Thank you, Craig and good afternoon, everyone.

It is wonderful to be back in Mparntwe (Alice Springs)

I begin by acknowledging the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the land on which we gather today, the Arrernte (Arr-un-da) people.

I pay my respects to their Elders, past and present and recognise their continuing connection to this land, its waters, and community.

I extend that respect to all First Nations people here today, and acknowledge their enduring connection to Country, culture and community across Australia. 

Thank you to the organisers of the Developing Northern Australia Conference for bringing us together once again, today, in the heart of the country: Mparntwe - Alice Springs.

I acknowledge:

• my parliamentary colleagues, 
• members of the Northern Australia Ministerial Forum;
•  First Nations leaders, and 
• representatives from local government, industry, research and the wider community.

You are the ones driving development across the North every single day.

You are not observing Northern Australia’s development—you are shaping it. 

I would also very much like to recognise: 

• Marion Scrymgour – Federal Member for Lingiari, Special Envoy for Remote Communities.
• Luke Gosling – Federal Member for Solomon, Special Envoy for Defence, Veterans Affairs, and Northern Australia. 
• Bill Yan – Northern Territory Treasurer, Minister for Logistics and Infrastructure; Housing Construction
• Dale Last – Queensland Minister for Natural Resources and Mines, Minister for Manufacturing and Minister for Regional and Rural Development
• Stephen Dawson – Western Australia’s Minister for Regional Development, Ports, Science and Innovation, Medical Research and Minister for the Kimberley 
• Members of the Northern Australia Indigenous Reference Group, especially Professor Martin Nakata AM for his thoughtful opening address. 

It is a perfect opportunity to today, offer my thanks (and I am sure the thanks and appreciation of everyone here) to Professor Allan Dale for his outstanding leadership as chair of this conference since its inception in 2015. 

The inaugural DNAC was held in Townsville, and Allan chaired his final conference last year in Cairns. Two great Queensland cities to bookend his remarkable contribution to this conference series.

Allan has helped shape a more mature, national conversation about Northern Australia, and I thank him sincerely for the work he has done over many years. I know he will always continue to work alongside all of you to drive this important conversation further.

I also warmly welcome Craig Doyle as incoming chair of the Conference. I am grateful to have got the chance to work with Craig when he commenced as CEO of the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility, and I thank him for his exceptional work leading the NAIF over a very important three years, before he retired last year.

I am glad Craig has taken on the role of Chair of DNAC, and as many of you know, Craig’s four decades of experience in northern Australia across many sectors will serve the conference very well.

A STRONG NORTH MEANS A STRONG AUSTRALIA

For many years, Northern Australia has been described as a frontier. 

A place of potential. A place of vast distance.

A place waiting to be unlocked. 

I think it's time we move beyond that language. 

Northern Australia is not a frontier waiting to be discovered.

It's the foundation of Australia’s future. 

It’s where critical minerals and rare earths, essential to global supply chains in clean energy and our defence, are found.

It’s where new energy systems are being built.

It’s where food and fibre is produced for Australia and the region.

A place of advanced manufacturing and the site of some of the most important parts of Australia’s security architecture.

And it's where some of the most important nation-building investments of this century will be made. 

The Albanese Government's commitment to Northern Australia is genuine, strategic and long-term. 

Because we know that a strong North means a strong Australia.

This year's conference theme is northern horizons: linking people, place and development. 

Because the challenge is no longer simply what we will build in the North.

It’s how we connect it. 

How we connect new infrastructure to investment opportunity.

How we connect that investment to people.

And how we connect people to education, and then to jobs. 

It is about ensuring development delivers real community and economic benefit. 

Because we know that infrastructure, on its own, is not a silver bullet. 

It doesn’t create prosperity in isolation. 

It needs people. It needs connectivity. And communities need confidence that investment in them will be enduring.

FIRST NATIONS FIRST

It's also why partnership with First Nations Australians must sit at the centre of everything we do.

On this point, I want to acknowledge Senator Malarndirri McCarthy, Minister for Indigenous Australians for her leadership, and the Indigenous Reference Group for their valuable experience and insights.

The IRG has consistently challenged and guided governments. Importantly, the IRG have asked for consistency in three key areas. 

First, the need to think in terms of legacy, not just projects. 

We should always ask: will this leave Australia stronger for the next generation, and the one after that?

Second, the education-to-employment pipeline must be front and centre.

Because opportunity only matters if people can access it. 

Young people across the North should be able to move from education to training into skilled employment without leaving their communities, unless they choose to. 

And third, supporting First Nations enterprise. 

Because Indigenous businesses are already creating jobs.

Managing Country, delivering services, and contributing to major projects across the economy—this is not a side conversation.

It is central to how we grow the North.

NORTHERN AUSTRALIA ACTION PLAN 2024-29

These priorities are reflected in the Government’s Northern Australia Action Plan.

The Action Plan is about turning effort and investment into outcomes. 

The first annual progress report showed how this Government is delivering across infrastructure, housing, workforce development, and regional services.

I look forward to sharing how the Government is delivering on the action plan when the next Annual Progress Report is released in November, as part of my Annual Statement to Parliament on Developing Northern Australia.

2026-27 BUDGET

And that brings me to the 2026-27 Federal Budget.

The budget continues to invest in the foundations Northern Australia needs to grow.

It supports housing supply, nationally significant infrastructure, workforce capability, First Nations economic participation, and productivity across regional industries.

At the Budget, the Government committed to projects across the North. 

Some of the most important projects include:

• $1.2 billion investment into the world leading Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve – which has already backed two nation building projects of international significance, the first of which will be developed not from here.
• $1 billion investment in the Boyne Island Aluminium Smelter, in Gladstone; and 
• $600 million investment into the Mount Isa copper smelter and Townsville copper refinery: both of these investments in Queensland will ensure our national resilience in refining and smelting.
• $312 million into Strengthening Employment Services Systems: important reforms to employment services, informed by regional fora held in northern hubs and will ensure support is tailored to the individual, informed by local communities and focused on people’s strengths, aspirations and goals. 
• $299 million to expand the Remote Jobs and Economic Development Program: our Government is doubling the program from 3,000 to 6,000 jobs by 2030 in remote regions – and most of these are in the north. 

NORTHERN AUSTRALIA INFRASTRUCTURE FACILITY

On top of these important initiatives across northern Australia, is our Government’s support of the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility.

Investment in nation-building infrastructure requires vision, patience and confidence.

It requires long-term partnerships.

The Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility is one of the clearest expressions of that principle in action. 

Since its establishment, it has helped unlock $4.5 billion in investment across the North to support 35 projects.

It supports enabling infrastructure that would not otherwise proceed.

And it continues to evolve.

On 30 June this year, I was very proud that the Albanese Government passed the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility Amendment Act 2026, locking in NAIF funding for another decade. 

That gives Northern Australia another ten years of stable, reliable and accountable infrastructure finance.

The results speak for themselves. 

And you don’t have to go too far to see them. 

Arafura Rare Earths' Nolans Project – just over an hour’s drive from here - is a major project that will be vital for our economy and hugely important to our security and the security of our partners. 

It will provide minerals important for batteries but also for components in things such as fighter jets. 

I am very proud that a NAIF loan of up to $200 million is supporting this project. And the Nolans Rare Earths Project is also the first to be part of the world leading Australian Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve.

It also has backing from Export Finance Australia, Critical Minerals Facility, and the National Reconstruction Fund, which together provide around $1 billion in support. 

The project is further supported under the US-Australia Critical Minerals Framework, as well as investment from Canada, Korea and Germany. 

It will create good, well-paid jobs and opportunities right here in Alice, as part of this internationally significant rare earths project.

Although very significant, this is just one part of the NAIF investment story. 

In May, the Government reached an important milestone: $3 billion delivered to project proponents through NAIF drawdowns.

That’s $3 billion flowing into projects that create jobs, strengthen communities and expand opportunities—including for First Nations peoples and businesses.

Queensland has been a particular focus. 

NAIF is backing more projects than ever in Queensland to create new industries, jobs and prosperity. 

NAIF has backed the Alpha High Purity Alumina project in Gladstone. 

NAIF approved $42.1 million for the Townsville Affordable Living Precinct.

The facility provided funds to upgrade North Queensland Airports: Cairns, Mackay, Townsville, Rockhampton : all have benefitted from NAIF assistance to upgrade important regional airports.

And NAIF provided a $140 million loan for the Cairns Seniors Community Housing Project. 

Here in the Territory NAIF approved $74 million for student accommodation at Charles Darwin University

In Western Australia, NAIF's $34 million investment in the Kimberley Cotton Gin helped establish that state's first commercial-scale cotton processing facility. 

Just last week I visited the incredible $6 billion Perdaman Urea Project in Karratha with the Prime Minister, and WA Premier Roger Cook. 

The Perdaman plant starts production next year thanks to the provision of a $220 million NAIF loan, as part of a $750 million package of support for the development of accompanying infrastructure required for the nearby Pilbara Port and Water Corporation. This plant will provide sovereignty for Australia and help feed the entire region. 

In these times of global uncertainty, we can be sure than within a year, Australia will be fully independent of any other country for its supply of urea for fertilisers.

That will benefit the whole nation. It will benefit our neighbours in the Indo-Pacific. And the NAIF has played a critical role in making that happen. 

These aren’t isolated projects.

They’re part of a bigger story where liveability, and productivity go hand in hand. 

COOPERATIVE RESEARCH CENTRE FOR DEVELOPING NORTHERN AUSTRALIA

Of course, development is underpinned by innovation and evidence.

I want to acknowledge the Cooperative Research Centre for Developing Northern Australia, which is in the final year of its 10-year term.

The CRCNA has leveraged its original $75 million funding to generate $155 million of industry co-investment. 

Over the past decade, it has built an evidence base to inform decision-making across government and industry.

It has shown that research is not abstract. It is practical. It reduces risk, improves productivity, and helps turn potential into investment.

CRITICAL MINERALS

From rare earths to lithium, graphite, copper, nickel and cobalt, the North holds resources that are essential to the global clean energy transition and advanced manufacturing.

But our opportunity is not just to extract.

It is to build, process and refine—and to participate in the industries of the future.

That is the Future Made in Australia agenda in practice. 

We see that in Queensland’s North West Minerals Province.

Across WA’s Pilbara and the Kimberley.

And in the Northern Territory’s emerging projects in Central Australia.

We’re not just exporting resources. We’re building capability, jobs and sovereign strength.

But only if we do it in collaboration. 

That means working with First Nations communities, local businesses and regional workforces.

We also need to be honest about the challenges that have been highlighted by this year’s global fuel shortage: distance, freight costs, insurance, housing shortages, and workforce gaps.

These issues are structural and systemic.

They’re not fixed with a single program or policy setting.

They require coordination across all levels of government.

And they require us to think differently about how investment is aligned across major infrastructure, defence, mining and resources, and regional development. 

Only by making connections in these sectors can we address effectively the issues facing the North.

CONCLUSION

That brings us back to the conference agenda today.

This week, you’ll share ideas, test assumptions and make new connections - Connections with peers who share a love for this incredible part of the country.

Northern Australia has been built by people who live here, work here and choose to invest here.

So, as we look ahead, I’m filled with optimism and confidence. 

I hope you are too.

The pipeline of investment is growing, new industries are emerging, and governments are working together closer than ever before.

You can feel a wave of ambition sweeping across Northern Australia. 

There is also a shared belief that we can make the North even more productive, resilient and connected.

And more inclusive.

A North with industries that lift Australia’s sovereignty and security.

Where we foster cohesive communities where people choose to stay, work and follow a path of their choosing.

This is no longer only an aspiration. We’re already well down the track.

Thank you for coming together—governments, industry, researchers, communities and Traditional Owners.

Together, you are working towards a vast, shared national opportunity.  Thank you.