By: Creamer media

Speaking at Minerals Week 2026 in Canberra, Slattery said increasing geopolitical fragmentation was shifting policy priorities globally, with energy security and affordability now overtaking decarbonisation as the dominant policy priority in many major economies.

“We are not in a period of temporary disruption. We are in a period of structural volatility,” she said, according to a copy of her speech, noting that this shift was reshaping investment decisions, as well as the pace and pathways of decarbonisation.

For Australia, this created two realities, Slattery said. “On the one hand, we are a clear beneficiary of the global energy transition and continued economic growth globally. Demand for the commodities we produce - copper, iron-ore, metallurgical coal, lithium and others - is rising structurally, driven by electrification, energy security and growth.

“On the other hand, decarbonising our operations is a clear imperative to solve for both meeting our commitments and ensuring long term invest-ability. The task before us is to navigate both realities: capturing the opportunity while managing the transition.”

She emphasised that Australia remained well positioned to benefit from rising global demand for key commodities.

“Without mining, there is no energy transition,” Slattery said, highlighting forecasts that global copper demand could rise by about 70% by 2050.

“This demand is structural, not cyclical. It is driven by long‑term changes in how the global economy produces and consumes energy, at a time when supply constraints are tightening in many jurisdictions.”

However, she cautioned that capturing this opportunity would depend on Australia’s ability to compete for global capital, as large-scale resource projects are increasingly assessed against international benchmarks for risk, returns and execution.

Australia’s competitiveness had weakened in recent years, Slattery noted, citing a Business Council of Australia study that ranked the country twenty-first out of 42 economies in 2025, down from seventeenth in 2019.

“Being 21 out of 42 would have never given us sporting greats like Ash Barty or Cathy Freeman, and we should not accept it as a measure of our economic strength. Because in any competitive sport, the ladder matters.”

“Being in the middle of the table is where investment decisions start to drift elsewhere,” Slattery said.

She identified energy costs, regulatory complexity and taxation as key headwinds, warning that capital was mobile and would flow to jurisdictions offering more attractive investment conditions.

At the same time, decarbonising mining operations remained essential to maintaining long-term competitiveness, although Slattery acknowledged that the pathway to net zero was more complex than often assumed.

While progress has been made in renewable electricity, she said reducing emissions in heavy industry – particularly in areas such as diesel use in haulage and fugitive emissions in coal mining – remained technically and commercially challenging.

Slattery stressed that progress would depend on advancing technologies, building supply chains and maintaining capital discipline, with miners playing a key role in trialling and scaling new solutions.

At BHP, this includes trials of battery-electric haul trucks in the Pilbara and battery-electric locomotives across its rail network.

She also highlighted the role of policy in enabling investment, pointing to recent progress such as the Australia–European Union Free Trade Agreement and proposed reforms to environmental approvals aimed at improving regulatory certainty.

However, she warned that further improvements were needed to ensure Australia remained competitive, particularly in reducing regulatory complexity and ensuring stable fiscal settings.

“Capital discipline is not a constraint on progress. It is what makes progress durable,” Slattery said.

She concluded that Australia’s future prosperity would depend on balancing competitiveness with decarbonisation, arguing that the two objectives were increasingly interconnected.

“Mining helped build modern Australia. The choices we make now, on energy, on investment and on competitiveness, will shape what comes next.”