Madeleine King doesn’t reign supreme over resources and must quit

Resources Minister Madeleine King during Question Time at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: Martin Ollman

Madeleine King must resign. She has been the most ineffective resources minister Australia has seen in a generation.

King has been either unwilling or unable to stave off Labor’s multi-pronged assault against our resources sector over the last three years.

Plucked from obscurity after Labor needed more West Australian representation post the 2022 election, she has proven way out of her depth. Even her colleagues don’t appear to think much of her, with Labor cabinet having undermined and ignored King at every turn.

Our resources industry is Australia’s star athlete on the global economic field. It has made Australia the lucky country, enabling our higher quality of life for ­decades.

But Labor no longer welcomes investment in our resources sector. They want to trade our best economic player overseas in return for the Greens who can’t win at anything except complaining. That’s a recipe for losing our edge and falling down the economic ladder. New leadership is needed to restore confidence in our resources sector, the future of our blue collar jobs and regional communities once again.

Since 2022 Labor has engaged in a multi-pronged assault against our resources industry. Approval time frames to build anything have become longer. Taxes on the industry have been increased. Safeguard carbon policy has added to the cost burden. New acreage releases have been curtailed. The EPBC Act reforms have been hijacked by activists as a trojan horse to stop major investment across the country.

Environmental activist litigation has exploded. Labor has been unwilling to fix it, and in some cases is actively supporting it (using taxpayer money to fund this economic terrorism against our own economy). Indigenous heritage is being abused to stop investment in pursuit of an extreme green agenda. Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has delayed and rejected approvals for frivolous factional political reasons – placing regional towns and tens of thousands of jobs in jeopardy. Industrial relations reforms have increased costs. Better pay and conditions for workers is a good thing, but there is less room for it when the whole industry is under siege on every other policy front.

Australia’s reputation for investment has been decimated. King has done nothing to stop any of these assaults. She doesn’t even appear to be trying anymore.

Worse than being hostile, King has been ineffective. She tried to do a deal with industry on east coast gas policy in 2022, without bringing along key stakeholders like the unions and her Labor colleagues. As a result, Labor cabinet publicly attacked her own policy and started again without her. Ultimately Albanese handed her authority on east coast gas policy over to Chris Bowen. That’s how much Labor cabinet trust her judgment. Now she can’t even make a decision on a core part of her portfolio without Bowen’s approval. And that’s enshrined in legislation! It doesn’t appear King has even made a decent attempt at building the relationships and support within her own party that she needs to be effective. What good is a politician who can’t do basic politics?

The resource industry has effectively given up on its own Minister. They have learnt that deals with her don’t stick, as she doesn’t have the backing of her party or any of its factions.

King complains when industry representative seek to go around her to speak to other Labor ministers. But they have no choice. Industry needs to engage with decision makers. King has become little more than an obstacle to industry consultation in any effective government. The truth is the industry would be far better off with a more hostile minister, like Husic or Bowen. While tougher to deal with, at least the industry knows once they reach a deal, they actually have a deal. An ineffective minister is much worse than a hostile one.

King has also deserted workers in favour of the Greens. She says she wants to fix the offshore approvals challenges. Tens of thousands of jobs and billions in investment are at stake. She could fix it with the stroke of a pen, but refuses to. It’s clear King, or her Labor colleagues, have done a deal with the Greens on this front. In a unique level of gutlessness, King allowed her signature Future Gas Strategy policy announced in 2023 to be shunted by the Greens within a week of announcing it. Once again this Labor government has deserted their blue collar base to pander to the green fringe.

Western Australia has felt the brunt of King’s failures. All of Labor’s policy assaults against the resources sector have disproportionately hit WA. The gas tax hike only hit projects off the coast of WA. Not a single other state was impacted.

The EPBC Act reforms would be diabolical for Western Australia – and keep resurfacing despite Premier Roger Cook’s pleas to stop. The reality is Canberra has repeatedly conned King and Cook. King was supposed to speak up for WA in Canberra, but has been too readily ignored. If a minister can’t advocate for their state or their portfolio, what purpose do they serve?

The stakes are too high for Australian families and workers. Our resources sector pays for our entire defence and education budget (over $90bn in taxes and royalties in 2023). That’s over $10,000 for each Australian family covered by the resource sector. If we don’t change course we will need to find that money ourselves.

We should be welcoming and growing our resources sector to help lift the burden on Australian families. Instead Labor’s actions have been telling our industry to wind down and head overseas. All to pander to a minority green fringe.

A new course is needed that welcomes investment in our resources, our regional jobs and our competitive advantage again. As a start, that will require refreshed leadership of our resources sector.

Saul Kavonic is head of energy research at MST Marquee