Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

After Senator Mason’s contribution, I think this may be somewhat of an anticlimax. I refer to an Australian Stock Exchange announcement of 31 January entitled ‘Bloodwood Creek Environment Update’. It comes from the company Carbon Energy. It begins:

Carbon Energy Limited … advises that it has received a notice from the Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Management (DERM) extending the date for a final decision on the Company’s amended Environmental Authorities to 11 February 2011.

This statement goes on to refer to the underground coal gasification program that this company is involved in on the Darling Downs. I draw the Senate’s attention to the last couple of paragraphs of the statement:

The Company also notes recent media commentary referencing unsubstantiated accusations by a former employee of Carbon Energy, Mr John Wedgwood, regarding environmental compliance at the Company’s site.

It goes on to note that Mr Wedgwood is no longer working with the company, although throughout his employment he was responsible for the company’s environmental compliance. It is not the matter of the dispute between Mr Wedgwood and the company Carbon Energy that has motivated me to speak tonight, but rather the program for underground coal gasification that the company is involved in, which involves both of those parties.

Underground coal gasification involves burning the coal seam underground in the presence of steam and oxygen. The resulting chemical reaction produces ‘syngas’, which is a mixture of methane, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. This gas is usually used for running a gas-fired power station, which would be built nearby. The Carbon Energy plant at Kogan was part of a three-plant trial of underground coal gasification allowed by the Queensland government. The other two were Cougar at Kingaroy and Linc Energy at Chinchilla. Cougar has been shut down by the state government because of pollution issues.

The Carbon Energy plant at Kogan hit problems on 2 December 2008, according to information I have been given. This is the order of the events of those problems, which is effectively similar to what is outlined in a Carbon Energy interim board report which I have circulated to the whips of the government and opposition and which I seek leave to table.

Leave not granted.

I should say to the chamber what is obvious: we are way ahead of schedule here tonight and I was expecting to be speaking in an hour or two’s time. I circulated this 100-plus page document only a short while ago, and Senator Abetz, on behalf of the opposition, has asked for more time to look at it. Under those circumstances, I hope that it will be considered for tabling when the Senate next resumes.