Senate debates

Thursday, 28 October 2010

Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2010; Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage (Safety Levies) Amendment Bill 2010

Second Reading

12:55 pm

Photo of Rachel SiewertRachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

While the Greens will not be opposing the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2010 and the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage (Safety Levies) Amendment Bill 2010, I did want to put on record our concerns that we still have not seen—and this will come as no surprise to the government, because I have been putting this issue on the agenda for some time—the Montara report released publicly. It was handed to government in June, and we have been concerned that the report has not been made public. The issue there for us is that we know from reading the transcripts from the Montara inquiry that there is a requirement for change to oil and gas regulation in this country. We believe that the transcript provides ways forward on that and we are anxious to see the government’s approach. We are pleased that parts of this bill do take some steps towards that. We understand that the government needed time to consider the report. However, we believe it is important that the public has access to that report as soon as possible and also understands where the government is going on oil and gas—its vision for oil and gas legislation in this country.

Having said that, we will not oppose these bills, because we can see this as a step in the right direction. We hope the government will articulate a framework for change to the oil and gas regulatory process and legislation as soon as possible. I know that many people, for example in my home state of Western Australia, are very anxious to see, first off, the Montara commission of inquiry’s report and also the government’s response.

The oil and gas industry, as Senator Brandis has said, is a very important industry to this country, no more so than in my home state of Western Australia, where the oil and gas industry is growing and more and more areas are being opened to oil and gas exploration and production. That industry (a) plays of an important role in our economy but (b) has enormous potential to pose risks to human lives and to our environment, as we saw with Montara. To a certain extent we in Western Australia escaped a bullet with the Montara leak in that the accident occurred further from the shore and it did not affect the Kimberley coast. With the level of oil and gas exploration and production that is going on in Western Australia, off the entire coast, there is a potential that we would not be so lucky in the future. In other words, we do not want to see an accident happen where oil and gas ends up on the shores of the Kimberley.

We have been very vocal in our opposition to the release of the Mentelle Basin, also known as the Naturalist Plateau, which is only 83 kilometres off the coast of Margaret River on the south-west coast of Western Australia. There is very strong opposition to the release of that area. In that case, if we had a spill the size of Montara it would end up from cape to cape on that south-west coast. If we had one the size of the spill in the Gulf of Mexico, it would end up on the beaches north of Perth and around the south coast. That is why we believe we need to amend our oil and gas legislation. There is very, very strong support in Western Australia for that.

This is a small step. We will be waiting very anxiously for the government’s release of the Montara report and to see their vision for the changes they are going to make to oil and gas legislation so that we can be confident we have the best possible regulation. World’s best practice is what we are looking for from the government in their response to any findings. I am sure that some strong findings were made, given the sort of evidence that was available in the transcripts. Very strong evidence was given and we expect to see a strong response from government.

Comments

Mark Duffett
Posted on 29 Oct 2010 4:21 pm

So you'd have stopped the development of Bass Strait, would you Senator Siewert? By 'regulation', do you mean 'stop'?