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Speaker 1: We just heard from the Deputy Chief Minister, Nicole Madison.

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Speaker 1: She's been out on traveling the territory with the promise

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Speaker 1: to cut red tape and long approval delays as well

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Speaker 1: as get new job creating projects off the ground. One

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Speaker 1: industry that has been crying out for this is the

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Speaker 1: mining sector. Joining me on the line now is Drew Wagner,

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Speaker 1: the executive director of the NT Minerals Council. Geta Drew.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Matt. How are you Yeah? Good?

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Speaker 1: Thanks Drew. As I mentioned your industry long being crying

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Speaker 1: out for this, do you think Nicole Madison taking over

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Speaker 1: that mining portfolio? Can she make it happen.

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Speaker 2: I think if anyone can, it will certainly be the

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Speaker 2: Deputy Chief Minister. We're excited to have Nicole Madison obviously

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Speaker 2: as our Minister for Minds, which is the first time

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Speaker 2: that that differentiation has been made for a while, and

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Speaker 2: it certainly comes at a perfect time when there's strong

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Speaker 2: recognition of potential, there's strong recognition of view projects coming

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Speaker 2: over the line, and a strong recognition of the role

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Speaker 2: that the mining sector can play in our overall recovery.

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Speaker 2: Given the last twelve months that.

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Speaker 1: We've had Drew, I mean, just for those who don't know,

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Speaker 1: talk us through the complexities of the NT mining approvals process.

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Speaker 2: At the moment, well at the moment, tod of these

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Speaker 2: processes can take many, many years. We've seen environmental impact

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Speaker 2: statements that are weighed in excess of forty kilos, and

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Speaker 2: that was from an expansion of a current site, not

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Speaker 2: even a new site. We've seen Greenfield's developments way thirteen

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Speaker 2: fourteen kilos. So I'm not sure about you, Matte, but

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Speaker 2: I don't think I can't remember the last time I

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Speaker 2: read a book more than a couple of kilos, let

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Speaker 2: alone thirteen, let alone forty. So the complexity you certainly

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Speaker 2: need to have some work done on them.

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Speaker 1: I thought you were going to ask, when's the last

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Speaker 1: time I lifted forty kilos, and I was going to

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Speaker 1: say that'll probably be a while as well.

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Speaker 2: Well. The interesting thing that to make it relative to

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Speaker 2: your listeners. Under the NT Workplace Health and Safety legislation,

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Speaker 2: one person alone cannot lift their eos. But that's not

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Speaker 2: starting up in itself. Then that's the reality we need

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Speaker 2: to move forward from.

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Speaker 1: Drew, I mean, how does this compare to other jurisdictions?

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Speaker 2: Well, too, difficult to compare apples with apples other jurisdictions.

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Speaker 2: Some are a lot more efficient in their time frames,

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Speaker 2: they may have more conditions on them. Some are a

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Speaker 2: lot smoother in the transition or transparency. But there are

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Speaker 2: bits that we can choose from most of the jurisdictions

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Speaker 2: around Australia because the reality is if we're not competitive

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Speaker 2: against those jurisdictions and the money and investment will happen there.

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Speaker 2: We always hear about the Great States, Wa and Queensland

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Speaker 2: all the mining they've got. They've got a lot, don't

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Speaker 2: get me wrong, But our opportunity is now. The time

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Speaker 2: to get these frameworks right, the time to get the

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Speaker 2: process in place, and the time to encourage that investment.

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Speaker 2: Our opportunities now, and that's what we need to make

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Speaker 2: sure we take advantage of. And that's what we're looking forward.

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Speaker 1: To work with the Minister on you mentioned before. But

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Speaker 1: it sounds like we could be at risk of losing projects,

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Speaker 1: you know, if we don't get moving on and cutting

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Speaker 1: some of these red tape quickly.

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Speaker 2: Many of your listeners would have heard the words the

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Speaker 2: mining boom. Now, that was the investment boom between two

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Speaker 2: thousand and eight and twenty twelve, less than one percent

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Speaker 2: of the national investment in mining came to the Northern

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Speaker 2: territory during that period. We can ill afford for that

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Speaker 2: to happen again.

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Speaker 1: It sounds like that this is something that goes beyond

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Speaker 1: the labor government.

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Speaker 2: Then.

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Speaker 1: I mean, if we go back to twenty twelve. Prior

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Speaker 1: to twenty twelve, it was a labor government in power,

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Speaker 1: but twenty twelve to twenty sixteen was the CLP. So

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Speaker 1: it sounds like this is a problem that's been going

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Speaker 1: on for a long time. And I guess all the

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Speaker 1: blame can't be fooded at the labor government because it's

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Speaker 1: been going on so long.

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Speaker 2: Oh look, not at all. There's no blame being placed

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Speaker 2: in the foot of any government. All we are doing

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Speaker 2: is the industry is looking forward to what we can

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Speaker 2: collectively achieve on behalf of all territories. What jobs can

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Speaker 2: be put in place, what investment can we encourage, What

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Speaker 2: rural and regional development situations we can look forward, and

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Speaker 2: what benefit we can provide to the community. That's where

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Speaker 2: we're out and that's what we're hoping to achieve. Drew.

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Speaker 1: What work can the new minister do right now to

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Speaker 1: help streamline that approvals process.

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Speaker 2: So right now we're looking for some very clear signals

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Speaker 2: and messages that many of the reviews that we've seen

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Speaker 2: being undertaken over the last four years come to an end.

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Speaker 2: We've seen definitions put round a lot of the guidelines,

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Speaker 2: a lot of the environmental legislation, a lot of the

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Speaker 2: approval systems, and a lot of the overall management of

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Speaker 2: our sites. Provide that transparency, provide that certainty, and allow

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Speaker 2: industry to make the decision whether or not they move

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Speaker 2: forward then, rather than over regulating and pushing them back

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Speaker 2: out of the back.

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Speaker 1: Door to play devil's advocate get I guess there is

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Speaker 1: a greater environmental risk if we go too hard and

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Speaker 1: slash too many of the approvals processes, isn't there?

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Speaker 2: Oh, Look, without a doubt, and we would never ever

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Speaker 2: as an industry and as an individual, I would never

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Speaker 2: wish to reduce the validity of that process. But we

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Speaker 2: can certainly look at the efficiency of it.

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Speaker 1: I knows speaking to Nicole Manison a short time ago,

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Speaker 1: that one of the things that she flagged is that

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Speaker 1: she wants to see the public service really get behind

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Speaker 1: her in this new can do kind of approached to

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Speaker 1: cutting red tape and approvals processes. It sounds like from

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Speaker 1: what she's saying is that the public service has worked

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Speaker 1: to do here, and not just the minister.

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Speaker 2: I think we've all got work to do here, and

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Speaker 2: I think we've identified as industry areas that we can

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Speaker 2: have some development opportunities in. I think there's strong messaging

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Speaker 2: from the minister coming that she's prepared to put a

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Speaker 2: shore rid of the wheel, so to speak. I think

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Speaker 2: the public service has to come to the party as well.

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Speaker 2: I think collectively, if we're looking through the lens of

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Speaker 2: redevelopment and reconstruction, this is an holistic job that everybody involved,

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Speaker 2: and that's what we're trying to achieve with the main.

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Speaker 1: You must have been happy a few weeks ago when

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Speaker 1: the federal government flagged their new job maker program. I

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Speaker 1: think I'm losing track of all the different job programs

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Speaker 1: that there is, but there was a big emphasis on gas,

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Speaker 1: particularly around the Beaterloo base, and it must be good

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Speaker 1: to know that you've the industry has got the federal

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Speaker 1: government in their corner, you know, really trying to push

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Speaker 1: some of these projects ahead a lot quicker.

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Speaker 2: Look. I think that there's the strong recognition that we

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Speaker 2: are potentially talking thousands and thousands of jobs here. There's

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Speaker 2: strong recognition that's rural and regional development. There's strong recognition

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Speaker 2: about the return to the economy and the investment that

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Speaker 2: can be made for the returns that can be had.

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Speaker 2: So anything we can do right now, every second word

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Speaker 2: seems to have the letters are in front of it.

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Speaker 2: Whether we're rebuilding or reconstruction, of reconstruction or redeveloping, there's

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Speaker 2: a lot of potential that we can achieve. So if

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Speaker 2: we can put forward some of those systems, if we

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Speaker 2: can encourage some of that advancement, we can help achieve

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Speaker 2: some of those outcomes.

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Speaker 1: Coming back home, and I know that the Territory Economic

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Speaker 1: Reconstruction Commission, I think they're due to release one of

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Speaker 1: their reports pretty soon. Did the mining industry get a

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Speaker 1: chance to submit some ideas into that commission?

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Speaker 2: Very much so. We've been working very closely with both

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Speaker 2: the Commission and the Secretariat. It's been well and long

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Speaker 2: known a number of the projects that we've got through

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Speaker 2: our membership that we're looking at bringing and facilitating to

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Speaker 2: come online, both through greenfields, brownfields, so new and also

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Speaker 2: expanded operations. But once again, that recognition that we saw

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Speaker 2: federally has also been echoed locally in regards to the

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Speaker 2: potential that we've certainly got and hopefully moving down further

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Speaker 2: on the track, the manufacturing opportunities we've got too, because

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Speaker 2: of all the products that we can potentially produce here

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Speaker 2: in the territory, so much of that can be beneficiated

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Speaker 2: and made into other products. We keep talking about renewed

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Speaker 2: energy was about twenty something minerals that go into a

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Speaker 2: solar panel, and many of them we can produce here

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Speaker 2: in the territory. So hopefully we can see a downstream

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Speaker 2: manufacturing sector sometime in the future too.

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Speaker 1: Drue, Just finally, you've got the Darwin Mining Club luncheon

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Speaker 1: coming up later this month. What can we expect there?

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Speaker 2: Well, Fortunately, as if we already heard, we've we now

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Speaker 2: have our Deputy Chief Minister for Minds, Nicole Madison, will

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Speaker 2: be speaking about lunch. We're excited to hear obviously what

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Speaker 2: her view of the short, medium and long term future

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Speaker 2: is for the mining sector. She's quite buoyant about the

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Speaker 2: potential at this point in time and excited as she

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Speaker 2: keeps referring to having the shackles of treasury removed and

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Speaker 2: the ability to be able to say yes more often

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Speaker 2: than no. So I think that collectively we're all very

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Speaker 2: much looking forward to that and having the opportunity as

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Speaker 2: an industry to show our support for the minister and

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Speaker 2: see how we can collectively move forward in that space.

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Speaker 1: Good on you, Drew, That is Drew Wagnon, the Minerals

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Speaker 1: Council Executive here in the Northern Territory. Drew, thank you

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Speaker 1: so much for your time this morning.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely pleasure mate. He love to day.

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Speaker 1: Thanks Drew you as well.