Last year when I spoke to this conference, I did so in the context of very high domestic gas prices. At the time I noted that the domestic price of gas in Adelaide was $14 / GJ compared to a price of $11 / GJ in Japan.  I said last year that the Australian Government was committed to protecting jobs and that we would act if necessary, and we have acted. We acted to control gas exports through the Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism.  Read more

Thank you so much Sophie. And thank you ladies and gentlemen for being here tonight and standing true for marriage. We have had some excellent speeches tonight, from all the speakers, but tonight I just want to stress a simple message, a very simple message. And that message is: we can win! We can win this. Read more

Can I start by recognising the service of Simon Bennison. Simon has provided a remarkable decade of leadership for your industry. A decade that has included booms, busts and regime changing blues with the Federal Government. Simon has made a distinguished contribution to this organisation and to the Australian resources industry more broadly. His successor at the helm of AMEC will certainly have big shoes to fill. Read more

It is a great honour to open your conference. I have been the Resources Minister for less than a year and this is my first APPEA conference. I am sure many in this room have attended many multiple times, as this conference has become one of the most important events in the resources sector calendar. That’s occurred because of what you have achieved. This industry, in Australia, has made history. From when Woodside (Lakes Entrance) Oil was given exploration leases off the north-west coast of Western Australia, through to 60 years later when Australia is set to become the largest exporter of natural gas in the world, this has been an historic epoch in the development of the global resources industry. Read more

Thank you so much for having me here today at your annual conference. Thank you, in particular to Tom Stockwell, president of the NT Cattlemen’s Association and Tracey Hayes, your CEO. It is a privilege to be here to represent Barnaby Joyce. He sends his apologies. It is also great to be here to help witness the Memorandum of Understanding between yourselves, Agforce, the Pastoralists and Graziers Association of Western Australia and the Cattle Council. It is this sort of “east-west” collaboration that we desperately need in the north for it to reach its full potential. We can’t just retreat into state or territory parochialism – we have to work together. Read more

I have just flown in here from Japan and as the old joke goes "boy am I tired". I got a bit of sleep but for the past few months what has genuinely kept me up at night is Australia's gas supply crisis.  There are many ways to define and describe this problem but given where I have just travelled from, it’s most apt to compare the Australian situation with Japan. In July last year, during a cold winter, the price of gas in Australia reached double digits and in Adelaide the price reached $14/GJ. While the spot price of gas in Japan in the last quarter was just over AUS $10/GJ. Read more

Northern Australia makes up 40 per cent of Australia but there is no city there that can be called a “middle city”, or a city of more than 500,000 people. That is a sobering fact for me as the Minister for Northern Australia. Why is it that 228 years since British settlement we have failed to truly settle the north? Read more

I’m very proud as the Minister for Resources and Northern Australia to give this first report on our progress implementing the White Paper on Developing Northern Australia: Our North, Our Future. Our great nation is a country of contrasts and diversity, and this government is determined to ensure we reach the full potential inherent in all parts of Australia. Our northern development agenda is a nation building project.  Read more

It is great to be here at the Queensland Media Club to address you as a relatively new Resources and Northern Australia Minister. In my first few months in this job I have been stressing how important the resources sector is for our nation’s history, and to our future. We have all heard the story of the gold rushes, Peter Lalor and the Eureka Stockade but you might not know the important role of your industry, the media, in that story. Read more

I want to talk today a little about how important mining and resources have been for Northern Australia, especially over the past decade, and how the government plans to further develop the north in coming decades. Before I do that, though, I have just come here this morning after two days in Adelaide. I was meeting with Parliamentarians at the time the statewide “black event” occurred. It was hard to believe at first that power had been lost to the entire state. It is completely unacceptable that the collapse of transmission towers in the north of one state could cause a whole state to lose power. Read more