world – and it is something we should be proud of – but groups like the EDO, who actively campaign against the prosperity of Australia and projects that support your projects, are not subject to such laws.

In 2014, the then Secretary-General of NATO said that the Russian Government was responsible for the anti-fracking campaign in the United Kingdom.

This campaign undermined the UK’s energy sovereignty and ultimately on financial security, allegedly to increase Europe’s reliance on Russian gas. We would be naive to think that campaigns like that are NOT playing out here in Australia.

Here in Australia, we have had an activist group attempt to disrupt and discredit a gas project critical to Australia’s energy security, and vital for the energy security of our close partners like Korea and Japan, who supply our liquid fuels.

A group which received a $6.5 million blind transfer to pay their court-ordered costs. Why this issue is not of more concern astounds me.

In this increasingly uncertain and unstable time, the transfer of dark monies to ‘activist’ or ‘philanthropic’ groups to pay for their targeted anti-mining campaigns must be a key focus of us all.

Many such groups repeatedly claim to be fully transparent in their funding arrangements, but when one looks at the financial disclosures of the Australia Institute, or the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, those statements simply list dollar figures next to generic ‘revenue’ items.

No clarity, no detail, no transparency.

Where is this funding coming from?

What is it being used for?

Are there malicious actors attempting to influence our decisions and weaken Australia?

The EDO’s most recent annual report states that they use “the power of law to deliver legal solutions for nature, climate and people, driven by our vision of a world where nature thrives.”

Nothing about confecting evidence, or witness tampering there.

These organisations, many of which operate under the protection of charity status, repeatedly act to undermine our sovereign capability.

They don’t create jobs, or build towns, or generate income to pay for our way of life.

And most laughably, they don’t protect the environment.

Throughout my travels I have seen the genuine rehabilitation that mining companies do throughout Australia, and it is of the highest class in the world.

I have walked through the rehabilitated Ranger uranium mine, the rehabilitated land indiscernible from the disturbed land thanks to clever planting and landform management. And the rehabilitation work that Sibelco carried out at Stradbroke Island was so good that it was declared a national park!

And I think of the thousands of environmental scientists who are turning large swaths of Australia from unmapped data deserts into well described habitats that allow for management to begin.

That work, that environmental protection and rehabilitation, is your legacy.

The opportunity for employment and education for Aboriginal Australians from the most remote parts of Australia, is your legacy

And the opportunity for small businesses to develop and grow, is your legacy.

What is the legacy of these supposed environmental groups?

Dark money, unknown backers, and real-life examples of foreign manipulation of policy in Europe.

We must have more transparency of who or what is funding these groups.

Groups that actively work to undermine Australia’s prosperity must be brought into the light of day.

If they are running campaigns to actively undermine or sabotage Australia’s energy or economic security, not just through lawfare but campaigns such as gas reservations, increased taxes, bans on seismic and greenfield coal projects – they must disclose where their funding comes from.

Conclusion

But despite of those headwinds, I conclude today with hope.

Hope for the future of the mining industry, and hope for Australia.

We know what needs to be done to deliver and sustain the next mining boom for Australia:

• Affordable energy;
• Access to gas;
• Reduced and streamlined approval processes;
• Investment certainty;
• Workable and flexible IR laws.

And we know that unlocking the next mining boom will unlock the Australian economy.

Australia does indeed face the most dangerous strategic environment since the Second World War.

We have the resources, and the resolve, to weather the storms, and create a more prosperous Australia, but we need strong leadership to make it happen.

And that starts with ensuring that our resources sector becomes more than a regional issue – it becomes the cornerstone of our economic prosperity.

But we need to make sure this message leaves this room.

We need to ensure that mining is not just discussed within these walls, or within the Federal Parliament just up the road.

It needs to be discussed across Australia, from the Cabinet table to the kitchen table.

Because mining is the economy, and strengthening the sector is what will restore our Australians’ standard of living and protect our way of life. Because that is worth fighting for.