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One Nation Uses its Voice to Back Real Project From the Heart

The Iron Boomerang inquiry was initiated by One Nation because we saw the project’s undeniable benefits.

This 3,300 km transcontinental railway represents significant advantages to all Australians across the top end by connecting Central Queensland with the Pilbara in Western Australia. It will increase our GDP by hundreds of billions of dollars from the steel alone, without counting the concrete, fertiliser, and other by-products.

This project offers a boon to Australia. One that is tangible and has details backing it up. One that makes money — doesn’t just cost money. One that keeps wealth in Australia rather than sending it offshore to further enrich foreign interests. One that will truly improve the lives of indigenous Australians with a multipurpose corridor bringing utilities, transport and tourism to their communities.

I look forward to seeing this project proceed further. The Iron Boomerang a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for this government to make a difference for all of Australia.

Transcript

As a servant to the many varied people who make up our one Queensland community, I speak to the Rural, Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee inquiry’s report into the project known as Iron Boomerang. One Nation’s Senate motion initiated this inquiry because of this project’s undeniable benefit to all of Australia. I thank the committee and the secretariat for their work, and I thank the witnesses for attending. This is a complicated project, and the committee and the secretariat have done a great job of processing the information presented across different hearings. Project lead Shane Condon has made this his life’s work, and Australia must be forever in his debt for the vision, application and sheer determination that he has shown. One Nation is fully supportive of the report’s recommendations.

As this project moves forward to a new era, I must remark that Project Iron Boomerang is probably a misnomer. It does consist of a 3,300-kilometre transcontinental railroad with heavy-duty axle capacity connecting existing rail networks in the iron ore region of the Pilbara to the existing coal rail networks in Central Queensland. Iron ore will be transported from Western Australia to Queensland, and those carriages will then be loaded with coal to transport back to the west, hence the boomerang in the name.

Steel mills at either end combine these minerals into steel—the world’s highest-quality steel at the world’s lowest price. Steel is a huge industry that helped build the wealth of this nation, and will do so again. It is also building the wealth of many nations right now. Steel is then exported as container traffic backload through ports in northern Queensland and Western Australia, offering faster and cheaper market access for our steel as against our competitors.

The fundamental benefit of this system is to reduce freight to the smallest possible footprint, economic as well as carbon dioxide for those who think that’s important. Less coal will be exported across the world in bulk oil carriers that burn 200 tonnes of heavy diesel oil a day, carriers that then return empty while burning another 100 tonnes of oil a day on the way with huge reductions in carbon dioxide for those who believe that we need to cut human production of carbon dioxide. Less iron ore and dirt will be exported from Western Australia across the world, saving the heavy diesel consumption and again reducing carbon dioxide production and the cost. Instead, ore is transported a shorter distance in a gas electric train offering a huge competitive advantage for Australian steel and a huge benefit for the environment—the real environment, as well as that carbon dioxide sky-gas nonsense.

The committee rightly identified the railroad and the steel development are separate issues. It’s possible, as Senator Canavan has pointed out, that ships can operate the boomerang trip in first phase of the project, and we’ve had that confirmed since. The southern route is slightly longer than a direct rail link but will cost less at around $10 a tonne versus $40 a tonne for the railroad. Having said that, the railroad will become the cheaper option after the volume of ore and coal being moved exceeds 150 million tonnes a year. This point will be reached with the second stage of steel production, which is to increase the mills from 10 to 20.

The railroad carries many other benefits the committee did not hear in evidence that East West Line Parks may like to correct during their discussions with Infrastructure Australia. Grazing interests have expressed a strong desire to use the line to transport cattle from the remote cattle stations to the east and then to markets overseas. That trip is currently done using road, which puts the animals under pressure and causes a costly reduction in body weight of around 15 per cent. Rail offers a smoother, faster ride and a reduction in body weight of only five per cent. That’s a benefit all round.

Aboriginal interests own many remote cattle stations employing Aboriginal workers. This rail will represent a significant benefit to the Aboriginal community right across the Top End. Agricultural interests would use the rail line to take production from the Ord River irrigation area to market in the east, reducing their freight costs by 50 per cent or even more. The line will open stranded asset rare-earth mines that hold mineral reserves we need to make the electric cars, batteries, windmills and solar panels necessary for net zero. Hmm. The line will open the currently inaccessible East Pilbara, an area containing significant mineral wealth, while adding additional life to existing mines across the Pilbara.

Environmentalists oppose mining and oppose expanding the steel industry at the same time as calling for a transition from petrol to electric cars and the covering of our continent in steel transmission towers and steel wind turbines. Environmentalists can, of course, use their favoured building material—compressed rainbow unicorn farts. The rest of us though use steel. Project Iron Boomerang is not unique. The 2,300-kilometre Tarcoola to Darwin railway was completed 10 years ago. It was completed in five years at a cost of just $3.5 billion across similar terrain. This is not complicated engineering. Railroads like this are being built overseas, and a shorter railroad was recently completed in the Pilbara. We can do this.

A second aspect of the east-west railroad is the multifunction corridor that would normally be built alongside a railway such as this. For a small additional cost in relative terms, this could be upgraded to hold a fibre-optic cable, water and power trunk lines. These, in turn, could provide town water, power and the internet to regional and remote communities, mostly Aboriginal, right across the Top End. Sidings along the route would allow for a local passenger or freight train to improve transport and freight services to these same remote communities.

Tourism is another likely benefit. The Ghan can expand to offer what would be one of the world’s ‘must do’ trips, offering real employment to the Aboriginal community. I hope that Infrastructure Australia pursues inquiry into this aspect of the project. One Nation would love to see homes built with power, water and the internet for remote Aboriginal communities. Iron Boomerang holds that future for these communities. I hope that Infrastructure Australia reviews this most exciting aspect of the project.

The committee has recommended a separate inquiry be held into the steel component of Project Iron Boomerang. The terms of reference are well chosen, with one suggestion. During many meetings, as part of promoting this project, I met with an Australian company that has technology which captures carbon dioxide from the steel mill’s steam stack and combines that output with seawater to produce valuable commodities such as ammonia and ethanol. The process is self-funding. These building blocks can be turned into fertiliser, AdBlue, ethanol and many other products that Australia currently imports. These are not just by-products; they’re products essential to our national security. I hope the steel inquiry hears evidence on how a commercially proven coal-to-hydrogen process can power an electric arc furnace—’green steel’, if you want to use that term. There are, though, many questions around this process that’s years from commercial reality, especially in terms of quality; it’s brittle at the moment.

World steel demand is expected to remain at two per cent growth over the medium term, with the new developing crescent of India, Bangladesh and Pakistan taking up the slack from maturing Chinese, USA and European markets. Indonesia is constructing a new national capital, with construction extending to 2040. This alone will consume the output from our Project Iron Boomerang phase 1 steel mills. If we’re to wind back exports of coal for power in the name of climate change—and I hope we’re not; One Nation strongly opposes this—substituting the use of coal for power with the use of coal for steel would provide continuity of employment for the coal industry, something that should keep unions happy.

Another economic benefit of the steel mills is fly ash, a by-product of steel manufacture when the power source is coal. Fly ash can replace 20 to 30 per cent of the cement in concrete. Project Iron Boomerang will result in the construction of new concrete plants to utilise the steel parks’ by-products. As even the Greens would agree, you can’t do wind power without concrete, and Australia does not have enough concrete for the job. The world steel market is worth A$2 trillion a year. Iron Boomerang will increase Australia’s GDP by hundreds of billions of dollars, just from the steel, let alone the concrete, fertiliser, ammonia and other by-products.

The committee correctly identified the potential national security benefits of the railway, the steel parks and the port upgrades this project will deliver. The expectation is for a naval maintenance base in North Queensland to service the United States Pacific fleet. The railway offers access to parts of this country where access is currently problematic. I note the Maritime Union of Australia is advancing their rebuilding the Australian shipping and maritime industries proposal to expand the Australian shipping fleet. Project Iron Boomerang steel mills will produce four-metre wide slabs instead of the normal two-metre wide slabs. When used to produce railway rolling stock and ships, this results in half the number of welds and joins, producing a cheaper, stronger and faster product. I hope the union will participate in the steel inquiry and look for ways to breathe new life into Australia’s heavy manufacturing industries, currently languishing after decades of planned decay, a decay that has cost breadwinner jobs and economic security.

With the attractive markets, returns and many by-products, it’s no surprise private industry and net private investors are waiting ready to fund and construct this project. There is, though, a problem: private investors don’t trust our government, and after debacles like Adani who could blame them? At some point the federal government is going to have to put their hands into their pockets to fund the final business case, not because the proponents can’t fund it, but because their backers will not let them. For this project to proceed further, the government must demonstrate skin in the game. I look forward to the inquiries that have been recommended in this report, and I look forward to Infrastructure Australia advancing this project. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the Albanese government. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned. Consideration resumed of the motion.

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Northern Australia left behind by terrible government

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In North Queensland I met local visionaries with commitment, competence and dedication to a better North. But that was matched, sadly, on the other side of the scale by the incompetence of state and federal governments.

The North is simply waiting for good governance, I hope they get it before it is too late.

Transcript

As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia, I want to relate my travels through the Flinders catchment area, which is the fourth biggest river flow in Queensland. There is rich soil, vast grassy plains with no trees and water: abundant water, regular water yet untapped. The potential is being wasted. I felt excited, supported, encouraged and inspired by the people I met in North Queensland, but I also felt worried and disappointed because of the atrocious state and federal governments that are cruelling that area. My needs in the people were met entirely: commitment, competence, dedication. But that was matched, sadly, on the other side of the scale by the inability of the state and federal governments to meet their needs for support and good governance.

We went to look firstly at the Bradfield Scheme, to do our due diligence. We’ve done it at the Murray-Darling Basin; now we’ve done it in the Flinders. The Bradfield Scheme is a visionary scheme to turn the waters that are flowing to the east and being wasted to the west and into the Thomson. We wanted to look at the Murray-Darling Basin catchment, which we have, and also at the Flinders, and this was a chance to see the Bradfield Scheme source and then to go across the Flinders. What we saw flying up the coast was naturally wet area in the tropics, the coast, Ingham and Tully. We then swung west over the Tully midstream and all the way down the Burdekin River to the Burdekin Falls Dam. We then turned west and went back across the Flinders catchment area, through Charters Towers, Hughenden, Richmond, Julia Creek, Cloncurry. We touched down in Cloncurry to fuel and then went north to Normanton, where there are huge vast plains, and then back south-west to Townsville where we started.

We then spent a week driving on the ground, listening to people, getting the lay of the land and the lay of the people. What impressed us were the locals with vision, real vision, complemented by their energy, their knowledge, their competence and their practicality. It was very inspiring, as I’ve already said. And there was plenty of water. They all said: ‘We don’t need the Bradfield Scheme water here. Let it go to the Thomson, as the original visionary plan from Bradfield suggested.’

In particular, I was impressed with the Richmond council; John Wharton, who is I think Queensland’s longest serving mayor—25 years if my memory is correct; and his very young but very competent CEO, Peter Bennett. They have a plan and a project that the locals are onboard with, called the Richmond agricultural project. It’s very simple: no dams, just divert water to 8,000 hectares of irrigable and rich, fertile soil. With agricultural production comes people and with people come services. Instead of Richmond bobbing around at 900 people, we can get it back up to 3,000, maybe even 8,000, people. It could be a really vibrant area in the north.

We also visited Hughenden, where the same recipe is being followed: water captured not in a dam but in weirs and diverted into storage areas or underground water. We saw Jane McNamara leading her team there; and Daryl Buckingham, who’s had experience in the Murray-Darling Basin and who’s transferring it to the north. We also visited HIPCo, Hughenden Irrigation Project Corporation, with Shane McCarthy. The council sponsored projects there, as I said, follow the same recipe.

We then went to Julia Creek on the ground, and we went to Etta Plains where we saw a very dynamic young Lucas Findley from Findley farms escaping the Murray-Darling Basin and the devastation of the regulations, the bureaucracy and the poor governance in the south. And we saw something fresh.

I could go on, but time will catch me here. What they’re all waiting for is good governance, which the state government and the federal government are not providing. The state government won’t allocate water allocations. They can’t do anything without that.

Ironically, the state government talks about capturing carbon dioxide, which the evidence shows is not necessary, but crops absorb carbon dioxide, and dams create crops that will absorb carbon dioxide. If they were fair dinkum, they’d do it. Ironically, the challenges up north are land tenure, water and energy. While they’re looking for it up north and have it in abundance, they can’t use it, because the same policies are destroying governance in the south.

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ANZAC Day: Lest We Forget

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Last week I talked to Marcus Paul about ANZAC Day, the decision to tear up Victoria’s Chinese belt and road deal and how our politicians have no vision for this country. Transcript on my website: https://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/anzac-day-lest-we-forget/

Transcript

[Marcus] As we do each and every Thursday, we catch up with One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts, G’day Malcolm, how are you?

[Malcolm] I’m well, thanks, Marcus. How are you?

[Marcus] Yeah good mate, good to talk to you. ANZAC day, a very important day on our calendar, probably one of the most important.

[Malcolm] Yes. And it really symbolises the forging of our nation, doesn’t it? Our nation officially began in 1901, but Gallipoli and ANZAC spirit was really the birthplace of Australia on the world stage.

[Marcus] Well, absolutely, and at least this year, there have been restrictions, or relaxation of COVID restrictions, which means that more and more people can take part, which is good news, but I didn’t mind the way we commemorated last year at the end of the driveway and stuff, I thought that was a really good way of personalising it for people in suburban Australia.

[Malcolm] Well, it was a way of participating, that’s for sure, but it wasn’t as good as ANZAC day. You know I’ve noticed in the last 30 years in particular, so many young kids now coming out and really celebrating and taking part. It means something to be part of that and belong to that community, that’s Australia now. So last year was a bit underplayed for me. I love ANZAC day.

[Marcus] Yeah. And you’ll be commemorating how this coming Sunday?

[Malcolm] We’ll be out at Dalby, which is a couple hundred kilometres west of Brisbane, we’ll do the dawn service there, and then we’ll go to another service in Toowoomba which you know, is a much larger town. And then we’ll go to the service there as well. And then I’ll be going to stay with my brother and sister-in-law for a little while with my wife, I’ll have the afternoon with them.

[Marcus] Lovely. Look, the Morrison government has torn up Victoria’s controversial Belt and Road agreement with the Chinese government, saying it falls foul of our national interest. It’s a move that will further inflame tensions between Canberra and Beijing. And while they’re at it, while Ms. Payne is flexing her newly-found muscle, can we perhaps ask for the Port of Darwin back?

[Malcolm] Oh, Marcus, you read my mind. Well, what about this, too? So it’s a good first step from the federal government to reclaim Victoria, but what about the restoration of our property rights? It was stolen from farmers by the Howard-Turnbull government in 1996, sorry, Turnbull wasn’t involved then, but 1996.

And the John Howard government went around the constitution and went directly to the states to steal these property rights, so the farmers wouldn’t get compensation, and the purpose? To comply with the UN’s Kyoto protocol. I am sick and tired of the federal government, Labour, and liberal, and nationals, all pushing the UN agenda, the Kyoto protocol, the Lima declaration, which savage manufacturing, the Paris agreement, on and on. We need to get our country back from the UN, and please let’s have our country back.

[Marcus] All right, tell me about this Western Australian pipeline.

[Malcolm] What an achievement that was. So Anzac day was the start of our nation on the world stage, but prior to that, even before our nation was formed in 1901, in 1896, the Western Australian premier was looking for permanent solutions to water supply in Eastern Goldfields. He commissioned Charles O’Connor, who was a competent and innovative engineer, to build a pipeline.

Now get this, this is what? 124 years ago 125 years ago one and a quarter centuries ago. It was to cover 566 kilometres from the coast, inland into Kalgoorlie, carry 23 million litres of water per day, over a lift, upward vertically at the dam site on the west coast, of 400 metres, 1400 feet. Amazing. It was the longest water supply pipeline in the world, and that’s still the case today. It was the first major pipeline in the world constructed of steel. It used more steel than any other structure in the world at the time, 70,000 tonnes.

And this O’Connor was a proven engineer, but small minded politicians ridiculed him and tried to kill it for political purposes, and they said it was too complex, would never work. Well mate, listen to some of these figures. The benefits of the pipeline were immediately apparent, and it costs two and a half million pounds, which in today’s money is 300-and-something million dollars. But in its first few years, it generated 25 million pounds worth of wealth, and today, it opens up 8 million acres of wheat cropping, that’s almost half of the nation’s wheat.

It has fine wool sheep, and mining, which was in decline before this pipeline was built in Kalgoorlie, it restarted again, and away it went, and in 2017, these are the only figures I’ve got, $11.1 billion of gold was produced in Western Australia, and much of that would have come from Kalgoorlie.

[Marcus] See why don’t we have this sort of vision today? Why are all the naysayers and objectors around, stopping this sort of vision for us to build? I mean, if we could build it back in 1896, this wonderful solution to water supply, why on earth can’t we do it in 2021?

[Malcolm] Well, vision Marcus, as you just pointed out. Vision is not about talking, and not about backstabbing, and not about putting petty agendas and personal egos and fears ahead. Vision is about a dream for something that could happen, and then having the guts to confront those fears, the political fears.

We don’t have politicians today, with very few exceptions, we don’t have politicians who will confront their fears, confront the naysayers, and stand up, and really do what’s needed for Australia. And in 100 years time or 200 years time. That’s what’s needed is politicians with courage to say what is needed.

[Marcus] Yep. Mate you don’t happen to know where this Indonesian submarine is, that’s gone missing off Bali, do you? For goodness sake?

[Malcolm] No, I don’t, but perhaps we could ask the CSIRO, because the CSIRO was in a joint venture with the Chinese government, to explore North, the coast between Australia and Papua New Guinea, can you imagine that? I’m serious!

[Marcus] I know. Talk about in our national interest! No, it’s not. Alright, mate. Good to have you on, we’ll chat next week.

[Malcolm] Same here, thanks Marcus. Enjoy the weekend, mate.

[Marcus] You too, all the best. Oh, there he is. One Nations’ Malcolm Roberts. Marcus Paul in the morning. 13 12 69, the open line number to have your say.

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