CopperString 2.0 Director John O'Brien has made a plea to unlock more NQ infrastructure investment, at a public hearing in Mount Isa.
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On October 10, Mr O'Brien along with Chair of the North Queensland Sustainable Resources Corridor Regional Reference Group, Tony McGrady provided evidence to the Senate Select Committee "on the effectiveness of the Australian Government's Northern Australia agenda".
Mr O'Brien highlighted the challenges and opportunities for Northern Queensland, in developing the infrastructure needed to maximise the community wide benefits of our world leading minerals and energy resources.
"CopperString 2.0 is in the fortunate position of having received strong support, including financial commitments, from both the Morrison and Palaszczuk Governments," Mr O'Brien said.
Mr O'Brien identified the key roles Governments must play by converting policy into planning, regulatory and financial support to take major infrastructure from the conceptual stage, through early development and on to construction.
"CopperString 2.0 is believed to be the largest single investment contemplated by the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF), and the largest mature common-use infrastructure project in Northern Australia," Mr O'Brien said.
"CopperString 2.0 is approximately the same scale and cost as other major transmission developments currently being undertaken in the National Electricity Grid including the $1.5 billion South Australia to NSW Interconnector (SANI) and the $1.3-$3.1 billion Project Marinus (creating a second connection to Tasmania) for which the Australian Government has provided $56 million of development funding.
"It can be argued that SANI and Project Marinus are about infrastructure to maintain electricity supply where as CopperString 2.0 is about the infrastructure to fundamentally improve the economics ofelectricity supply in Northern Queensland with the objective of delivering a positive step change in economic activity."
Mr O'Brien said that the Australian Government's Northern Australia agenda, including the NAIF, is having a positive impact however barriers still exist and opportunities for expansion of our key mining, minerals processing and agriculture export industries are being missed.
Mr O'Brien outlined how the willingness of both levels of Government to throw their support behind CopperString 2.0 has been one of the key contributors to the Project's recent progress, and that early-stage funding for infrastructure development, particularly where it significantly reduces key industry input costs, has far reaching economic and social benefits.
"The Mount Isa to Townsville minerals processing and export corridor, combined with the region's broad geography and isolation from established finance centres, means it is more difficult and complex to develop projects and attract private sector financing," Mr O'Brien said.
"This is a particular problem in early stage project development and it means huge opportunities for the State are often missed because of the lack of appreciation of the quality of the best resources located in regional and remote areas.
"Thankfully the potential of Northern Queensland is getting more attention as policy makers recognise that in order to take advantage of our world leading natural resources there needs to be a coordinated approach to policy and financial support for enabling infrastructure.
"CopperString 2.0 is a good example of where both State and Federal Governments have recognised the importance of industry enabling infrastructure and they've acted on it with both financial and policy support."
Mr O'Brien made the case that the corridor between Mount Isa and Townsville presents a big opportunity for Australia to drive jobs and economic growth by taking advantage of the global demand for "critical minerals" including copper, zinc and rare earth minerals as well as hydrogen.
"The Mount Isa to Townsville corridor contains an abundance of the traditional and new economy minerals that are in high demand across the world. We also have the best combined wind and solar resources in the country," he said.
"Through CopperString 2.0 we can connect these resources to the existing gas fired generation in Mount Isa and the efficient baseload coal in the east coast grid to create an energy mix that is cheap, efficient and drives new investment in the mining and minerals processing industries where we are world leaders."
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Samantha Campbell
Samantha Campbell (nee Walton) has worked for regional and rural publications across New South Wales, Queensland and the Northern Territory. She is currently writing for the North Queensland Register based in North West Queensland. Email: samantha.campbell@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Samantha Campbell (nee Walton) has worked for regional and rural publications across New South Wales, Queensland and the Northern Territory. She is currently writing for the North Queensland Register based in North West Queensland. Email: samantha.campbell@austcommunitymedia.com.au
