Mining has helped shape Australia, strengthened our country through times of change and will help carry it and us through what comes next.
Mining is a cornerstone of Australia’s history and development. From the first exports that connected us to the world – coal to Bengal in 1799, and copper from South Australia a few decades later – to the first gold boom in Victoria and New South Wales, mining the materials that built our cities, powered our industries and sustained our regions, mining has quietly and consistently underwritten national progress.
Today, it remains one of Australia’s great strengths. It employs hundreds of thousands of Australians. It sustains regional communities.
Australian mining is Australia’s largest taxpayer by industry, and accounts for 30 per cent of all company taxes.
It anchors our exports and contributes tens of billions of dollars in public revenue through taxes and royalties each year – revenue that funds schools, hospitals, infrastructure and opportunity.
$74 billion paid in company taxes and royalties in 2022–23 is the equivalent to 1366 new primary schools.
Mining is powering the next generation by helping students today and building skills for tomorrow. Mining taxes and royalties help fund schools, training and future careers – leading to better funded public schools, training programs and TAFEs.
Australian mining also makes a difference through jobs, skills and opportunities, employing more than 290,000 people, and providing about 11,000 apprenticeships and traineeships
Mining creates more jobs through supply chains and related industries, totalling around 1.25 million jobs across the country.
Australian mining also makes a difference by investing in local communities – strengthening regions where it operates, particularly in regional Australia.
Last year, more than $660 million was invested in regional programs – including sporting groups, environmental conservation, emergency health services, child care and community organisations – helping to keep regional towns and families thriving.
But mining’s value is not measured only in schools, jobs or dollars; it is measured in what it makes possible.
Coal, iron ore, gold, uranium and critical minerals are the building blocks of modern life.
These vital enablers turn vision into reality – homes that can be built, infrastructure that stands the test of time, industries that can compete on the world stage, and technologies that can scale up as our communities and aspirations blossom.
Mining is everywhere in Australia: in every city, every region and every electorate – often unseen and unsung, but always essential.
And behind it all are our people – skilled, innovative, resilient and world-class.
Their work and their sacrifice have made Australia a global mining powerhouse as a reliable and responsible supplier of the minerals the world needs. Our people have led our industry to success over decades.
Australia does mining exceptionally well. We must never lose sight of a great day being when everyone returns home safe.
We produce at mind-blowing scale, to world-leading standards under strict regulations at state and federal level.
Our operations set global benchmarks in productivity and efficiency through automation, environmental management and workforce capability.
This matters more today than ever, because the world is changing: supply chains are tightening, strategic competition is sharpening and demand for resources is rising – not receding.
Australia and other nations are asking harder questions about where their materials come from, and whether those supplies will hold when pressure comes, as it will.
In that world, Australia is not just a supplier; Australia is a trusted partner.
Our global customers are not only buying resources, but they are also buying confidence that contracts will be honoured, standards upheld and supply maintained through uncertainty, as well as growth.
That trust is not accidental or spontaneous. It has been earned over decades. And mining sits at the centre of it.
With that position comes responsibility. For industry, it means continuing to invest, innovate and operate in ways that meet the expectations of Australians and the needs of a changing world.
For policymakers, it means recognising that long-term national strength depends on industries that can compete globally, employ locally, and plan with confidence.
Mining does not ask for privilege; it asks for stability, for clarity, and for policy settings that are competitive, predictable and principled – including stable tax and royalty regimes, lower cost and more reliable energy, efficient approvals, and clear environmental and workplace laws.
When those conditions exist, mining can be counted on to deliver stronger communities, more resilient regions and an economy capable of supporting Australia’s ambitions.
This is not about the past; it is about what’s over the horizon.
In the years ahead, Australia will need more: more productivity, more resilience, more export strength.
The mining industry is ready to do its part, as it always has, by supplying the materials that power economies and energise the future.
We should never apologise for having the world’s best mining sector.
Mining is something that all Australians should stand behind in our national economic and social interests – with confidence in its capability, and with honesty and pride in its contribution. And with pride in an industry that reflects some of our best national qualities – ingenuity, reliability, resilience, and the quiet determination to do the hard work that progress requires.
Mining helped build this country. And it will be one of the biggest foundation stones of the next chapter in our tremendous national story.
If we have the confidence to back the industry – from the coalfields of central Queensland, and the gold mines of central Victoria and Western Australia, to critical minerals processing in the Northern Territory – it will continue to serve Australia well beyond our current horizon.
