Rex Patrick (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

[by video link] I would also like my support of Senator Hanson's amendment noted. I seek leave to move amendments (1) and (2) on sheet 1349 together.

Leave granted.

I move amendments (1) and (2) on sheet 1349 together:

(1) Clause 2, page 2 (after table item 6), insert:

(2) Page 168 (after line 31), after Schedule 5, insert:

Schedule 5A — Reporting and publication

Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006

1 After paragraph 8A(2)(q)

Insert:

(qa) Part 7.4;

2 Paragraph 125(2)(b)

Omit "and Part 7.1", substitute ", Part 7.1 and Part 7.4".

3 Subparagraph 125(3)(a)(ii)

Omit "and Part 7.1", substitute ", Part 7.1 and Part 7.4".

4 Subparagraph 126(2)(a)(ii)

Omit "and Part 7.1", substitute ", Part 7.1 and Part 7.4".

5 Subparagraph 154(2)(a)(ii)

Omit "and Part 7.1", substitute ", Part 7.1 and Part 7.4".

6 Subparagraph 154(3)(a)(ii)

Omit "and Part 7.1", substitute ", Part 7.1 and Part 7.4".

7 Subparagraph 155(2)(a)(ii)

Omit "and Part 7.1", substitute ", Part 7.1 and Part 7.4".

8 Subparagraph 185(2)(a)(ii)

Omit "and Part 7.1", substitute ", Part 7.1 and Part 7.4".

9 Subparagraph 185(3)(a)(ii)

Omit "and Part 7.1", substitute ", Part 7.1 and Part 7.4".

10 Subparagraph 185(4)(a)(ii)

Omit "and Part 7.1", substitute ", Part 7.1 and Part 7.4".

11 Subparagraph 186(2)(a)(ii)

Omit "and Part 7.1", substitute ", Part 7.1 and Part 7.4".

12 Subparagraph 221(3)(c)(ii)

Omit "and Part 7.1", substitute ", Part 7.1 and Part 7.4".

13 Subparagraph 221(4)(c)(ii)

Omit "and Part 7.1", substitute ", Part 7.1 and Part 7.4".

14 Subparagraph 222(3)(d)(ii)

Omit "and Part 7.1", substitute ", Part 7.1 and Part 7.4".

15 Subparagraph 222(4)(d)(ii)

Omit "and Part 7.1", substitute ", Part 7.1 and Part 7.4".

16 Subparagraph 223(2)(c)(ii)

Omit "and Part 7.1", substitute ", Part 7.1 and Part 7.4".

17 Subparagraph 224(2)(d)(ii)

Omit "and Part 7.1", substitute ", Part 7.1 and Part 7.4".

18 After subparagraph 270(3)(b)(iv)

Insert:

(iva) Part 7.4; and

19 Subparagraph 270(5)(a)(ii)

Omit "and Part 7.1", substitute ", Part 7.1 and Part 7.4".

20 After subparagraph 274(c)(iv)

Insert:

(iva) Part 7.4; or

21 After subparagraph 277(1)(a)(iv)

Insert:

(iva) Part 7.4; or

22 After subparagraph 277(2)(a)(iv)

Insert:

(iva) Part 7.4; or

23 After subparagraph 611(1)(a)(vi)

Insert:

(via) Part 7.4; or

24 At the end of Chapter 7

Insert:

Part 7.4 — Reporting and publication of specific matters related to petroleum titles

721A Simplified outline

This Part requires matters to be reported and published in relation to certain petroleum titles, and operations undertaken in relation to those titles, including:

(a) specific matters on a monthly basis; and

(b) specific matters (related to wells) before notifiable decommissioning operations are undertaken.

721B Definitions

(1) For the purposes of this Part, the table has effect:

721C Petroleum monthly report

(1) A titleholder commits an offence if the titleholder does not give the Titles Administrator a monthly report for a title area within the period:

(a) starting on the last day of the named month to which the report relates; and

(b) ending 15 days after that day.

Penalty: 50 penalty units

(2) The Titles Administrator must, within 30 days of receiving a report under subsection (1), make publicly available a copy of the report, without redaction, on the website of the Titles Administrator.

(3) For the avoidance of doubt:

(a) the copy of the report is not subject to a confidentiality requirement; and

(b) a confidentiality requirement that is inconsistent with this section has no effect to the extent of the inconsistency.

Note: The confidentiality requirements in Part 7.3 of this Act and in the regulations do not apply in relation to this Part.

(4) In this section, monthly report means a report that includes each of the following matters for a title area, if applicable to the title area:

(a) for each well in the title area, if any:

(i) the well's identification name and number; and

(ii) a summary of all work that has been performed on the well during the month; and

(iii) the results of production tests for the well, including the parameters of the test; and

(iv) the well's operational status at the end of the month; and

(v) the number of days of production during the month; and

(vi) the cumulative quantities of liquid and gaseous petroleum, of water, and of carbon dioxide that have been produced or injected as at the end of the month;

(b) the total quantities of each of the following for the month:

(i) liquid and gaseous petroleum produced;

(ii) liquid and gaseous petroleum used;

(iii) liquid and gaseous petroleum injected;

(iv) gaseous petroleum flared or vented;

(v) liquid petroleum stored;

(vi) liquid and gaseous petroleum delivered from the area;

(vii) water produced;

(viii) water injected;

(ix) carbon dioxide produced;

(x) carbon dioxide injected;

(c) the cumulative quantities of liquid and gaseous petroleum, of water, and of carbon dioxide that have been produced or injected as at the end of the month.

(5) Subsection (4) does not limit:

(a) the matters that the regulations may require to be included in a monthly report; or

(b) the matters that may otherwise be included in a monthly report; or

(c) any other monthly reporting obligations that the regulations may prescribe.

721D Notification before decommissioning

(1) If a person proposes to undertake a notifiable decommissioning operation in a title area, the titleholder must notify the Titles Administrator of that fact and the following matters:

(a) the nature and location of the notifiable decommissioning operation;

(b) for each well subject to the notifiable decommissioning operation in the title area, if any:

(i) the well's identification name and number; and

(ii) a summary of all work that has been performed on the well during the month; and

(iii) the results of production tests for the well, including the parameters of the test; and

(iv) the well's operational status at the end of the month; and

(v) the number of days of production during the month; and

(vi) the cumulative quantities of water and of liquid and gaseous petroleum produced or injected as at the end of the month.

(2) The Titles Administrator must, within 30 days of receiving a notification under subsection (1), make publicly available on the website of the Titles Administrator the matters of which the Titles Administrator is notified, without redaction.

(3) For the avoidance of doubt:

(a) the matters subject to publication under subsection (2) are not subject to a confidentiality requirement; and

(b) a confidentiality requirement that is inconsistent with this section has no effect to the extent of the inconsistency.

Note: The confidentiality requirements in Part 7.3 and in the regulations do not apply in relation to this Part.

(4) A person commits an offence if:

(a) the person undertakes a notifiable decommissioning operation in a title area; and

(b) at the time the person undertakes the notifiable decommissioning operation:

(i) the titleholder has not notified the Titles Administrator of the matters referred to in subsection (1) in relation to the notifiable decommissioning operation; and

(ii) the Titles Administrator has not made the matters publicly available in accordance with subsection (2).

Penalty: 50 penalty units

(5) In this section, a notifiable decommissioning operation is an operation relating to the decommissioning or removal of structures, equipment or other items of property that have been brought into an offshore area for or in connection with:

(a) petroleum exploration operations; or

(b) petroleum recovery operations.

25 Paragraph 23(2)(a) of Schedule 6

Omit "or Part 7.1", substitute ", Part 7.1 or Part 7.4".

26 Paragraph 24(a) of Schedule 6

Omit "or Part 7.1", substitute ", Part 7.1 or Part 7.4".

27 Paragraph 26(a) of Schedule 6

Omit "or Part 7.1", substitute ", Part 7.1 or Part 7.4".

28 Paragraph 27(a) of Schedule 6

Omit "or Part 7.1", substitute ", Part 7.1 or Part 7.4".

29 Paragraph 30(d) of Schedule 6

Omit "or Part 7.1", substitute ", Part 7.1 or Part 7.4".

30 Paragraph 31(a) of Schedule 6

Omit "or Part 7.1", substitute ", Part 7.1 or Part 7.4".

Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage (Resource Management and Administration) Regulations 2011

31 Subdivision 3.4 of Division 3 of Part 7

Repeal the subdivision.

For many reasons, the Australian oil and gas sector needs work. In some aspects, it needs a tweak. In some, it needs an overhaul. In some areas, it needs a complete reset. We have a situation in Australia where we are not getting the maximum value—in fact, any real value—out of our resources, resources that belong to the taxpayer. Such resources have been used in other countries, such as Norway and Qatar, to return significantly more to the residents or citizens of those countries.

We have a situation here in Australia where there's a whole range of different taxes and impositions placed on companies. We see GST, fringe benefits tax, payroll tax and corporate tax. We know from tax transparency data that the oil and gas industry pay almost no corporate tax. ExxonMobil are a good example. On $42 billion of revenue over four or five years, they paid zero corporate tax. They don't bother about paying for the security of the North West Shelf or the Bass Strait. They don't worry about paying for the education of the workers on their sites. They don't worry about paying for the medical facilities that might exist in a hospital near their site. They don't pay for the roads that lead to the doors of their premises. They simply don't contribute back to the Australian taxpayer by way of corporate tax.

I will give Commissioner Jordan of the ATO a big shout-out here. I criticise him when I think he's done something wrong, but I have to congratulate him when he has done something right. The ATO successfully pursued Chevron through the courts, where it proved that the company's internal lending arrangements associated with a $3.7 billion loan were inconsistent with the principles of arm's-length transactions, and the company has had to pay a $340 million tax settlement. This just tells you how these companies operate. They don't have national interest in their charter. Most of them are multinationals. They don't care about Australia at all. They care about their profit, and the Australian government is responsible for setting up a regime in which Australians receive a fair share of tax.

The other sort of return that we might expect to get from offshore companies is, of course, the petroleum resource rent tax. We've seen in submissions to a Senate Economics References Committee inquiry on maximising benefits from oil and gas for Australians that in 2018-19 we had $62 billion of resources exported, for a PRRT return of just $1 billion. The company benefits by $62 billion, and the taxpayer gets a return, for their resources, of $1 billion. That is just grossly unfair.

Indeed, no-one in government seems to be saying: how do we maximise the benefit? In an Economics References Committee hearing last week, I asked who is responsible for that. We know that NOPTA looks after titles. We know that NOPSEMA looks after environmental and safety aspects. We know that Geoscience Australia looks after surveys. The department looks after administration. Who looks after making sure the Australian taxpayers benefit from their own gas and oil resources? Who does that? The answer is basically no-one.

If I talk about that $62 billion and try to work out where that's coming from, I can't. You can't work it out, because all of the information that you need to do that is held 'confidential'. Which are the fields that produce the oil? Which projects, which entities, produce the LNG? What resources were extracted? How much of that resource was extracted? How much is left? This type of information is actually reported to government. It's reported to the National Offshore Petroleum Titles Administrator, or NOPTA, in the form of a monthly production report. Currently, these production reports are deemed 'permanently confidential'. It makes no sense to me that this data would be made confidential. You have to remember that this information is about our resources, about the Australian taxpayers' resources. Companies claim that it's commercially confidential, but—you know what?—when companies come along and say, 'I want to extract your oil and gas resources,' there's a price to that, and one of those prices is transparency. It's not commercial information. Indeed, the department has done a study on this. In answer to question on notice BI-117 from Senate estimates, the department advised very openly that ACIL Allen was engaged by the department to review the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage (Resource Management and Administration) Regulations, or RMA regulations. ACIL Allen found:

Monthly production reports submitted under regulation 7.19 are a case in point. These reports have been classified as permanently confidential under regulation 8.02 presumably because they contain information that is a trade secret … or incorporate information the disclosure of which could be expected to adversely affect title holders' business, commercial or financial affairs. While production reports may contain some financial/commercial information (which could be redacted), the release of the bulk of the information contained in production reports is clearly in the public interest.

Minister, I'm going to ask you about these reports, if you're not supporting my amendment. Your own department has given advice that this information ought to be made available and public. The information includes things such as well identification and numbers; a summary of all work that's been performed on the well during the month; liquid and gaseous petroleum produced, used or injected; gaseous petroleum flared or vented; and liquid and gaseous petroleum delivered from the area. My amendment will make this monthly production data available, giving the public, academics, universities [inaudible] the ability to see the actual data associated with the extraction or recovery.

We need to make more information available publicly, something that ACIL Allen also seems to be indicating in their report. I'll quote again from the report. This is significant:

There do not appear to be any sound economic or ethical reasons for the Government to support permanent confidentiality of most of the information … Indeed, it is not apparent why this information should not be released promptly.

The report by ACIL Allen will make interesting reading, and I've asked for it to be tabled with the Senate Economics Committee. My amendment seeks to deal with this. My amendment simply says, 'Put this information out.' Make it available in the public domain so that we can all see exactly what is going on.

It beggars belief. I'm eager to hear whether the government is going to support this. This has been recommended to it. I would encourage the Senate—this is just a transparency amendment, about our information, about our resources. It's beyond comprehension that this sort of information, which ACIL Allen has told the department in a funded study ought to be made available, shouldn't be made available. This amendment seeks to do that.