Interview with Kelly Gudgeon, ABC Pilbara

KELLY GUDGEON: This morning is the start of the three-day developing Northern Australia Conference here in Karratha. The conference is a big one of the agenda of the government, business and academia to look at the issues and challenges unique to us here in the north. As you can imagine, topics like renewables and regional development are top of the list. And opening the conference today is Federal Minister for Resources and Northern Australia Madeleine King. Good morning to you, Minister Madeleine King. How are you this morning?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Yeah, really good, Kelly. I'm at Perth Airport, about to jump on a plane like the rest of the Resources Industry up in the north.

KELLY GUDGEON: Lots of high vis there, is there?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Indeed. Yes, it's quite a special time here at Perth Airport every Monday and Tuesday morning. I urge my federal colleagues to just be here at 5:30/6:00 and see the extraordinary movement of mining workers, the airlift that happens each and every week here from Perth up around our north. It's something to behold.

KELLY GUDGEON: Absolutely. Now, you know, I just want to talk about the developing Northern Australia Conference to start with. Why should we be interested in this conference here in the Pilbara and the Gascoyne? Why is it so significant?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, because the north is really one of the keys to the ongoing economic prosperity of the nation. Places like Karratha in the Pilbara and then further up into the Kimberley, but then right across the Northern Territory in Queensland as well, have always been part of the mainstay of the prosperity of the country, and that's been founded a lot in agriculture and the mining industry over many years. So, what we're talking about in the Developing Northern Australia Conferences is how we can do that better, make the most of our opportunities, how we diversify our opportunities. And you'll see from the extraordinary range of topics being talked about that those opportunities are vast. And I'm really interested in some of the, the things we don't talk about so much. One around transforming the life cycle of mining for the better with Dr Guy Boggs. It's a really interesting topic. Or investing with purpose, you know, we talk about the importance of social infrastructure in the north. Sometimes these things aren't spoken about as much as we talk about the really important road infrastructure or health infrastructure or mining infrastructure, but they're really very important to the communities of the north as well.

KELLY GUDGEON: Now, you yourself are making a couple of announcements today here in Karratha at the conference, one around a new Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility loan to De Grey Mining's Hemi Gold Project. Can you talk about that one to start with?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Yeah, that's a really significant project about 85km south of Port Hedland. It'll be $150 million loan from the NAIF - so, the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility. And as a loan, it's fully repayable by De Grey in due course. So, that's going to be one of the biggest gold mines in the country once it's up and running, about 1700 jobs we're expecting during construction and operation. So, that just brings more jobs, more work into the economy. And because that is proximate to Port Hedland, we hope that has a lot of local participation as well.

KELLY GUDGEON: And the other announcement is a new five-year Northern Australian Action plan. So, what is included in this new plan?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, the action plan builds on the 2015 Our North, Our Future White Paper, and we did an action plan over the last year to make sure we could get things moving quickly, rather than do another full White Paper. So, what the action plan sets out is what will be a whole-of-government approach to developing the north. And you can see why that is the case, because there's lots of policies across all sorts of portfolios within the government that are going to be really important to ensure we can make the most of the opportunities and challenges of Northern Australia. So, we think of the Future Made in Australia policy that's going to have an important role in developing the north through the investment in critical minerals, as well as in renewable energy and in manufacturing as well, as we see increasing interest in bringing green steel manufacturing and renewable hydrogen into places like Port Hedland and Karratha, and even further to the north. 

But then there's also the important role the north has had, but we need to really bolster it, in defending the country. It's exposed a wide coastline, a vast coastline to the north, and the Defence Strategic Review sets out how important it will be to make sure the bases of the north are well supported and have the right infrastructure. And the good thing about that for local communities is they get the benefit of that infrastructure as well, and as well as playing that really important role in protecting the nation. So, that's just a couple of examples.

KELLY GUDGEON: I imagine one of the other of the policies that would be under that as well is the Nature Positive laws. Some of the issues that have come up around that are related directly to the resources industry here in the Pilbara. Is there an update on when those laws might be announced? Because I know there has been some negotiation over those.

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Yeah, well, Minister Plibersek and her team and the whole of government are working on that. But of course, Tanya has the lead and rightly so. But I think what's really important to hear is that the alternative party of government gets involved in the discussions on Nature Positive because at the moment they are taking a step back and that's a real shame. And the Opposition have done this before, not engaged in the Nature Positive discussions, which means the two alternative parties of government are not working together on something that's in the national interest of the country. So, I know resources leaders around the country, particularly in WA, have said quite a lot about the Nature Positive Plan, but I would urge them to get on the phone to Peter Dutton and ask him and his team to start engaging with the government in relation to Nature Positive.

KELLY GUDGEON: I'm speaking to Minister Madeleine King, Minister for Resources in Northern Australia, who is about to get on a plane to come to Karratha for the Developing Northern Australia Conference, which does start today. Minister, over the weekend there was a Greenpeace protest in Exmouth over Woodside's Browse Joint Venture Gas Field proposal. The WA EPA sent a letter to Woodside at the start of this month with a preliminary view that the gas project was unacceptable. But the project does still need approval from both state and federal environment ministers. It's being reported today that Woodside is yet to apply for federal environmental approval. Does the Federal Government have a position on this project yet?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, we know we will need more gas into the future, both for the economic development of Western Australia, but also for that of our neighbors to the north. So, Browse is an important part of that puzzle. But that is in no way a detract from the absolute imperative to have the proper environmental approvals process considered by the Federal Government as that happens. So, that will happen, as one would expect. I have a lot of faith in that system. And I also know this is a large project if it does indeed go ahead. But it's also important to the future. And I've got to say, Kelly, I do know the answer to the question, but I won't spill the beans on the quiz right now. Can I just say, in relation to that protest, I think peaceful protests like that are sensible way of people demonstrating their position on such a project. But [indistinct] we have to have a dose of reality, because you can't have surfboards, jet skis or modern kayaks without oil, gas and petrochemicals. So, these are parts of our modern world. But how we make sure they are accounted for environmentally in our government's ambition to drive to net zero is where the sensible center of this country sits. We know we want to have things we really like; we want to have affordable power; we want to be able to make things here. But how do we do it in a way that we can make sure we are driving to net zero by 2050. And that's really my imperative.

KELLY GUDGEON: Minister, I know you are about to get on a plane. I appreciate you not spilling the beans on that quiz question. We will see you in Karratha a bit later.

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Great. Thank you so much, Kelly.

KELLY GUDGEON: Thank you, Minister. Madeleine King. There she is, the Federal Minister for Resources and Northern Australia, on her way to the Pilbara for the Developing Northern Australia Conference, which starts in Karratha today.