Perth
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Good evening ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for inviting me to join you this evening.
I’m sorry I can’t stay and join you at dinner but as some of you may already know the Australian Government is this week holding an international summit for offshore petroleum operators and regulators and the conference dinner for which I am host, is also this evening.
That we all have full schedules is no surprise in light of the current record level of activity in the resource and energy sectors, nowhere more so than here in Western Australia.
Sustaining this activity is a big part of what your conference here today was all about.
Because such a dynamic industry constantly throws up new challenges along with the opportunities.
Finding ways to overcome the challenges facing the resources and energy sectors is integral to Australia’s long-term economic prospects.
International competitiveness is key for, while Australia’s resource success is exceptional, it can be emulated.
We do not have a copyright over mineral wealth or good governance.
And, even though we are fortunate that so many of the world’s innovations in mining technology occur in Australia, we in this room know that Australia does not hold a monopoly on good new ideas.
Indeed given increasing skill levels in the BRIC countries in particular, but also in places like Chile, it is imperative that we, more than ever focus on where we can improve the efficiency with which we exploit our resources and thereby at least maintain and hopefully increase our competitiveness.
We must nurture complementary industries that develop the tools, the processes, the equipment and services that make Australia a competitive destination for companies investing here and creating high-paying, high-skilled jobs.
These mining technology companies are also creating safer workplaces.
Austmine 2011 in May showcased the many vendors who had developed world-leading safety equipment.
Much of this equipment – such as fatigue-management technology – provides real-time data that helps reduce machinery accidents and brings us closer to the goal of zero harm.
Information and Communications Technology (ICT) underpins many of these cutting-edge developments.
Further exploring how ICT and resources and energy can come together to create more efficient extractive industries with safer working environments, and provide new market opportunities for the ICT sector is of course why so many of you were here today at this unique event.
The representatives of the ICT sector have taken an important step by seeing the opportunity resources and energy create, and I commend Leighton Telecommunications for organising today’s summit.
It was fashionable during the “Dot Com” boom to see the resources sector as an industry from the “old economy”. Those days have passed.
The reality is that successful resources and energy sectors are built on cutting-edge technologies that drive productivity from exploration to production.
We can see this at work from the vast LNG basins off the WA coast, right through the Pilbara, across to the large scale CSG to LNG projects underway on the east coast and in countless places in between.
We see it in Shell’s Prelude Floating LNG Project, a project that is on track to be the world’s first floating LNG facility.
It will use cutting-edge technology to tap remote and stranded fields that would previously have been considered uneconomical to develop.
We see it, and in fact many of us have flown over it when landing at Perth airport, in Rio Tinto’s Remote Operations Centre.
This is the brain behind Rio’s Mine of the Future, which I am sure was mentioned more than once in today’s sessions.
Its development is a portentous event in the history of Australian mining: intelligent drills in the Pilbara are controlled 1300 kilometres away, with iron ore carried on driverless trains on most of the 1200 kilometres of track to port.
The Mine of the Future, as Rio refers to its Pilbara operations, will become more and more common in coming years as others adopt similar technology or develop their own.
These systems require massive computer networks, unprecedented data analysis and a stable data transfer network, and offer enormous commercial potential … which brings me to the National Broadband Network.
Much of the focus to date has been on the opportunities the NBN creates in eHealth and eLearning – but of course we should never overlook the opportunities in eMining.
Opportunities that I know won’t be lost in this room.
The NBN will enable the deployment of new mining technologies throughout Australia.
It will help maximise the potential of your innovations.
Here in WA, an indicative list of towns that will receive some fibre coverage, and will also receive wireless coverage, includes Esperance, Geraldton, Hopetoun, Kalgoorlie, Karratha, Kununurra, Roubourne, Tom Price and many other towns synonymous with mining.
The NBN will accelerate the deployment of new mining technologies and make the towns more liveable.
This is one way Government policy can support the continued growth and competitiveness of a sector that is so vital to our economic prosperity.
Ladies and gentlemen, the next generation of resources innovation will benefit not only the resources sector but will have a wider impact across the economy as they are adopted by other industries.
The challenges you face are common to many sectors as we seek to make our companies and lives more sustainable, less carbon intensive, more productive and fundamentally safer for workers and the wider community.
What is clear from today’s summit is just how much work is already underway on the solutions.
Congratulations on a successful summit and thank you for the opportunity to join you this evening.
Thank you.