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March 22, 2026 \u2014 3:00pm<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n Save this article for later<\/p>\n Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime.<\/p>\n Got it<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n The mining industry has claimed it can buck the trend of artificial intelligence sparking a jobs bloodbath and instead create an employment boom, slashing years off approval wait times for major developments in the process.<\/p>\n The Minerals Council of Australia will ask for $13 million in the May federal budget to pilot AI, which it believes will provide a billion-dollar benefit to the economy in the long run by improving regulatory decision-making.<\/p>\n Around 26,000 homes across the country are caught in an approvals backlog, while the peak body for the nation\u2019s miners estimates $51 billion in resources projects are stuck in the pipeline each year due to slow decision-making processes.<\/p>\n Minerals Council of Australia chief executive Tania Constable said application wait times could be halved by using AI to sift through \u201cthousands of pages of approvals\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt takes about 3.8 years to get the statutory approval time met, that\u2019s up from 2.3 years in 2019 \u2013 an increase of 60 per cent,\u201d Constable told this masthead.<\/p>\n \u201cWe think that can be paired right back with the use of AI. The endgame is faster approvals.<\/p>\n \u201cIt takes about 16 years to get an idea off the ground to a final decision made and construction occurring with a project.<\/p>\n \u201cYou want to make sure that every part of the process is as efficient as you can so that a project proponent, an investor, can make a decision that puts Australia first.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re in a major competition with the rest of the world and we want Australia first.\u201d<\/p>\n Approval application delays have long been a source of frustration for industry.<\/p>\n Last year, Woodside\u2019s application to extend the life of the North West Gas Shelf in WA until 2070 was approved by the federal government<\/a> \u2013 the oil and gas giant first made the application in 2018.<\/p>\n Emerging from its economic roundtable last August, the federal government said it would cut red tape and speed up delays by implementing reforms, including two areas that could be acted on immediately.<\/p>\n An AI pilot was among those reforms.<\/p>\n This masthead understands the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water has undertaken preparatory work for a pilot, but no operational tools have been deployed at this stage.<\/p>\n Housing was to be a primary beneficiary from deploying AI.<\/p>\n Liberal-aligned think tank, the Menzies Research Centre, said the government would not meet housing needs without adopting the technology, and would miss the opportunity to lower energy prices with approximately 5000 kilometres of transmission lines waiting to be built.<\/p>\n \u201cThe risk is that Australia will miss out on a lot of this investment that\u2019s funding these major projects because we\u2019ve got one of the more lengthy approval time processes in Australia,\u201d executive director David Hughes said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re talking about big new electricity transmission lines that can help lower power prices and we\u2019re also talking about 26,000 new homes which are currently part of this backlog. The government really needs to take action now.\u201d<\/p>\n Shadow Housing Minister Andrew Bragg promised to \u201chold the government\u2019s feet to the fire\u201d, for what the opposition said was a failure to fix approval times through environmental reforms.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we want to see going forward is the use of technology to approve applications because it\u2019s ridiculous that it takes years, sometimes decades, to get approvals under this federal planning rule,\u201d Bragg said.<\/p>\n \u201cIn fact, the department says that there are at least 10,000 waiting to be approved because a parrot flew over a block of land in 1971,\u201d he added facetiously.<\/p>\n \u201cAlbo and his environment minister [Murray Watt] haven\u2019t pulled their fingers out.\u201d<\/p>\n The artificial intelligence disruption has pushed software companies to make massive job cuts, headlined by Mike Cannon-Brookes\u2019 Atlassian slashing 1600 jobs<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Minerals Council of Australia believes the use of AI would instead lead to more jobs in the sector by fast-tracking major developments.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is about $140 billion worth of critical minerals ready to take out of the ground by 2040, so that\u2019s a huge opportunity,\u201d Constable said.<\/p>\n Editor’s pick \u201cDelays in approval processes are a handbrake on the economy, creating severe bottlenecks for job-creating developments. [Faster approvals] means that we get more jobs occurring all the way around Australia.<\/p>\n The Minerals Council has promised if Treasurer Jim Chalmers granted its funding request for an AI pilot, the final decision of any development application would rest with a human, a stance backed by the Menzies Research Centre.<\/p>\n \u201cI think Australians are concerned about the potential of AI taking their jobs, but what we shouldn\u2019t be concerned about is using these technologies to help us do our jobs better and faster,\u201d Hughes said.<\/p>\n Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n![\"Tania](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/c201c67654106cced8b00c22e9b707b0b0cc0be7.jpeg\")
Tania Constable, Minerals Council of Australia chief executive, at the Financial Review Mining Summit 2025 in Perth.Photo Ross Swanborough<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774192270_796_5816b5a4b65c7dbd0aa8fa0695c222c2c31a8489.jpeg\")
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