Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak to the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Amendment (Cross-boundary Greenhouse Gas Titles and Other Measures) Bill 2019 and the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage (Regulatory Levies) Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2019. I want to cover three points in the course of my speech. Firstly, I want to give a short summary of what the bills are about. Secondly, I want to outline why the bills are important, especially in today's context. Thirdly, I will make a few comments in response to some of the remarks which have been made by some of my fellow senators.

Firstly, what do the bills do? The bills enable title administration and regulation of a greenhouse gas storage formation that straddles the boundary between state and/or Territory coastal waters and Commonwealth waters; enable unification of adjacent Commonwealth greenhouse gas titles; strengthen the powers of the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority during an oil pollution emergency originating in Commonwealth waters; and make minor policy and technical amendments to the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act. Those issues have been discussed by a number of the previous speakers, and they're relatively straightforward. If this nation is to develop carbon capture and storage, we need to have a title system which reflects the geographical reality of where the formations are located, the jurisdictions in which they reside and how the carbon capture and storage technology would be utilised, with injections into those formations. Those formations don't necessarily respect state and territory borders. That all makes great sense.

It also makes great sense that NOPSEMA, the relevant authority and regulator, is given appropriate powers in the event of an oil pollution emergency. We need a regulator on the beat who can take the appropriate action if there is an oil pollution emergency. And, of course, in that context as well, state and Commonwealth borders aren't necessarily respected in the context of that emergency. The regulator needs to act in both the Commonwealth's jurisdiction and in the states' jurisdictions.

The last point I'd make in relation to the introductory comments on what the bill achieves is that the bill does respect our Federation and there's an appropriate allowance for Commonwealth-state cooperation with respect to management and regulation of the titles, all the way from the initial grant to the renewal process, and through the imposition of various conditions on the titles.

I'd now like to talk about why this bill is important. Last year, I served on a Senate select committee that looked at the vexed question of jobs in the regions, and some of those regions are suffering a great deal. One of the regions in relation to which we took evidence was the Latrobe Valley. Some of the most thought-provoking evidence I think we received in the context of that committee meeting was from representatives of AMWU and also from some of their members. The point that they made during the—

Senator Watt interjecting—

I'll take that interjection, Senator Watt. They were very smart people and they cared about their members. One of the points they made was that, in the context of a major shutdown of, say, an electricity power station—automotive manufacturing—the research indicates that the prospects for people employed on a full-time basis in those facilities were quite grim. The evidence suggests that only one-third of the long-term employees would find long-term employment somewhere else after they'd been made redundant from such facilities; one-third would go on the treadmill of short-term casual work; and one-third would never have a full-time job ever again. That evidence really did resonate with me and stayed with me far after the hearings of the committee.

When I look at this bill, it seems to me that we have an opportunity here, as a chamber, to support the promotion and development of a new industry: an export hydrogen industry. The position with respect to regulation of titles and with respect to the formation of titles will assist the development of that industry. The Commonwealth government, as has the Victorian government, has already been supporting the development of the export hydrogen industry. I want to talk about two projects in this context. The first is the government's investment of $96 million in the CarbonNet project, which is investigating the potential for establishing a commercial-scale carbon capture and storage network in the Latrobe Valley, Victoria. CarbonNet has commenced what is referred to as a stage 3 work program, which includes drilling an appraisal well—which is currently underway in Bass Strait—to determine the suitability of its preferred CO2 storage site, obtaining a declaration of a storage and injection licence and also defining a commercial structure and financial model to attract private sector investment.

The second project I want to refer to is the hydrogen energy supply chain into which the federal government has invested $50 million. This is a world-first pilot project, which is being supported by substantial private sector and public sector investment from Japan. This is where the opportunity lies for this country to develop a world-leading hydrogen export industry. HSC is co-funded by a Japanese-led business consortium to the tune of $230 million; $166 million from the Japanese government; $250 million from the Commonwealth government; and $50 million from the Victorian government. If we can get that to work, if we can get that project off the ground, it will provide billions in export dollars and it will provide hundreds and hundreds of jobs, and it will do it in a way that is environmentally responsible and will provide job creation and investment in one of our regions that has suffered from redundancies over the last 20 years—the Latrobe Valley. It has suffered. Here's an opportunity for that region to reinvent itself. Here is an opportunity for that region to create additional jobs and employment and economic activity, the exact sort of economic activity that this nation will need as we emerge from this COVID-19 crisis.

The other aspect of that project that really resonates with me is the work being undertaken by the Commonwealth government, the Victorian government, the Japanese government, and significant private sector players in both the Australian economy and the Japanese economy. I've seen that work in my home state of Queensland: the BHP Mitsubishi Alliance in Queensland, which constituted a great partnership between great Australian companies and great Japanese companies, developed undeveloped resources in the great state of Queensland. It provided jobs, generated growth and provided prosperity for the people of Queensland. I can see the opportunity we have here for exactly the same thing to be achieved in Victoria.