Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

The need for the Government to urgently ensure Santos fixes the 19 year leak of potent heat-trapping methane in Darwin and for the relevant ministers to also explain the failure of the CSIRO, Clean Energy Regulator and NOPSEMA who are reported to have had knowledge of the leak and have taken no action to protect the public.

A major methane leak has gone unaddressed in Darwin for almost two decades. Explosive documents released under FOI to the Environment Centre NT have revealed that Santos's LNG export hub in Darwin has been leaking methane for nearly 20 years since it was commissioned in 2006. FOI documents reveal that the original owner, ConocoPhillips, notified the Clean Energy Regulator, the federal agency, of the leak on 29 May 2020. No action was taken by the Clean Energy Regulator in response to this notification. As the minister currently responsible for the Clean Energy Regulator, Minister Bowen must provide an explanation.

The new owner, Santos, engaged the CSIRO to undertake monitoring of the fugitive methane emissions from the leak, but neither the existence of the leak nor the results of the monitoring have ever been made public. Minister Ayres is responsible for the CSIRO. An explanation and a public release of the monitoring results and any financial relationship with Santos are desperately needed. NOPSEMA was informed about the leak in late 2024. Despite awareness of the leak, NOPSEMA gave final approval to Santos's Barossa LNG project in April 2025. As the minister responsible for NOPSEMA, Minister King must also provide an explanation.

The leak continues in Darwin Harbour today, and there has been no commitment to fix the issue. So we have multiple federal and Territory regulators who knew about the leak but failed to require Santos to repair it or inform the public about it and its risks. We have multiple ministers responsible for these federal regulators, and so far there have been no explanations from them either. Then, of course, we have Santos and ConocoPhillips. Both appear to have intentionally concealed the leak from the public to ensure that it wouldn't derail their plans for an extension of the Darwin LNG plant or approval for its toxic Barossa gas field offshore project. These revelations are beyond disturbing. I commend the Environment Centre NT for uncovering what is either a spectacular failure of regulators or a deliberate cover-up by successive governments to protect a gas corporation's profit margin.

Methane is bringing forward climate disasters in our lifetime and should be the absolute priority of mitigation efforts. It is more than 80 times more damaging to the atmosphere over 20 years than carbon dioxide. The responsible federal ministers must urgently explain why their regulators knowingly allowed Santos to leak methane, an extremely potent heat-trapping gas that has a higher global warming potential than carbon dioxide, and to leak that for almost two decades. Ministers Bowen, Ayres and King must also explain if they were aware of what their regulators knew. Their climate credentials are well and truly on the line. These reports should be a jolt into action for the climate minister to fast-track methane regulation reforms to avoid future incidents like this and to ensure proper accounting of toxic methane. The International Energy Agency has already revealed that Australia is underreporting methane emissions by at least 64 per cent because coal and gas corporations are allowed to guess their methane emissions instead of actually measuring them. The climate minister agreed to fix this absurd loophole in negotiations, but no progress has occurred.

Furthermore, Minister Bowen must immediately assure the public that Santos will be compelled to repair the leak. Anything less would be unacceptable for the Darwin community and the climate. On what other planet would a massive gas corporation cover up a leak for 19 years, then seek approval for a fresh gas field to be used and for that leaky facility to be used for that fresh gas field and have the regulators roll out the red carpet for them? This is a company that doesn't pay its fair share of tax, that is getting the gas for absolute cheap, that is making megaprofits and that has now been spewing toxic methane for almost 20 years, yet this federal government still showers it with a confetti of approvals for yet more dirty, polluting gas. There are health implications here. There are climate implications here. It is about time we had a government that stood up to the fossil fuel industry rather than doing its bidding.