Colin Boyce (Flynn, Liberal National Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

It's not surprising to read the findings of Sean Brady's report on the Callide Power Station failure in Central Queensland. This report identified the systemic failure of the Queensland Labor government and CS Energy's board and management to oversee and implement the required maintenance procedures to run this facility efficiently. This lack of maintenance contributed to the catastrophic failure in 2021 that saw energy prices increase and almost 500,000 homes and businesses plunge into darkness, which has ultimately cost taxpayers millions of dollars.

Central Queensland has a proud heritage as an energy-producing region, and I'm thankful that none of the workers at the Callide plant were injured that day. Back in July 2022 I said:

Hydrogen is extremely dangerous. It is extremely flammable and has specific qualities that make industrial quantities of hydrogen very difficult to produce, store, transport and use. In 1937 the zeppelin exploded. In 1986 the space shuttle Challenger exploded. In 2011 in Fukushima, Japan, a nuclear reactor plant exploded. More recently and close to home, the Callide C4 coal-fired generator exploded. These are all catastrophic hydrogen explosions.

My claims about the Callide Power Station were questioned by several journalists, but I am right.

However, I would like to draw your attention to Mr Brady's report that has identified that the explosion was caused when Callide's main turbine tripped and the backup battery systems failed to alert workers that the generator was drawing power rather than delivering it. The turbine subsequently exploded, after hydrogen used to cool the turbines leaked. Furthermore, Mr Brady's report identified the severe cost-cutting and bandaid solutions that were implemented by CS Energy and the Labor government. This played a significant role in the incident.

Some of the comments in the report include: 'The metrics focused on by the CS Energy board did not include a focus on the management of process safety. Instead, they were focused on personal injury, plant availability and financial performance. While process safety was discussed in the organisation, it did not result in any meaningful improvement in how major accident risks were managed within the operations. CS Energy sought to use surplus cash reserves for investment in existing and new assets but received a more limited agreement that debt management must be considered equally with portfolio revenue. Shareholder mandates have pushed to extract more from ageing assets, and multiple cost-cutting initiatives have been undertaken.' This was a catastrophic failure, maintained and implemented by Mr Mick de Brenni, the energy minister in Queensland.