Barry Haase (Kalgoorlie, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Roads and Transport) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, the size of a dinner plate. The finding of it, somewhere in a three-dimensional space within a 2.6 kilometre range, the successful sealing of that blow-out and then the extinguishment of the fire on board the platform is a task that all Australians with an interest in the nation, the industry and the environment should acknowledge and honour.

I would like to express the coalition’s appreciation to all of those personnel on the West Atlas who were involved, and to those who had to evacuate the platform, by conveying to them that their actions were paramount in the final solution to what could have been, in a slightly different set of circumstances, an environmental disaster.

The inquiry is vital. Its process, I believe, will be hugely instructive to the public of this nation and it will be a further blueprint for ensuring that our activities in the future in the industry guarantee the absolute minimum of incidents. With those words, I concur with the minister. He is correct when he states that the most important objective of this inquiry is to find out exactly what went wrong so that similar circumstances can be avoided in the future. In conclusion, may I say that the Rudd government must ensure that this inquiry is used to ensure Australia’s high standards in offshore exploration are upheld.

See this speech in context