Wednesday, February 12, 2025

Mining Cities confident of Federal partnership on Net Zero

The Australian Mining Cities Alliance (AMCA) says it’s confident the Federal Government will work with mining communities towards a Net Zero partnership.

The AMCA Chair, Deputy Chair and Directors visited Canberra last week and met with Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen; Minister for Resources and Minister for Northern Australia, Madeleine King and Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and the Territories, Kristy McBain to discuss key aspects of the Governments plans for mining communities to transition to a Net Zero Economy.

Chair and Deputy Mayor of Mount Isa City Council, Phil Barwick said the discussions with Ministers in Parliament House reinforced the group’s continued advocacy efforts on behalf of mining cities and regions affected by decarbonisation.

“Our engagement last week with key senior Ministers left us confident that the Albanese Government will genuinely engage and work with affected mining communities and their local governments – a partnership towards Net Zero,” said Chair Barwick.

“In particular the commitment to that partnership has practical elements that we will soon also discuss with the incoming Chair of the Net Zero Economy Agency Chair the Hon Greg Combet.”

He said the AMCA advocates to ensure that transformation for communities impacted by the Net Zero Economy is place-based, well planned, well managed and adequately funded.

“We’ve spoken to relevant Ministers, their advisors and agencies, most notably the Climate Change Authority over the past 12 months to let them know how important the Net Zero Economy planning is at a local level,” Mr Barwick said.

“We also made a submission to the Climate Change Authority this week in response to its Issues Paper titled ‘Setting, tracking and achieving Australia’s emissions reduction targets’ and our Executive Officer met with key officers of the Climate Change Authority to discuss our recommendations in detail.”

He said the delegation also raised other topics including critical minerals strategy, housing affordability, FBT concession reforms proposals and other social and economic influences on mining communities.

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