Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

On 3 June 2008 a gas explosion occurred on Varanus Island, off the north-west coast of WA. Operated by Apache Energy, Varanus Island is an oil-, condensate- and gas-processing hub and generates 30 per cent of WA’s domestic gas supply. The Varanus gas explosion is having dramatic social and economic consequences in Western Australia. Apache Energy says that it will be two months before gas supplies are partly resumed at its Varanus Island gas plant, and it could be six months until full recovery is made. The WA CCI has estimated that 14 per cent of 83 companies it surveyed recently may halt operations because of the energy squeeze. The member for Forrest informs me that it will affect the majority of businesses in her electorate. This one pipeline rupture has created a crisis, with large, medium and small businesses being forced to either secure alternative energy supplies or close their doors for the interim and stand down staff and contractors.

On Tuesday, 17 June WA Premier Alan Carpenter appeared on local television channels to soften Western Australians up to the possibility of power restrictions and urged everyone to cut their power consumption. However, WA businesses are furious over the daily lottery of power rations. Businesses are being told as late as 6 pm whether to expect power the next day. Some are being forced to close their operations on days when they are not allocated power and are being forced to stand down staff. As Robert Taylor said in the West Australian on Wednesday, 18 June:

No government wants a regimen of cold showers and lights out in an election year but at what point do jobs and livelihoods become the priority?

The Carpenter government’s favourite media outlet, the West Australian, is also now applying pressure on the Premier to reveal what really happened on Varanus Island to cause this explosion. You see, three weeks after the explosion occurred, Western Australians are still in the dark on what caused it, although one may speculate that this is because a lapse of judgement by the state government played a part.

Industry speculation about the cause is rife and we all eagerly await the real facts. What we need now is for both the state and federal governments to prove that they have the ability to apply an impromptu crisis management plan to solve the gas problem. I propose that the Commonwealth government work in conjunction with the WA state government to enact emergency legislation to force Woodside and its partners to divert some of its exports to the local market at the same price as the gas not supplied. I also put forward that, in order to prevent such future emergencies from occurring, the two onshore oil and gas fields at Woodada and Dongara, north of Perth, be set aside as gas storage for future emergencies.

It is now glaringly obvious that the state government has no crisis plan in place and that WA is in dire need of strategic gas reserves. This strategy is common in Europe and in the USA, with appropriate fiscal systems set up to reward the reservoir owners. Mr Carpenter does not have the vision or the commercial sense to see this. Mr Carpenter has allowed the havoc to continue in WA industry. The tourism crunch will come this weekend, as hotels are forced to shut down due to linen shortages, while Mr Carpenter sits around and advises people to switch off their lights. The Premier and his government are a disgrace and the people in Western Australia deserve better.

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