Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in favour of these bills. These bills implement the work of the former federal government. These bills are the culmination of a substantial body of work that commenced following the Montara oil and gas well explosion, which was one of the most significant offshore petroleum incidents in Australia's history. It highlighted, once again, the inherent dangers that exist in the offshore hydrocarbon industry. These dangers were demonstrated, again, in August 2012 when two workers were fatally injured on a mobile offshore drilling facility in the Otway Basin off the Victorian coast.

These bills will ensure the safest operating environment possible for this industry. That is a good thing. The offshore hydrocarbon industry is important for Australia. It is important for our economy, but this should not bring with it an unacceptable risk to the people involved in it or to the environment. This legislation is designed to learn the lessons from these tragic events and ensure that they do not happen again.

We believe that the regulatory settings we are putting in place through these bills are appropriate. They encourage the best possible offshore practices in the offshore hydrocarbon industry while being flexible to allow the government to act quickly if required. We expect this legislation will operate to make sure that our offshore hydrocarbon is not only as productive as it can be but also as safe as it can be.

I commend these bills to the Senate.

Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Greens support these non-controversial bills. We will, however, be keeping a close eye on how these regulations operate. This new system of regulation was put in place, as the explanatory memorandums outline, as discussed many times in this place, as just mentioned by Senator Conroy, and following the debacle of the Montara oil spill off the coast of Western Australia. That spill continued for a number of weeks and we do not actually know how much oil entered the marine environment, and we do not know the total impact of that spill on the environment because there was no baseline monitoring. There are ongoing concerns about any longer lasting effects on West Timor and on the seaweed growers and fishers from that area, with some fishers having abandon some of the fishing grounds that they had previously used.

We know what the impact is if we do not regulate our oil and gas properly. We strongly supported the institutions brought in by the previous government, NOPSEMA. We have concerns with the shifting and the balance of environmental regulation, which has gone too far to NOPSEMA. However, we will continue to monitor that to see how that rolls out. There is a lot of work that needs to continue to be done to make sure that our oil and gas industry is operating to the highest standards. There have been significant improvements, and we hope that these regulations will continue to ensure that we have strong regulation around our oil and gas industry. However, we will keep an eye out to make sure that the system continues to operate as it is now, that the environment is effective, that the environment is not left out of considerations into the future and that the balance has not gone too far.

Scott Ryan (Victoria, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank senators for their contributions and commend the bills to the Senate.

Question agreed to.

Bills read a second time.