QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Ms MADELEINE KING (Brand—Minister for Resources and Minister for Northern Australia) (14:05): I thank the member for Hasluck for her question. I take this brief moment to express my deepest sympathies to the families and workmates of the two workers who died in a mining accident in Cobar earlier today. It's a reminder to each of us here and around the country that mining is dangerous work and that every person who works in this industry deserves to come home safely at the end of a swing or a shift.

Australia's resources sector is the engine room of our economy. We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to capture new investment and create good, safe, well-paid jobs across the country by supporting the development of a critical minerals and rare earths industry. This government and our Critical Minerals Strategy sets out a clear vision to make Australia a globally significant producer of both raw and processed critical minerals.

The historic critical minerals framework agreement signed by the Prime Minister and the President of the United States last week is a major step in developing and growing this vital sector. This means good, safe, secure jobs for thousands of Australians in processing and mining, in regions and in industrial areas across the country. Last week's historic signing is just the start of many more partnerships with the United States and Australia in our resources sector.

I take this moment to thank Ambassador Rudd for his tireless advocacy, in Washington, of our critical minerals and rare earths industry. I will continue to work with other friends around the world as well, and I look forward to later this week representing Australia at a meeting of G7+ ministers in Toronto to further our work to diversify global critical minerals supply chains for the benefit of Australian workers, jobs and industries and for our national security.

Those opposite might not want to hear it, but it is a fact that no government has invested more in the future of Australia's resources than the Albanese Labor government. No government has done more to develop the critical minerals and rare earths industry, and therefore the resources sector as a whole, than the Albanese Labor government. The truth is sometimes hard to take for those opposite.

Let's look at their track record. They opposed the production tax credits for critical minerals. They kicked off about the Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve, which puts Australia in the perfect place to work with the United States.

And let's not forget that churlish moment when they wanted to rewrite the periodic table and make gas a critical mineral! You would have thought that topped it, but now they're all over the shop in relation to environmental reform, claiming credit one minute and bagging it the next. The truth is that those opposite don't know where they are in respect of the resources industry.

They certainly don't know where they are with environmental law reform. They are no help whatsoever to the critical minerals industry. Meanwhile, Australia can trust in the Albanese Labor government to support the resources sector.

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