Stephen Jones (Throsby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I come from a coalmining region, the Illawarra and the Southern Highlands. Whether it is the Medway mines or along the escarpment, we have been mining coal in this region for most of the last century. Because of the nature of the chemistry of the mines, and the fact that a lot of the mines involve old workings, they are very gassy. As a consequence of all of this, they have also been extracting methane from the mines in my district for a very long time. For the most part it has just been sent up into the atmosphere or flared; although, more recently over the last decade, BHP—one of the operators of the mines just north of my electorate—has started to use the methane which it extracts from its mines up in Appin to feed into the local energy and electricity grid.

We know that coal seam gas is methane. It is now part of our mainstream energy supply. That is particularly the case in eastern Australia. It accounts for 30 per cent of the domestic gas production of the eastern states and it is a key component of the reticulated gas supply throughout the east coast of Australia. Australia's ability to meet the future east coast gas demand will critically depend on the extent to which coal seam gas and the industry are allowed to develop in a sustainable way. That means we need to understand the impacts of this rapidly expanding industry on our environment, and on our precious water supplies in particular.

In many areas, including parts of my electorate, coal seam gas mining is incredibly controversial. In the Illawarra and Southern Highlands a number of groups have formed to express their deep concern about the impact of coal seam gas and its impact on the environment, particularly the water tables in and around my electorate. There is absolutely no question that the rapid growth has divided local communities. The concern is about whether we know enough about the long-term impacts on our water supplies and, as the previous speakers have said, on the competing land-use priorities and what that means for our food supply and food security. The Illawarra and Southern Highlands regions form a vital part of the Sydney water catchment area so it is not surprising that communities in these areas are raising these concerns.

However, balanced against these legitimate community concerns—and I provide my support to these concerns—is the knowledge that, as an advanced economy, we are energy hungry. The government understands these concerns and is working with the states and territories to ensure that current and potential coal seam gas projects are developed in a sustainable way and in a way which manages competing land-use strategies. To that end, the Commonwealth is assisting in the formulation of a national harmonised regulatory framework for the coal seam gas industry which will address key community concerns including: water management and monitoring, well integrity and aquifer protection, and the monitoring of hydraulic fracturing and chemical use.

As part of the government's need to better understand the implications of this industry, the bill before the House today will see the establishment of an independent expert scientific committee. This committee will help government develop policy to ensure we can preserve the long-term health, quality and viability of our water supply and water resources, while supporting the sustainable development of coal seam gas and coalmining industries.

Current gaps in scientific knowledge about the direct and cumulative impacts of coal seam gas and coalmining on water resources contribute to the legitimate community concern. In part this is a factor of the rapid growth in production of coal seam gas in Australia that has taken place over the last 15 years. In 1995 the commercial production of coal seam gas was zero, but by 2003 production was at 40 petajoules. By 2006 production had doubled to 80 petajoules, and in 2009 it had more than doubled again to 195 petajoules. This shows that the sudden expansion of coal seam gas extraction is due to new Australian technology and growing demand, particularly from China for cleaner fossil fuels. Coal seam gas and coal can bring huge opportunities, both in investment and job creation, but to do so community confidence must be maintained in these developments.

On 21 November 2011, the Prime Minister announced the government would establish a new independent expert scientific committee that will provide scientific advice to governments in relation to relevant coal seam gas and large coalmining projects that are likely to have significant impacts on water resources. The regulation of coal seam gas and coalmining industries is primarily a responsibility of the state and territory governments who are also responsible for making decisions in relation to the licensing of mining and extractive industries. However, the Commonwealth does have a role in regulating coal seam gas and coalmining proposals where those proposed projects could have a significant impact on matters protected by the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. This includes matters of national environmental significance, actions involving the Commonwealth and actions taken on, or impacting on, Commonwealth land.

Because coal seam gas mining is principally a state and territory issue, and recognising that national coordination is critical, a National Partnership Agreement on Coal Seam Gas and Large Coal Mining development was established through negotiations with relevant state and territory governments. The national partnership agreement commits the Australian government and the relevant state and territory governments to take into account the advice of the independent expert scientific committee in their regulatory decisions. Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia have signed this agreement with the Australian government, and negotiations are continuing with Victoria and the Northern Territory. Following that, an interim independent expert scientific committee was put in place and will continue until it hands over to the independent expert scientific committee being established through this bill when it passes into legislation.

The interim committee has determined six priority themes for research and knowledge acquisition. These themes are: a risk assessment framework to enable the bioregional assessments; knowledge projects and foundational science to better understand the impacts; capacity building—both infrastructure and people—to better enable research to be done; data strategy and infrastructure to coordinate the information being accumulated; collaboration between major research agencies and institutions by fostering capacity and capability to ensure effective outcomes and processes; and, finally, basin scale modelling which would provide data to support the understanding of risks and foundational research, including engaging with industry and state governments to enable currently collected data to be used effectively.

This bill establishes in law the independent expert scientific committee. It commits the Australian government to investment in public-good scientific research on the actual and potential impacts of coal seam gas and large coalmining activities on water resources, including bioregional assessments of areas with commercially viable coal seam gas and coal reserves. The provisions of this bill will assist all of those who have some concerns about this industry by providing accurate information. The absence of accurate information has, unfortunately, coloured the debate that exists within many communities around coal seam gas and coal seam gas activities.

A celebrated documentary that was broadcast on ABC television over the last 12 months about the use of particular chemicals in the coal seam gas industry in the United States, for example, fuelled considerable concern amongst many communities within my own electorate. What was less known is that many of the chemicals—in fact, the majority of the chemicals that were used in the coal seam gas industry in the United States, where regulation is scant and cowboy activities in that industry were voracious—and many of the activities were banned from use in any of the states where coal seam gas mines are being developed in Australia. It is this lack of knowledge of how the industry works and how the chemicals within the industry work which has led to a great deal of community concern, and it is my fervent hope that the establishment of this expert committee, the development of research and the promulgation of the research will go some way to stemming that concern.

What it will not stem is the legitimate concerns of many communities, including those in my area, about the impact of coal seam gas on the water table, aquifers and our water supply and security. I know this is of deep concern to many within the farming community. It is equally of deep concern for those who have a concern about biosecurity and our environment.

For these reasons, the work that is being done through the COAG process, the commitment of the Commonwealth to work with states and territories around nationally consistent standards for the development and conduct of coal seam gas mines, particularly in mines where there is a sensitivity to water supply and where they are competing with land use for farming and other agricultural industries, is absolutely critical. The community is rightly concerned—and has a right to be concerned—about our future water resources. Once you damage an aquifer, it is almost impossible to rectify that damage. That said, I am confident that, with the best will in the world, with responsible activities on behalf of the mining industry, the body of research can be developed to ensure that this activity can be conducted in some areas, but not all areas, where prospecting is occurring, and that coal seam gas can continue to be an important contributor to our energy security in this country. As I have already said, it currently contributes around 30 per cent of the gas supply in eastern Australia, and in south-east Queensland the figure is probably closer to 60 per cent. So it is no small matter that we are debating in the House today.

It is my hope that the Commonwealth, working cooperatively with the state and territory governments, will be in a position to put in place the right sort of regulation to ensure that the industry can proceed in a responsible way—in a way that protects our environment and protects land use, which should be protected for agricultural and other purposes, and which does not create the sort of damage to our water tables and aquifers that is feared by many, which has been proved to occur in other countries—and that we can continue to have long-term energy security in this country, including the contribution to that energy security that is represented by the gas industry in this country.

I commend the legislation to the House.

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