Thanks for that introduction Peter.
It's a tribute to the significance of Minerals Week on the political calendar that so many Parliamentarians are here with you tonight.
Led by the Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer, my friend Wayne Swan; joined by my ministerial colleagues Martin Ferguson, Greg Combet, Gary Gray, Brendan O'Connor and Warren Snowdon and Senators Nick Sherry and Mark Arbib; with parliamentary secretaries David Bradbury, Mark Dreyfus, Richard Marles and Senator Ursula Stephens; as well as Chief Government Whip Joel Fitzgibbon, Sharon Bird, Sharon Grierson, Chris Hayes, Amanda Rishworth, Andrew Leigh, Shayne Neumann, Deb O'Neill, Sid Sidebottom, Senator Mark Bishop, Senator Trish Crossin, Senator Steve Hutchins and Senator Glenn Sterle.
I know Mr Abbott addressed you at lunchtime today, and the Opposition is represented tonight by other members and Senators as well, and that the Greens Member for Melbourne and the Independent Member for Kennedy are here as well.
So, miners, members, friends, fellow Australians all: welcome back to Canberra for Minerals Week 2011.
Minerals Week has been bringing the industry and government together for decades and will continue to do so in future.
I know you've been hard at work today and that you've got a full program tomorrow with the Council meeting and AGM discussions with Ministers and others.
We come to this Minerals Week working off a shared understanding of what is happening in our economy and in your industry, Not just the scale of investment, the biggest boom since they panned for gold in Bathurst and Ballarat, but the pace of change, with investment eight times what it was six years ago, on levels which we all considered a boom at the time, now accounting for well over half of the country's export earnings, up from a third a decade ago.
The truth is I spend much of my time as Prime Minister explaining to people who aren't here tonight just why the boom is a good thing for all Australians, and why nurturing the boom is central to the Government's economic strategy.
Whether I'm talking to investors in China and the United States, or talking to teenagers in suburban high schools, I'm always emphasising the opportunities your industry is creating, opportunities for return on capital, opportunities for a lifetime of work.
My message to Australia and the world is consistent: the investment boom is good news and we celebrate it.
But you knew that.
What I really want you to take away tonight is an understanding of just how central your industry is to the Government's economic agenda.
First of all, nurturing the mining investment boom is central to the Government's budget strategy and overall economic policy.
This year the Treasurer has delivered a tough Budget which will see us back in the black in 2012-13.
We're offsetting new spending, we're banking upward revisions in revenue, we're limiting spending growth overall, we're making significant savings. There's a reason for all this: above all else, to leave room for the mining sector to grow.
While we have short-term weakness from the natural disasters and an economy recovering from the global financial crisis, our medium term prospects are very strong.
I think it's widely acknowledged that fiscal policy was too loose during mining boom Mark I. Throughout 2007 we saw the economic outcomes of dumping cash into a capacity-constrained economy, and that's a mistake this Government won't make.
As investment hits top gear in the years ahead, we don't want the government and private sector chasing the same resources.
These decisions do call for some courage and we've shown it. In a choice between getting the policy right and cheap populism, I'll go for the right policy every time.
We'll continue on the reform road, hold to responsible fiscal policy and make the right investments, to nurture the boom for the future of the Australian economy.
Secondly, while there's no quiet years in a business as big as mining or in a task as complex as governing Australia, I do believe that as Government and industry come together in Canberra this week there's more business on the table than ever before, issues vital to your industry, issues vital to the country, and they include difficult issues that we've been discussing at great length: putting a price on carbon and introducing a minerals resource rent tax.
On carbon, the best way to describe our fundamental approach is this: as a responsible national Government, we have to manage a long-term national risk - climate change.
You know all the arguments but I just make that point.
You're all leaders in industry, responsible leaders, you all manage risk every day. If there's anything that keeps leaders awake at night, it's that responsibility.
In this sense Government is no different and all of us who care about the future of our nation must work together as Australians to fulfil this fundamental responsibility of leadership, to manage risk for our nation.
In developing our plan, I know there are some in industry, including some here tonight, who have expressed support for a system like that adopted in the European Union.
My own judgement is that while the overseas experience provides some useful insights I see a number of elements which would not be in Australia's national interest.
Schemes which exclude substantial sectors of the real economy simply shift the first-round cost on to a smaller number of players, with a greater cost to the national economy over time.
Our overall approach is to achieve the lowest-cost, most efficient emissions reductions, to set incentives for the most productive investment possible.
So, as you all know, we're working through the process for developing the carbon price now.
The final Garnaut Review will be followed this month by the Productivity Commission review of international shadow carbon prices and the Treasury modelling of the impacts of a carbon price on the Australian economy.
We intend to announce the details of the carbon price in the middle of the year, to introduce the legislation to the Parliament in September and we're working for passage by the end of the year with the price to commence 1 July 2012.
Friends, the Government is doing all this because we believe that Australia needs to act now.
No question, it's not easy.
We respect that this requires industry to make a transition, and I know that in the face of the challenge there are some who resort to scepticism or argue for inaction or delay.
I have to say, in my life, I don't remember many difficult things which got easier the longer I left them, and in an economy like ours, there is never an easy time to make a big change, whether that's tariff reform or tax reform or pricing carbon.
I also know there's been discussion this week of the status of a global agreement to reduce emissions. What's clear is that with or without global agreement, our competitor economies are acting.
The Government's approach is not that Australia should lead the world in environmental policy - it is that Australia should not be left behind in economic transition.
If we can't act now to manage this risk - after decades of growth; with an economy which is fundamentally strong and has a solid pipeline of investment; after a long debate which at significant points had bipartisan agreement - I don't know when we can.
Just as I think we can share an understanding of the need for risk management on climate change, on profit-based taxation, I do believe we share a fundamental approach.
Profit-based taxation, rather than royalties, is the better approach to generating public value from natural resources.
Royalties don't support growth in the sector. They make it more difficult for new investment to get up and they remain high when conditions are tough, and because they are imposed from the first tonne that is dug up royalties are much less supportive of growth and of small ventures.
So, I will continue to push back on states that push up royalties. The recent decisions in the Western Australian budget frankly only demonstrate the weaknesses of a royalties system, because when a state like WA hikes their royalties, it is the many small and start-up ventures who pay the price.
By contrast, the minerals resource rent tax will not apply at all for smaller miners, those with profits under $50 million, and miners with low profitability, for example those setting up a project with high upfront costs.
By design, the MRRT recognises different businesses processes and the different profitability of mines and will only tax profits after deductions for investment and operating costs.
How we move to profit-based taxation is obviously the key.
The Government has accepted the recommendations of the Policy Transition Group and the initial public consultation on the draft MRRT legislation will begin in the next few weeks, and we'll be introducing the MRRT legislation towards the end of the year.
I put these two issues together, carbon and resource rents, not just because they've been issues where you have real interests at stake and where you haven't always been happy with our approach - though I do respect that.
I ask the Deputy Prime Minister and I ask ministers of the calibre of Greg and Martin to deal with the hard issues, not the easy things, and these are among them.
The reason I put carbon and resource rents together as issues to discuss is because while you're all here, I need to say this: I sincerely appreciate the way the industry is approaching our discussions. I can honestly say, every day I've been Prime Minister, I've seen respect and good faith on both sides of both these issues.
We're having a serious discussion that respects the facts.
That's vital for the national interest: we need an evidence-based, empirical public debate, not just to deliver these difficult reforms but to keep public policy on the reform road for the future.
And as well as respecting the facts in the discussion, I think industry and Government have respected our word.
Where we've made agreements, they've stuck, and in turn, this has allowed us to get to grips with the remaining matters.
We've seen this on the carbon price mechanism, where we have been engaging in detailed design work since February and you've worked hard with us.
We've seen this on the MRRT where the Policy Transition Group has done enormous work to get us to this point.
The Government won't pat ourselves on the back for consulting: it's what we should always do, it's the mark of a mature and methodical policy process, and we know industry has stayed at the table and been seriously engaged.
I know it's exhaustive - business roundtables, working groups, policy transition groups. I also know it's worth it.
The Government is also building partnerships with industry to strengthen the economy and create opportunity.
To build infrastructure, $400 million for the Regional Infrastructure Fund.
An Infrastructure Investment Incentive to attract up to $25 billion of private and superannuation investment by protecting the value of early stage losses and giving greater certainty that early-stage losses can be claimed.
To extend education and employment to indigenous Australians. This is an area where industry and government are partners in the drive to extend opportunity to indigenous Australia.
Developing a successful Indigenous employment model in the Pilbara that can be replicated in other regions - funding thousands of commencements into training and employment - forming specific partnerships from Gove to Gladstone.
Just today I joined with Rio Tinto and discussed the good work they're doing - one example among many in the industry.
To train Australians and make the best of skilled migration. Training our young people to work in industries like yours is not just nurturing the Australian boom, it is extending Australian opportunity as well.
Here I see a real chance, driven by the economy, to work with you to achieve goals we share - goals I have always held dear: for our young people to have a fair go, to have an opportunity in life.
That's exactly what's in our Budget:
* An industry-demand-driven National Workforce Development Fund that will deliver 130,000 new training places over four years.
* A national mentoring program to help 40,000 apprentices finish training.
* Accelerating apprenticeships so people progress as they acquire the right skills.
* Ambitious reforms of the vocational education and training system.
* 16,000 skilled migration places to the regions, Regional Migration Agreements, Enterprise Migration Agreements for large resource projects in return for a financial contribution to train Australians for the future.
And we're pleased that these have been well received.
Your own Council recognising the “the Budget makes ... important contributions in tackling emerging capacity constraints”.
The Mines and Metals Association praising Enterprise Migration Agreements for the sector as “a huge step in the right direction”.
I won't argue with that.
Friends, I also want to acknowledge the part the industry is playing rebuilding Queensland after the devastating natural disasters of this year.
The sector contributed over $18 million to the Queensland disaster relief appeal.
In those terrible days, we saw mining companies using their helicopters used to ferry evacuees, providing transportable buildings for medical practices - even funding the refurbishment of a senior citizens home.
It's been almost literally ‘all hands to the pump' dewatering mines, so it's good news for the industry, the state and the country that the vast majority of damaged coal mines have now returned to operation.
And you have borne a burden as well, and the drop in our gross domestic product reported today reflects the substantial costs to many of you of losses arising from the damage and disruption this summer.
The Government is doing our bit, providing $5.7 billion to help Queensland - the vast majority to repair damage to essential infrastructure.
Over 70% of damaged roads and 90% of damaged rail lines restored and recovery and reconstruction is well underway.
There is much work still to do, but we'll see the task through together.
It's no accident that last Friday while many of you were preparing for this week in Canberra I was up in Moranbah at a great event organised by Women in Mining and Resources Queensland.
There I spoke to some really inspirational Australians - geologists, engineers, a female mine manager - and we talked about what it must have been like to be one of the first woman to turn up at a mine site; the first woman to climb into the cab of one of those huge trucks; and we talked about the opportunities that flow from the mining industry to these hard working women.
Or that next week I'll be in Yirrkala in Arnhem Land to celebrate the signing of the agreement between traditional owners of the Gove peninsula and Rio Tinto which secures the operation of bauxite mining and alumina refining at Gove for four decades to come, and we'll talk about the opportunities that flow from the mining industry to Aboriginal traditional owners, surrounding communities and the Nhulunbuy community.
Your industry is so important to my daily work because you've become so important to the opportunities that all Australians seek.
I think about it this way: We are a country once described as the world's first suburban nation, where home ownership is seriously referred to as the national dream, and this year, Australian industry will invest more money into mining than the whole country invests in building new houses.
So we're together in Canberra tonight at a time when mining's never been more important to our country's future, when Government and industry have never had more to discuss: some shared fundamentals; yes, some big differences to work through; yes, real respect and good faith working through them; a boom to nurture; infrastructure to build; Australians to train; big risks to manage; big transitions to make; big opportunities to seize.
It's a good time for activists and a good time for optimists, and there's plenty of both in the room tonight in industry and in government: optimists who share a vision of a better future; activists who share a determination to build it; Australians who'll share a good night together.