General News
9 January, 2025
Prime Minister's visit an insult to the people of Mount Isa
Anthony Albanese paid lip service to the proud mining city facing one of its toughest periods in 100 years.
The people of Mount Isa deserved better than what they copped from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday morning.
It was a blink-and-you-'ll-miss-it-type visit, with the PM spending just a couple of hours on the ground in the Outback capital before flying to Lake Nash Station for a photo op to let Australian beef producers know that he does actually care about them.
We'll circle back to the Lake Nash trip, but it says plenty about "Albo" that none of the three elected leaders for Mount Isa – mayor Peta MacRae, state MP Robbie Katter and federal MP Bob Katter – were in town for his visit.
All were presumably still on their holidays.
North West Weekly understands the whistlestop to Mount Isa was hastily arranged on Monday, just 48 hours before his attendance.
Sources said the PM wasn't even meant to appear in Mount Isa until former MP and state Minister Tony McGrady caught wind of his trip to the region and picked up the phone.
McGrady, along with the Mount Isa Branch of the Labor Party, then organised a function at the Irish Club to welcome Albanese.
It started off at 3pm on Wednesday, then 2pm, then was cancelled altogether.
You've got to feel sorry for those ALP members, as well as the local RSL sub-branch, which had dressed to impress, hoping to show the Prime Minister their new room at the Irish Club, which it is very proud of.
Instead, what Mount Isa got was a press conference at the lookout, which started 20 minutes behind schedule, where he barely answered any questions about Mount Isa – and certainly had no answers to the 1200 job losses that are forecast at Glencore this year – and very little else.
The PM was then whisked off to Mount Isa City Council where he caught up with CEO Tim Rose, deputy mayor Kim Coghlan and councillor John Tully, but made no promises for funding.
The only "public" appearance he made was at a coffee shop for a couple of happy snaps before he was back at the airport.
Interestingly, he made three appearances at Mount Isa Airport on Wednesday.
The first was to fly into Mount Isa, the second was to change planes for his trip to Lake Nash Station, and his third was to get back on his jet for Kununurra.
It's no secret that some of Mount Isa's social problems can be traced back to the harsher alcohol restrictions in the Northern Territory, and the fact we have more public services than most remote NT communities.
This is why it might have been important for Anthony Albanese to spend some time in Alpurrurulam, which is just a few clicks down the road from Lake Nash Station.
Instead, he was hamming it up with one of the richest beef producers in Australia, Peter Hughes, the owner of Lake Nash Station, getting his picture taken in an idyllic Outback setting.
Meanwhile, the Alpurrurulam community faces a range of issues, including a major cut in funding for its school from the NT government, which was exposed by the ABC late last year.
Yet none of that appeared to be on the PM's radar, who is fighting to keep his job ahead of what is expected to be a close federal election this year.
The date of that is still unknown. It has to be before May 17 but many are predicting it will be earlier, especially as the PM has been on a mini-election campaign of sorts.
If he was expecting to win votes in Kennedy with his trip to Mount Isa, he misread the mood of the community.
Mount Isa has been a lynchpin of the Queensland and Australian economies for a century, yet when times are tough, both governments have turned their back on the North West community.
The PM should have spent at least a full day in Mount Isa – and probably closer to a year ago – to determine how the Australian government could support the regional hub in its time of need.
This is what the PM had to say about Mount Isa's woes at his press conference:
JOURNALIST: Mount Isa's underground copper mine is set to close in the next six months. 1200 local jobs are going to be impacted, that's a fact. What will your Government do to support Mount Isa in the wake of this?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, one of the things that we're doing here is announcing these projects will support Mount Isa and the entire region. But we understand the decision that's been made by Glencore. It of course, is a commercial decision that they have made. One of the things that we're doing is making sure that we back the critical minerals industry, rare earths and other opportunities that are here in the region. We know that there is vast supplies of not just copper, but other minerals that will be in demand during this century that will drive not just the Australian economy, but will drive the global economy in the years ahead. Minerals, not just like copper, but vanadium, lithium, other minerals that are in abundance here in this great part of Queensland. So, we'll work with communities. We know that there's $50 million has been made available from Queensland for the transition. We want to make sure that workers are looked after as well. We'll continue to work with the company, but also with the other levels of government to make sure that people aren't left behind. But we understand that this is a very difficult decision which will impact the community here. And for many of the workers who've worked on site, I’ve been to that facility on at least three occasions as a Minister and as a Member of Parliament, along with Bob Katter, and Bob has certainly made strong representations as well about it. And we will continue to work with the community. This morning, I'll be having meetings with the mayor and local government. Tony McGrady, of course, is a local champion here as well. We'll continue to work with him and other local representatives.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, in terms of local jobs, there's quite a significant gap in time before projects like Copper String result in direct local employment. What meetings is the Federal Government having with local councils to ensure that there are direct jobs when the mine closes in six months and to ensure the security of the copper smelter is one of only two in the country?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm having a meeting with the council after this. Meeting this morning and I'll be pleased to do so. The Copper String project will be not just the direct jobs that are created, of course, but the indirect jobs as well, right along the corridor. It as well will transform the productivity of existing projects like Big Kennedy and Little Kennedy, to wind projects. The Kidston project as well, the renewable energy project that I have visited as well. There are, of course, major renewable energy projects right along this corridor. As we can see and feel here, Australia has the best solar resources in the world and we have a fair bit of space as well. And we have an opportunity to be a renewable energy superpower. Projects like Copper String are really important in making sure that renewable energy is connected to the grid. The key is making sure that we have renewable energy backed up by storage and backed up by gas, is our vision. Peter Dutton's vision is to stop all that investment for nothing to happen until sometime in the 2040s, and then have a nuclear industry built, you know, in earthquake zones in Newcastle. I'm not quite sure how they could be built in Whyalla and Collie in places where already those sites are being filled with other projects that are creating jobs. And it will result in, according to his own modelling, 40 per cent less energy use. That means less jobs. That means less jobs in industry, means less jobs backing up the resources sector and backing up manufacturing. He has a small, myopic vision for this country. I'm optimistic about what we can do in this country going forward if we seize the opportunities which are there, which is exactly what my Government intends to do by building on the foundations that we've established during our first term. On that note, thank you very much and wonderful to be back in Mount Isa.
On the same day, the PM's office announced a range of funding for projects in Kennedy. Amazingly, none were for Mount Isa.
Over $30 million has been allocated through the Housing Support Program package to boost social housing supply across the region.
This funding will support the delivery of increased social housing supply through the construction of enabling infrastructure and community amenities such as roads, stormwater drainage, earthworks and connection to utilities.
Three housing projects have been allocated funding:
$1.8 million to support the delivery of dwellings across two lots on Lardil Street, Gununa on Mornington Island.
$18.8 million to construct a new sewerage pump station and rising main in Balamba.
$9.9 million to deliver trunk infrastructure at Eaton, including an electricity transformer, intersection lighting, NBN trenching and drainage works.
Four projects will share in over $22 million of Growing Regions Program, which provides funding of between $500,000 and $15 million to local government entities and incorporated not-for-profit organisations for community infrastructure projects.
The four successful projects, which went through a competitive, merit-based assessment process, are:
$10.4 million for Boulia Shire Community Hub
$4 million for Stage 1 of the Burketown Health and Wellbeing Precinct– Splash Park & Playground
$5.99 million for the Scarr Street Revitalisation Project in Cloncurry
$1.79 million for the Hughenden Showgrounds