Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

The bill does what it says it does. It allows EFA to purchase oil on the spot market to quickly ensure that we have sufficient petrol, diesel and airline fuel. I think Senator Canavan does not accurately reflect the approach that the Australian government has taken to this industry. I make the observation that the Barossa project in the Northern Territory, offshore, has gone ahead under this government and has started producing gas out of the wells. Similarly, with the Beetaloo, the first production of gas in the Beetaloo is already flowing. One day we might get gas supplies out of Narrabri, one of Santos's projects.

The reason there's no oil exploration in the Great Australian Bight is a series of companies which had exploration rights and discovered oil in the Great Australian Bight made commercial decisions that it wasn't economic to proceed. If you look at decisions that Chevron made, they had licences down there. I think Exxon was down there at one stage. I think the Norwegian state oil company—