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

by leave—I move amendments (1) and (3) on sheet 7119 together:

(1) Clause 2, page 3 (at the end of the table), add:

(3) Page 147 (after line 31), at the end of the bill, add:

Schedule 7—Other amendments

Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006

1 After subsection 478(2)

Insert:(2A)   The Titles Administrator must not approve the transfer of a title if the transferee, or any of the transferees, is the subject of a Commission of inquiry that is being conducted, or is to be conducted, by a person appointed under section 780A.

2 Application—transfer of title

The amendment made by item 1 of this Schedule applies in relation to Commissions of inquiry established on or after the commencement of that item, whether the application for a transfer of title was made before, on or after that commencement.

3 At the end of Part 9.1 of Chapter 9

Add:

747A Decisions under this Act must not be the subject of certain declarations

     A decision or class of decisions under this Act must not be:

(a) specified as an action or a class of actions; or

(b) accredited as a management arrangement or authorisation process;

for the purposes of a declaration under section 33 of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.

Note:   Section 33 of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 allows a declaration to be made that certain environmental actions do not require approval under the Act.

4 Application—decisions under the Act

The amendment made by item 3 of this Schedule applies in relation to declarations made on or after the commencement of that item, whether the decision was made before, on or after that commencement.

5 Before section 780A

Insert:

780AA Applications under this Act may be suspended while Commission of inquiry underway

(1)   The Minister may suspend consideration of an application made under this Act by an entity if the entity is the subject of a Commission of inquiry that is being conducted, or is to be conducted, by a person appointed under section 780A.

(2)   The suspension continues to have effect until the earlier of the following days:

  (a)   the Commission of inquiry is completed;

  (b)   the Minister revokes the suspension.

6 Application—suspension of applications

The amendment made by item 5 of this Schedule applies in relation to Commissions of inquiry established on or after the commencement of that item, whether the application was made before, on or after that commencement.

7 After Part 9.7 of Chapter 9

Insert:

Part 9.7A—Notification of vacated areas

777A Notification of vacated areas

     The Titles Administrator must notify the Minister administering the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 of all vacated areas as soon as practicable after the areas come into existence.

8 Application—notifications

The amendment made by item 7 of this Schedule applies in relation to vacated areas that come into existence on or after the commencement of that item.

These amendments add new provisions to enable the government to choose not to grant licences to companies where there are significant question marks over their ability to manage oilfields when they have caused significant accidents, for example like the Montara incident. This was an issue I raised during the course of the inquiry into PTTEP, where PTTEP were allowed to acquire leases and titles when they were being investigated for what was a very serious incident. This occurred with the granting authorities knowing full well, from the company's own submissions to the inquiry and from the transcript of the inquiry, that there were serious concerns about PTTEP's operations.

Specifically the amendments insert a new section, 478(2A), providing that the Titles Administrator must not approve the transfer of a title where the transferee is the subject of an inquiry being conducted under part 9.10A. They also insert a new section 780AA, specifically allowing the minister to suspend consideration of applications under the act while an entity is being similarly investigated. It is important to note that these provisions are triggered when an entity is under investigation under the commission of inquiry provisions of part 9.10A. This requires a 'significant incident', which we believe is an appropriately high threshold.

These provisions deal with the fact that companies, despite the fact that they may have caused a significant incident, can still be granted titles. I understand there were issues under PTTEP where in some instances the titles were requiring transfers—rather than being granted, the licences were being transferred. We have sought to deal with that through these amendments. This is to ensure that we treat appropriately companies who have caused serious incidents, or it looks like they have caused serious incidents to the point where for example there is a comm­ission of inquiry to look into it. We still have this farcical situation in this country where these companies can acquire further licences.

We believe these are sensible amend­ments. They protect our environment—and this is about protecting our environment. That is what this new regulator is supposed to be doing—managing the sector and ensur­ing environmental management. To us, this is common sense. We do not give someone we think has caused a serious incident further licences when we do not know their capacity to safely manage their operations. We believe this significantly improves the regulation of the industry and I commend the amendments to the chamber.