Steph Hodgins-May (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Here we go again: another week, another climate scandal. Thanks to investigative reporting and the efforts of the Environment Centre Northern Territory, we know that, for nearly two decades, Santos's Darwin LNG plant has been leaking toxic climate-destroying methane straight into Darwin Harbour. I honestly don't know how some people keep a straight face in this place as they're talking to their environmental credentials, ones not worth the paper they're written on.

Methane—a gas more than 80 times more damaging than carbon dioxide—over a 20-year period has been silently accelerating the climate crisis, while governments, regulators and corporations look the other way. Let's be clear. This isn't just a climate scandal. It's a crisis of democracy, of transparency and of accountability. Despite multiple agencies knowing—the Clean Energy Regulator, NOPSEMA, the CSIRO, Northern Territory WorkSafe and the Northern Territory Environment Protection Authority—for almost 20 years the public has been kept in the dark! We must ask: 'Why? Why did no-one act? Why was this information buried? And whose interests are being served?'—because it certainly wasn't the interests of the Australian people; it certainly wasn't the people of Darwin, whose harbour has been treated like a dumping ground; and it certainly wasn't the climate.

Instead, what we see looks like a familiar pattern: a fossil fuel giant protecting its profits, regulators failing to regulate and successive governments bending over backwards for an industry that bankrolls their campaigns through donations while recruiting for cushy jobs via the revolving door, with ministerial offices. We know that the gas lobby has the ear of the government on speed dial, and now we learn that Santos was paying our national science agency, the CSIRO, to monitor this leak—monitoring that has never been made public. At the very same time, the government of secrecy is still sitting on its own climate risk assessment, refusing to release it, refusing to level with the public about the dangers we face.

While the truth about climate risk is buried in Canberra's filing cabinets, the truth about this gas leak has been buried in Darwin Harbour. This raises an unavoidable question: is this a spectacular failure of regulation, or a deliberate cover-up? Either way, it is a damning indictment of the integrity of decision-making in this country. The ministers responsible owe Australians an explanation. They must account for what their regulators knew and why they chose secrecy over transparency and corporate protection over public interest.

As a matter of urgency, Santos must be compelled to fix the leak and pay for the pollution it has caused. And we must expose and reform the deep capture of the government by the fossil fuel industry, because democracy depends on trust. Right now every Australian has reason to doubt whether their government works for them or for the fossil fuel companies wrecking our future.