Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to address Greens amendment (1) on running sheet 7377. I would like to put to Senator Conroy, and, though I know it is slightly unorthodox, to the coalition as well, whether or not either of the major parties are in support of Greens amendment (1) on running sheet 7377, on schedule 1, item 1, which is intended, as I addressed in my second reading debate contribution, to close a loophole. I do not assume any malice on the part of either the crossbenchers in the other place or the government in bringing this bill to the Senate, but in effect it excludes the western third of the continent. We do have unconventional gas reserves in Western Australia. We have massive reserves on a national scale in the Canning Basin, in the Perth Basin and possibly elsewhere in central Western Australia. Yet Western Australia, in effect, by not having coal seam gas reserves but having their reserves defined by the different forms of geology in which they occur, would be excluded from the provisions of this bill. So my question to you, Minister, is: do we have government support for this amendment? As I say, we believe it is to amend what is simply a drafting error or perhaps the provision occurred in ignorance of the different geological forms in which these reserves occur. And, if there is no government support for this amendment, why on earth not?