Why doing the right thing is good business

[Music]

[Applause]

i’ve always had a very

close personal connection to desert

country it’s

at a spiritual level and they are the

places where i feel

that my soul flies free

and it is in such a place here in

western australia

that we’re going to build the largest

green energy project in the world

resource scale and quality is everything

with six and a half thousand square

kilometers of land

drenched in sunshine delivering

two and a half thousand watts per square

meter

together with reliable nighttime wind

means that we can generate energy for 70

percent of the day

versus 40 which is available

from solar alone and

at 26 gigawatts

this is also going to be the largest

power project in the world

slightly larger than three gorges dam in

china

two and a half times the total

generation capacity

of western australia and 40 percent

of that of australia as a whole but

perhaps more meaningfully

it’s equivalent to the emissions from

15 million cars that’s 75

of all of the cars in australia or

it’s equivalent to the electricity

consumed

by about 12 million households and

that’s 40 percent

more households than in the whole of

australia

we’re going to use the energy that we

generate to electrolyze water

to produce hydrogen and then we’re going

to take the hydrogen

and we’re going to combine it with

nitrogen that we extract from the air

to produce 10 million tons a year

of ammonia which is about 12

times more than the next largest

ammonia export facility in the world

the size and scale of our resource

together with this ability to bottle the

energy

and send it anywhere in the world cost

competitively

means that we alongside others who are

doing the same

are creating a new industry sector

renewables at oil and gas scale

but all of this is a backdrop

to what i believe is the real game

changer

as pioneers we also have the ability

to look at how we do business

and we have the ability to set new

standards

in a part of the world where

long-term expeditionary business

practices

have resulted in a very decidedly

lackluster reputation for sustainable

business practice

and this for me is a continuation of a

20-year journey that i’ve been on

learning from experience in the

resources

energy and infrastructure sectors

how to do the right thing

and realize the full value that this

unlocks

and their few epiphanies here

most of us in business know what the

right things to do are

but we fail to make those things

standard business practice because

we bolt environmental and social

sustainability onto the side of our

businesses

rather than building them into the core

this is what has to change in business

it’s the only way to shift the needle

and it’s up to all of us to make that

happen

to do this you do have to give yourself

permission to think and do things

differently

it requires a different mindset

one of and not all

no compromises failure is not an option

not easy stuff and of course for

rigorous

management and resolute leadership

across all levels in the business

so that’s what we’re doing we’re

providing

equal weight to environmental and social

sustainability

alongside financial considerations

inside the governance systems of our new

business

from the top down starting with the

shareholder agreement

at this early design stage of the

project

it’s resulting in a very different

approach to stakeholders

as we realize

that all of our stakeholders are indeed

investors in one form or another

and as such need to be treated with

equity alongside

those who invest financially

so let me tell you a little bit more

about

three such main investors

the state of western australia first

nations people of australia

and the people who will work for us

it repositions all of them

as co-collaborators

together with us with common cause

with the state of western australia we

have a unique opportunity

to make the economy of the state more

resilient

by helping it to diversify significantly

as a result of that realization we

proactively

have set aside three gigawatts

of our generation for local use in the

pilbara

at very low prices which will lower

costs across the board

but probably even more significantly

it’s the easiest and fastest way for the

pilbara

to decarbonize away

and hold your breaths from the three to

five

billion liters a year of diesel that the

pilbara uses

and we’re working very closely with our

potential future suppliers

and the west australian and commonwealth

governments

to maximize local manufacturing

opportunities

whilst at the same time exploring the

spectrum

of downstream processing that the

project unlocks

from heavy industries like green steel

and aluminium

through the chemicals food and data

processing

our relationship with first nations

peoples

is central to everything we do

in advance of and above

any subsequent legal agreements

we have committed to a partnership

relationship with aboriginal people

based on the precepts of mutual

recognition mutual respect

mutual trust and mutual obligation

and our respect means that boss of

country talks directly

to boss of business

so we recognize and we deeply respect

the spiritual connection that

traditional owners have

with the land their social investment

into the natural world

and the investment of their culture and

heritage

that irrevocably underpins all of our

activities

we recognize that the land that the

project is situated on is theirs

now and forever

always was always will be

which results in a relationship with

them where they are the landowners and

we’re the tenants

and we will never do anything on their

land that they do not agree with

regardless of our rights under western

law

we will manage the environment guided by

traditional learners

and their ancient wisdom

and here’s the clincher

as an act of that resolute leadership i

spoke about earlier

we’re committed to a long-term

aspirational target

of a 100 aboriginal workforce for the

project

including everybody who does business

with us

and it extends beyond that

we will ensure that we design the

workplace so that we do not only employ

those who can work and are able to work

but are also able to employ deeply

deeply disadvantaged members

of the communities for instance those

who suffer from fetal alcohol syndrome

and what about our staff well

our relationship has to be more than

merely the exchange of labor

for money

our employees invest a portion of their

lives with us

so working with us

needs to result in a positive feedback

to their personal life’s journey

it’s well known that

the practices of fly and fly out

and driving drive out across the pilbara

result in significant personal and

public interest costs

as a result of poor mental health and

social dysfunction

whilst 12-hour shifts if any of you have

ever worked them

mitigate against building strong

communities

so for us there’s not going to be any

fly and fly out

there’ll be no driving drive out and

we’re going to work out our shifts

but how do we do that well

for the first time in some 30 years

we’re going to build a new town in

regional western australia

it’ll accommodate ultimately about 9 000

people

we’re using cutting-edge global best

practice

to design a place where people families

love to live and bring up their children

and where anybody who visits never wants

to leave

and the town with its abundant

low-cost energy and fresh water will be

built around a freshwater lake

it will employ closed loop green

technology

including aquaculture and horticulture

for local consumption and export

i told you it’s revolutionary i joined

this venture

when it became obvious to me that i was

going to be able to use

all of my life’s experience to help make

change

at this grand scale in the desert

country that i love

as i reflect on my own journey through

life

to this moment i’m reminded of my coming

of age

at 21 when my uncle sat me down

and gave me some advice that i’ve never

forgotten

three simple lines for me to analyze

deeply

and to aspire to

ride well shoot straight

and never tell a lie

it became my code

i’ve found it a really tough one to

follow

one tries one fails and at each juncture

one gets better

i continue to follow it today

it is why i’m here now

and it is why i’m so pleased

to be able to share all of this with you

thank you

you