Hi, and welcome to National Mining and Related Industries Day.

Hope you thoroughly enjoy your ‘Mates for Mining’ morning and afternoon teas. You sure deserve to enjoy! Just look what our essential industry delivers for Australia.

Our contribution, thanks to all of you in it, makes the greatest single contribution to our country. And isn’t it terrific, an industry which in some areas, particularly inner cities and left media, views mining as a dirty word, we are now much better recognised around Australia as an industry our country needs.

Hopefully on the screen are showing some of the media I collected to show you on our national day.

Let’s all build on this, we can’t sit on our laurels. please don’t forget it was only a few years ago that our industry was faced with both Mineral Resource Rent and Carbon Tax, a double whammy which would have deprived our industry of the profits needed for investment and for extending our mines and or building new mines, indeed would have devastated many in the industry.

Now is the time to remind all those we can, that our industry is necessary to maintain the living standards of Australians, it’s revenue is necessary to help fund our defence force and police, our hospitals and kindies, to help our elderly, maintain some of our airports, bridges, rails and roads, and provide funds for crisis’s. Because we can’t sit on our laurels and think that if we do nothing, the double whammy won’t return in some foolish form or another to devastate our industry, an industry we not only derive our livelihoods from, but should be very proud to be a part of.

We can’t look to government to ensure the future of our important industry, can we!

Too many in Government don’t even recognise that profits are needed so we can reinvest. Sadly few have even a clue that their tape and tax do nothing to encourage investment in mining, indeed any industry. They might mention the word investment, but fail year after year to take the hard decisions that they should, to cut Government tape and tax to make Australia , our very high cost country , more appealing for investment. They take the easy road, each party saying, look what we’ve spent, or will spend, to do this or that, yes, we know what that is, vote buying. And guess who’s money they are spending, their own, of course not, it’s the taxpayers, each one of yours, which is why our taxes continue to be too high. Because our money isn’t just spent on the worthwhile things I’ve listed, is it. And look what the government is doing, overspending, record debt levels escalate, leaving huge interest and debt burdens for the young ones amongst us, and for those who have children, our children and grandchildren. Making it harder and harder to reduce our taxes to any real degree.

But we could still make savings if they took the tough decisions, cut their tape, and overblown government parties, so let’s every one of us, never lose an opportunity to encourage them to make the tough decisions. And certainly never let the government think it can buy our votes with any form of handouts, i.e. our tax dollars, no, we want them to act more responsibly, in our interests.

We live in constantly changing times. Our best protection for our industry is the ability to be flexible, not constrained by tape, and to keep our costs down, so we can be internationally cost competitive, despite natural challenges like reducing ore grades and increasing impurities, and huge challenges from lower cost countries bringing on higher grade reserves of minerals in competition to our exports. That huge fat slab of expensive government burdens, needs to be cut. Let’s inspire our Governments to achieve this.

As we all know, this year has been an unprecedented challenge for all due to the pandemic. I am so very proud of our team, and our whole industry, for their over and beyond stardom in delivering despite this. We didn’t have a guide book, not even a protocols and procedures guide, we searched medical information and wrote our own.

Our company group and Roy Hill are especially proud and happy that we haven’t had one single COVD-19 case. Indeed, we are so proud of the attitude of our FIFO, who met the challenge, despite personal hardships for themselves, especially but not only the longer absences from their family.

Please let’s all remain diligent.

Now, next year, in addition to ‘Mates for Mining’ teas throughout our country, please join me for National Mining and Related Industries Day. The London Essentials will be back, helping us celebrate our national day and industry even on jet skis and in the water! Let Talitha know, if u wish to reserve your spot. Thank you to our entire team, and thank you to all in our great mining industry.

Long after I’ve gone, I hope you keep up this inaugural tradition of Mates for Mining morning and arvo teas, in support of an industry our country will always need.