Zali Steggall (Warringah, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to once again call on the government to put an end to the threat of oil and gas drilling off the coast between Manly Beach and Newcastle. Communities up and down the coast have campaigned for years to stop this project. Prior to the last election, the now Prime Minister stood alongside the member for Newcastle, and many other members of the government, and told us that the only way to put an end to this project was to elect an Albanese government. Yet this government has agreed to consent orders with the project proponents to once again send it back to the start of the process for reconsideration by NOPSEMA and the joint authority. There is a better solution: my Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Amendment (Stop PEP11 and Protect Our Coast) Bill would put an end to this project for good, give communities the certainty they deserve and preserve our coast for years to come. Today, this bill will fall off the Notice Paper, but I will be presenting another and another, until PEP-11 is genuinely dead in the water. The Prime Minister stood and grandstanded on the coast promising that under a government he led it would be dead in the water, yet it is still there, hanging over the heads of our communities. There is no support for oil and gas drilling off the coast between Newcastle and Manly. This project needs to be ended immediately so that our communities can get on and know that it is gone.