Nyrstar

The Hon. G.G. BROCK (Stuart) (14:25): My question is to the Minister for Energy and Mining. Can the minister please update my community regarding the potential future opportunities for the Nyrstar Port Pirie smelter? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. G.G. BROCK: Following the recent meeting between the Prime Minister and President Trump, I understand an agreement was reached regarding the potential for Australia to supply critical metals to America, and I was wondering if Nyrstar may have some opportunities there.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:26): I thank the member for his question. We all know he is a passionate supporter of his town. He is of the Port Pirie multimetals smelter. He worked there for a number of years. He was mayor of the city. He is a citizen of the city. He lives and breathes that city. He wants it to survive and do well, and he is passionate about making sure that the smelter continues.

The truth is that the Port Pirie smelter is unique. It is unique in its capabilities, it is unique in its social licence and it is unique in its acceptance by its local community. Think of the counterfactuals: the world right now has a shortage of key critical metals that are critical to our defence sector, antimony being of the highest order. It is a critical metal that is used to harden shells, bullets and other parts of armour that are invaluable to our allies not only in the Asia-Pacific but in Europe. One country has nearly an entire monopoly on this.

The way that you are able to extract antimony is through the by-products of lead processing. There are currently no lead smelters anywhere in the United States—none—so our allies are having to rely on one country. That one country that has a monopoly on this commodity is also using its state finances to purchase the raw materials at a much higher cost and is then actively subsidising the processing of that raw material into the metal, therefore controlling the entire life cycle of that commodity.

Port Pirie on its own, without this uncompetitive practice and intervention by a foreign state, would be profitable, but because of that foreign intervention we need to act. Prime Minister Albanese and President Trump have come to an agreement, and that agreement is good for our country, it is good for our allies and it is good for the Free World. We are already conducting a trial at Port Pirie for the extraction of antimony. You might remember we went there and saw the acid baths with the anodes producing antimony, and we are seeing that now displayed around the world.

One of the most important things that I think should encourage people about the future of Port Pirie is that while the Prime Minister of Australia was being hosted by the President of the United States in the Oval Office, Port Pirie was being discussed actively. When the head of Trafigura recently visited Capitol Hill and had his annual meeting with senators and congressmen, and met with the Armed Services Committee, Port Pirie was actively discussed. I can't tell you how important it is for our allies that Australia has this source and supply of this vital commodity.

This commodity is so important to the Western world that we can't allow it to be monopolised by any one country. We need to have redundancy and our own supplies and our critical reserves so that not only can we keep it ourselves and we can defend our own country but also our allies can use it to defend themselves.

This is not something that we can afford to let go. You can't let normal market forces prevail here. There needs to be government intervention, and I am glad that we have two Labor governments at federal and state levels that understand there is a market gap here, there is a national need here, there is an economic sovereignty question and we are stepping up to the mat to protect Port Pirie.