Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I've circulated amendments in the chamber today to the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Amendment (Cross-boundary Greenhouse Gas Titles and Other Measures) Bill 2019. These amendments would put a moratorium on oil drilling in the Great Australian Bight. We all know that the debate over oil drilling in the Great Australian Bight has been hard fought. The majority of South Australians want to protect the Great Australian Bight. They want to protect our beaches and they want to keep our marine wonder world pristine. The last thing they want is to see the Great Australian Bight turned into an oil and gas field.

Given Equinor's decision some months ago to withdraw their proposal to drill in the Great Australian Bight, these amendments are now very well timed, because there is no current proposal before government, before the agency NOPSEMA, for drilling in the Bight. So we now have a wonderful opportunity to realise the hopes and dreams of South Australians and many other Australians right across this country to protect the Great Australian Bight for good, to make sure that we don't allow any big corporation to come in and think that they can trash what is a pristine, internationally important area, a whale sanctuary. Eighty per cent of the species who live in the Great Australian Bight are found nowhere else on earth. This is a very, very special place. People were fearful of what would have happened had Equinor been given the tick of approval and gone ahead with turning the Great Australian Bight into an oilfield. Let's make sure we do what South Australians want—that is, protect the bight for good. Putting in place a moratorium on drilling is a really good way to send a signal to industry, to overseas companies and to the Australian people that the government has listened to the wills and desires of the community.

Make no mistake: it was the community campaign—particularly out of South Australia, but it spread right across the country—of people wanting to protect this area. They want to protect the Great Australian Bight because it is so unique and so special. But they also know that turning the Great Australian Bight into an oilfield would make it very difficult for us to ever properly tackle climate change in the future. The enormous amount of carbon that would be omitted as a result of these drilling operations and the product coming out would make it near impossible for Australia to keep global warming below two degrees. We know we've got a long way to go to reduce the carbon pollution we already have. Opening up the Great Australian Bight would make the job even harder, because it would put even more pollution out there and into the atmosphere.

For two key reasons—the science and the will of the community—it is absolutely essential that this parliament acknowledges today that we need a moratorium on protecting the Great Australian Bight and a moratorium on any type of drilling in that area. To that point, one of the best things we can do is celebrate how good the bight is by giving it World Heritage protection and by making sure that the area that is now protected is given full opportunity to be celebrated as an area that Australians and people from all over the world will want to visit. We know that South Australia's tourism industry has been kicked hard over the last few months. With the bushfires, the devastation on Kangaroo Island and in the Adelaide Hills, and now with COVID-19, South Australia's tourism has been decimated. Wouldn't it be wonderful if this government made an investment in our state and our state's tourism by protecting the bight and celebrating it as a place to be visited and rejoiced. This is what South Australians want.

I implore this government to step in and do what is right. I know it was always going to be difficult to make a change while there was an application on foot, but we don't have that problem anymore. Equinor, the Norwegian company, pulled out; they've gone. Say no to oil and gas drilling in the bight and yes to World Heritage protection. That's what these amendments do, and I encourage my fellow senators to support them.

The CHAIR: Senator Hanson-Young, do you wish to move those amendments?

by leave—I move Greens amendments (1) and (2) on sheet 8886 together:

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

  (2) Page 201 (after line 19), at the end of the Bill, add:

   Schedule 5—Moratorium on drilling exploration in Great Australian Bight

   Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006

   1 Section 7

     Insert:

      Commonwealth Great Australian Bight area has the meaning given by Schedule 9.

   2 After section 97

     Insert:

           97A Moratorium—drilling exploration in the Great Australian Bight

        (1) A petroleum exploration permit may not be granted on or after the moratorium start day in respect of an area in the Commonwealth Great Australian Bight area.

        (2) A petroleum exploration permit that is in force immediately before the moratorium start day ceases to have effect on and after that day.

        (3) On and from the moratorium start day, nothing in this Act authorises or requires, or gives the power to authorise or require, any of the following:

        (a) exploring for petroleum in the Commonwealth Great Australian Bight area;

        (b) recovering petroleum in the Commonwealth Great Australian Bight area;

           (c) carrying on operations, and executing works, in the Commonwealth Great Australian Bight area for those purposes.

        (4) In this section:

            moratorium start day means the day this section commences.

   3 At the end of the Act

     Add:

       Schedule 9—Commonwealth Great Australian Bight area

     Note: See the definition of CommonwealthGreat Australian Bight area in section 7.

     1Commonwealth Great Australian Bight area

     The Commonwealth Great Australian Bight area is an area in the Southern Ocean bounded by the line commencing at the point described in item 1 of the following table and running progressively as described in the table.