ADAM STEPHEN, HOST: Senator Ayres is the Federal Minister for Industry and Innovation, joins us live from Mount Isa this afternoon. Thanks for joining us.
SENATOR TIM AYRES, MINISTER FOR INDUSTRY AND INNOVATION AND MINISTER FOR SCIENCE: G'day, it's really good to be on the show, and it's doubly good to be in Mount Isa.
HOST: If you could just remind the audience of the rescue package that the Federal and State Governments put together, and why this was such a key requirement. The transformation study.
AYRES: Well, it's a $600 million package from the two governments, the Albanese Government and the Crisafulli Government. It is designed to support the Mount Isa smelter over the course of three years, and in your introduction, you alluded to some of the challenges here. I mean, a lot of people want to talk Australian manufacturing down, but the truth is, what we've seen over the last few weeks is emblematic of the challenge here. Copper prices rising, and global demand for copper rising because it's a key metal in digital technology. It's key for the for economies as they transition to net zero for their industrial and energy processes. That's what's driving this additional demand. But treatment charges still staying desperately low, and that's because the global market is impacted by unfair practices and market concentration.
The impact of behaviour and market behaviour inside not just China, but the knock-on impacts of that around the world, mean that we have to fight to sustain copper smelting. The thousand – well north of a thousand jobs in here in Mount Isa, and its critical role in the industrial system in the north west province. So, that's what the $600 million package is about. And the transformation package is to make sure that everybody who participates in this is held accountable.
HOST: Yeah, it says something about the costs involved. That $600 million effectively buys you three years, you know, three years to be able to continue. But beyond that, what are you hoping that this transformation study might identify?
AYRES: Well, this is a region of Australia with enormous copper deposits. A range of junior miners who are developing those deposits, enormous industrial capability. Facilities like the smelter here, you know, feeding across the Townsville refinery. Dyno Nobel. It also has significant critical minerals reserves. This region should be the Silicon Valley of critical minerals production in Australia in the future. Enormous reserves, enormous space, industrial capability. But what we must do is chart a course forward together.
It's not just about what governments do. It's about everybody sticking their hand up to play their role as part of that $600 million package. That's given Glencore the confidence to make significant announcements about further investment in the region. That is a good thing. That's because the Albanese Government's Future Made in Australia agenda is giving the resources sector and processing manufacturing in Australia the confidence to invest. But we need to drive a process here where everybody participates and pulls their weight. I was really pleased to get all of the industry from the energy providers, the rail sector, the mining and processing sector, Local Government, State Government, everybody there today to begin this transformation package to make sure that we all do what is needed to deliver a Future Made in Australia and a Future Made in Mount Isa.
HOST: Senator Tim Ayres with us, the Federal Minister for Industry and Innovation. Back when this was at its, I guess, peak in terms of stress and anxiety, when it still wasn't clear whether a deal could be struck between Glencore and the Federal and State Government, many of our listeners are actually sort of suggesting that they didn't feel comfortable about a, you know, multi-billion dollar Swiss national company getting taxpayer assistance to maintain these assets. They reckon that, you know, if Glencore didn't want to keep them going, someone else could have stepped in and done the job. What do you say, I guess Senator Ayres, to the criticism that people didn't want Glencore bailed out, that if they didn't want to maintain the assets, that someone else could have done it?
AYRES: Well, it's Glencore's asset, and they own the asset. This package has got measures in it that means that they are accountable and we are accountable for continuing to operate that smelter, and to making sure that it works in the interest of the local community and in the national interest. This is a vital national industrial capability that we have here in Mount Isa. It makes sure that thousands and thousands of jobs in the region – Townsville Enterprise calculates 17,000 jobs because of the interoperability of all of these industrial facilities. So, it is absolutely the right thing to do to invest. Had we not done this and taken these measures; if we'd done what Angus Taylor says we should have done, and that is just step backwards and allow the market to operate, the facility would close. It's as simple as that.
You know, there are always the naysayers. There's a lot of negativity around Australian manufacturing coming from the Liberal and National parties, who say that government shouldn't step up. Well, this is an unashamedly pro-manufacturing government. Anthony Albanese, as the Prime Minister, is the most pro-manufacturing Prime Minister in our history. We've got the largest pro-manufacturing policy package in Future Made in Australia, $22.7 billion there to support current industry and to shape the future economy so that we reindustrialise our regions and our outer suburbs and deliver good blue collar jobs, not just now, but trades and engineering jobs for those kids who are at school right now.
HOST: What about Dyno Nobel and the future of its Phosphate Hill asset? It's said that so much of the future of the smelter in Mount Isa actually is contingent on that Phosphate Hill operation continuing because it takes a key waste product from the smelter and makes value out of it. Was there any discussion around that today at the transformation study? And is there any more clarity on whether that Phosphate Hill asset has indeed or will indeed stay viable?
AYRES: Well, you're right, there was discussion formally and of course in the corridors around it. Everybody in this community is watching carefully, and I can tell you that the Commonwealth Government is watching, carefully, the sale process at Dyno Nobel. It's true, these facilities all rise together. They are all interoperable, and it is very important for those reasons, and also because it's an important capability for Australia, that that facility passes into the hands of a firm that operates it in the regional interest and is prepared to invest in it. That's what we want to see. Watching it very closely.
Our support package makes Dyno Nobel viable. Our decision that we announced just before Christmas to implement an Australian Gas Reservation Scheme, making sure that Australian gas is there for Australians and in the Australian interest, is an important measure at securing the future of major gas industrial users like Dyno Nobel. The Albanese Government is pulling every lever here in the national interest to defend manufacturing. We are, as I said, unashamedly pro-manufacturing. That draws critics, but we are for blue-collar work, for national industrial capability. We know that it contributes to our national economic resilience, but it also builds the kind of communities, like the country towns that I come from in New South Wales, much like here in Mount Isa, that rely upon blue-collar jobs, blue-collar work and decent industrial capability.
HOST: Live from Mount Isa this afternoon, Senator Tim Ayres, Federal Minister for Industry and Innovation. Thanks for joining us.
AYRES: Thanks very much.
ENDS.
