**Check Against Delivery**
What will Western Australia look like in 20 years?
Thank you so much for that kind introduction, and to the WA Mining Club for the opportunity to speak today. I acknowledge our indigenous partnerships, that are essential to mining's success across the country.
Can I also acknowledge and thank our three board members here today: Amanda Lacaze, Simon Trott and Ivan Vella.
And a special thank you to colleagues from mining and other industries who are with us today, including members of the Fuel Tax Alliance.
What a privilege it is to be back in Western Australia; the powerhouse of the Australian economy. A state that continues to deliver for all Australians and underpin our strength and success.
I want to congratulate the Cook Government for its election victory and for standing up for mining when others have taken us for granted.
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Less than 48 hours ago the Federal Government delivered their fourth and final budget leading into the election.
The Prime Minister needed to deliver a budget for the future instead he delivered one to secure his own future.
Importantly, mining was forgotten and if mining is forgotten then Western Australia is forsaken.
This is of immense consequence to Australian households and businesses, because instead of preparing the country for the economic fallout from major geopolitical risks, such as China's weakening economy and escalating trade tensions that threaten investment and jobs, the government is choosing to protect itself.
This trade uncertainty, these emerging threats, reinforce the need for Australia to get the fundamentals right in our economy to protect and enhance our global competitiveness; to better position ourselves in such times of economic uncertainty.
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While commodity prices rise and fall. While economic uncertainty only increases. While government intervention continues to constrain us rather than enable us. While nations actively wage war on our competitiveness.
There is one truth that remains constant.
The world continues to have an insatiable appetite for Australia's bulk commodities, our mineral wealth, our sources of energy, our mining expertise and our ingenuity.
We've got it, in spades. Come and get it.
We rightfully boast of the immense opportunities before us - opportunities to build on decades of success in our sector that have brought prosperity to all Australians, to transform our mineral wealth into technologies and innovations, jobs and careers that will define the future.
These opportunities cascade through our sector, empowering all of you; service contractors, suppliers and manufacturers, and the 18,000 businesses across the Western Australian economy that rely on mining.
Every new mining job generates 6.14 additional jobs across the economy. And for every $1 million in added demand, $2.36 million in extra output is required, fuelling growth for the businesses that support and collaborate with mining.
The Centre for International Economics estimates that the expansion of mining this century has increased household incomes on average by $19,000 compared to what they would otherwise have been.
While the Federal Government may be reluctant to acknowledge mining's impact on the budget and broader economy, we won't shy away from the facts: last year, mining delivered $4.5 billion more in company tax than Treasury forecast, and stronger-than-expected commodity prices pushed nominal GDP up to 4.1 per cent.
But while we see opportunity, we must confront the challenges that stand in the path to realising them. We must be honest about the hurdles we need to overcome. And we must call out any attempt to sabotage our industry, either through ignorance of how we operate, by tired ideology, or by those who plot our demise, including the activists who sought to kill off the McPhillamy's Gold Project in Blayney, NSW.
For our success is Australia's success. Our progress is Australia's progress.
We must protect it. We must fight for it.
This is not the time to stand still, while our industry is under attack. This is not the time to be silent. Because silence teaches what you tolerate. It screams acceptance. It invites further intrusion.
And this is not the time to play nice with fairweather friends. You either support mining or you don't.
To harden our resolve, it is important to imagine what the future looks like if we get it right, but conversely, what it looks like if we are held back.
What will Australian mining look like in 20 years if current trends and policy settings remain unchanged? What will Western Australia look like in 20 years?
But also, how do we navigate this tenuous moment to ensure our industry not only survives but thrives into the future? That it continues to make a lasting contribution to the prosperity of all Australians. That it continues to underpin our government services and community needs.
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This challenge is perhaps more pronounced in Western Australia, where the stakes have never been higher, and the success of the past is no guarantee of the future.
Over the past two decades, Western Australia's annual iron ore exports have quadrupled, with last year's record haul reaching 903 million tonnes. In just 10 years, the total value of Australian iron ore exports has surpassed $1 trillion.
Yet, while past investments have built nearly a billion tonnes of production capacity, new projects are not coming online fast enough. Only 60 million tonnes of new capacity is expected in the coming years - a long way short of replacing retiring mines.
The challenges to opening new mines are only growing. Approval times have blown out to 18 years. Costs are soaring, with Rio Tinto reporting a 7 per cent rise in iron ore production costs across its 17 Pilbara mines. Even critical minerals needed for the clean energy transition face barriers, particularly smaller operators struggling against global price manipulation and the need for common user infrastructure.
Western Australia has long been the economic engine of our nation. But if we don't prepare, if we don't make it easier to dig our resource assets out of the ground, we risk our richest state sliding down the rankings. We risk this state becoming poorer by the year. We risk Australia's ongoing prosperity.
This risk is quickly becoming evident in the project success rate. Only 5 per cent of projects are moving from the feasibility stage to the committed stage each year, then only one in five make it to completion. It is not just the trajectory of major projects that is of concern, it is the deposits that remain under lock and key.
There is no technical, environmental or economic reason to maintain a policy against uranium mining. Now that Premier Cook finally has a mandate from the voting public, it is time to lift this nonsensical ban and seize the opportunity to not only reap the economic benefits, but play a key role in global emissions reduction.
It is a damning indictment on the Government that it is very happy to host nuclear submarines - the crown jewels of the AUKUS program - yet refuses to supply our allies with uranium for the peaceful purpose of energy generation.
The US has 94 nuclear power stations we have the uranium to match.
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In three years, we have watched the competitiveness of the Australian minerals sector be systematically whittled down. Poor policy compounded by poor policy. Costs mounted upon costs. A gift to our global competitors.
That is not a political statement. Governments of all persuasions have been advocates for our industry.
But there is no doubt this Federal Government has taken a particular bent against our industry. There are platitudes, yes. There are promises, certainly. But actions speak volumes.
Our industry has been battered by narrow policies that have compounded high energy prices, by reckless industrial relations policies that damage productivity, by the pursuit of a rigid environmental approvals regime that chased away investment. By uncompetitive tax settings, and the threat of higher taxes.
And while we have seen the Future Made in Australia tax incentives pass the parliament, it is hardly the silver bullet.
It may help few projects, and the MCA supports it in principle, but such government incentives clash with policies that stifle investment.
Investors aren't deterred by a lack of tax breaks in Australia - they're holding back because the policy settings are wrong, the business conditions are poor, productivity is dire, and the investment risks are building.
The Treasurer wants business led productivity growth and so he needs to lead the removal of all the road blocks in the way!
The government must fix these fundamentals first.
Quoting further from the CIE, a one per cent increase in annual productivity by 2030, which is almost equivalent to the economic benefits from the last expansion of mining, would give the economy a $290 billion boost, lift real wages by 9.4 per cent, and leave families, that's households, $11,700 better off.
That's a future worth investing in. Not jeopardising.
One of the most concerning aspects of this political stance is the lack of understanding of who bears the impact when the mining sector is under pressure.
The government may see itself targeting the corporate giants _ remembering a Labor senator admitted that Same Job, Same Pay was about getting Qantas and BHP - but the big miners make up only a small fraction of the broader set of businesses across our industry.
Western Australia is home to 3,330 mining businesses, yet only 60 of them employ more than 200 people. In contrast, around 2,600 operate with fewer than five employees.
It's the smallest businesses and contractors that suffer most when policy decisions tighten investment, while the big miners struggle through and eventually make the commercial decision to sell up or become takeover targets.
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The threat of higher taxes on our industry is not an embellishment. Because while the Prime Minister has publicly stated there will be no new taxes on mining, and while Minister King has ruled out winding back Fuel Tax Credits, on current polling, we are staring down the barrel of a minority government.
The ultimate power may soon rest on an unwieldy alliance of Teals and Greens, many of whom have stated goals of pursuing a super profits tax and winding back fuel tax credits. The latter is the member for Curtin's signature policy; an electorate built on the back of the mining, gas, agriculture and seafood industries that have long received the credits on the fair assumption that road taxes should only be for road users.
Government promises are about to be sorely tested in the wheeling and dealing of minority rule. Sitting back, playing nice and hoping you won't be a target is naïve. Only strong voices standing solid and united against policy stupidity will win the day,
In the MCA 2025 Tax Plan, we are advocating for the Junior Minerals Exploration Incentive to be made permanent and expanded. This initiative has helped level the playing field between junior explorers and large companies that can deduct exploration expenditures from taxable income earned from mining activities. But the annual cap and structure limit its effectiveness. Raising the cap and improving certainty in credit allocation will unlock more investment and drive new discoveries.
The MCA is also pushing for accelerated depreciation for all businesses in the room to encourage new investment, and a broad-based 20 per cent investment allowance.
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The risk of minority government dealing a dud hand on environmental approvals is also something we should be preparing for.
The government was right to halt its controversial Nature Positive legislation earlier this year, a decision the MCA played an important role in securing.
That doesn't mean we don't want reform in this space. The industry has always supported changes to national environment law. We take our environmental stewardship seriously.
But reform must deliver for both the environment and the economy.
We must get back to basics, informed by the Samuels review of the EPBC Act, focussing on streamlining approvals, reducing duplication, and a flexible offsets framework.
And there is no reason in 2025 that environmental assessments and approvals could not move from years to hours, with the use of AI and enhanced environmental data.
Yes, you heard right, I said hours!
The Budget missed a chance to give industry certainty, with EPBC Act changes targeting only salmon, offering little relief for mining projects already facing long approval delays.
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The third fundamental is industrial relations. The MCA will not stop prosecuting the reckless changes to workplace laws made by the Albanese Government.
Under these changes, mining operations, particularly those in the Pilbara, are now vulnerable to the damaging impacts of union disruption and protracted disputes, running the sword through productivity and workplace cohesion.
These changes are not about wages. They are about extending union power at an industry-wide scale, and imposing union controls within individual workplaces. And we are starting to see this here in WA, with the Mining and Energy Union trying to barge their way into the Pilbara, despite having no previous presence.
Certain unions have been very clear about their intention to - in their own words - 're-unionise the Pilbara'. There is not a single element of these new measures that will enhance productivity or cooperation in workplaces. They will do the exact opposite.
Our demand of government's workplace relations is three-fold.
First, repeal new powers that give unions the ability to intrude into workplaces without support from workers. This is a particular threat to the Pilbara, with one miner confirming that they had seen a 300 per cent increase in so-called right of entry incursions.
Second, reform the so-called 'Same Job, Same Pay' laws so they can't apply to service contractors, who provide a specified service rather than labour. When this legislation was introduced, Tony Burke promised that it contained a "clear line" that would "exclude" service contractors.
Yet in the very first case before the Fair Work Commission two months ago, the government's own Kings Counsel told the Commission that this had never been its intention and there were no real distinctions between labour hire and service contractors.
The government's assurances were worthless. As we always knew they were.
And third, repeal multi-employer bargaining laws that allow for competing employers to be forced into union-controlled bargaining against their will. This will see a return to industry-wide strikes.
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Finally, on energy.
Although Western Australia operates its own energy grid, it would be remiss not to acknowledge the broader energy issues impacting our productive industries.
Let me be clear: We are in an energy emergency.
In just 15 years, we have transformed the National Electricity Market, from a system where over 90 per cent of the generation was coming from dispatchable power plants, to one where almost half of the generation capacity is now weather dependent wind and solar.
We all know solar and wind will play an important role in our future energy. However, it is clearly more complex to integrate and manage this fundamentally changed system - as reflected in the fact that wholesale electricity prices in the NEM have risen between 130 and 195 per cent over the same period.
And the result? Almost the same total output at around 200 TWh.
While Australia is not the first nation to deal with the severe ramifications from replacing baseload power with weather-dependent generation, we have few peers that are so stubbornly focused on a pure renewable energy pathway to Net Zero, no matter what the cost.
By this approach, we are dudding Australian households and business owners who are struggling to pay their bills.
This is exacerbated by the government's schizophrenic position on gas. It says it wants more gas in the system. It even has a Future Gas Strategy, albeit minus the strategy bit. But there appears no political will to expedite approvals, unlock assets, incentivise state governments to "drill baby drill", and encourage investment in infrastructure.
The saga surrounding the North West Shelf gas project extension is a case in point. A project of strategic importance for domestic gas supply and for Australia's ongoing prosperity, is still awaiting the minister's approval to merely extend the use of existing infrastructure.
It not only damages Australia's reputation as a sensible destination for investment, it undermines our energy security and puts upward pressure on energy bills. You can't just keep giving $150 rebates forever. The MCA's energy plan focuses on three points.
First, our approach must be technology-agnostic with all options on the table, whether that's renewables, nuclear, gas or coal with CCS - and therefore we must be pragmatic and guided by science, not ideology, nor politics, so we can get the balance right between emissions, cost and reliability.
Second, we can't afford to shut down existing infrastructure until replacement capacity is proven and operational.
And third, what is being undertaken here is the most ambitious energy infrastructure transformation in our history and without anyone doing it successfully elsewhere in the world. And while that transformation is important, Australia is attempting to bring it on too quickly without the necessary safeguards in place, and with no consideration of the need to build the lowest-cost energy system.
No other nation is running at this pace. Why are we?
We can't afford to get it wrong. Now is the time for serious, solutions-focused energy policy, before it's too late.
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It is these four fundamentals that governments must urgently address - to give Australia back its competitive edge.
To ensure we don't miss this extraordinary opportunity to extend mining's golden run for another generation and beyond.
To ensure Western Australia stays at the top, and not slides towards the bottom.
With the Federal election on our doorstep, this is our unashamed clarion call to every politician.
And in equal measure to all of you - stand up for your business.
Our strength lies in our collective voices, a bright future depends upon it.
Thank you.
