Dick Adams (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker Sidebottom, my cousin, it is a pleasure to speak on these bills—the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2010 and the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage (Safety Levies) Amendment Bill 2010. You served on the committee, of which I was chair, where we brought down the report Down Under: greenhouse gas storage review of the draft Offshore Petroleum Amendment (Greenhouse Gas Storage) Bill. I note the courage of the minister—Minister Ferguson, who is at the table—who put that groundbreaking legislation before the House Standing Committee on Primary Industries and Resources and allowed that committee of all parties to review it, and I note the hard work that we did to pull together the thoughts of industry, environmental groups and the many different parts of industry that would be dealing with this legislation.

Of course, it was very important that our nation deal with the storage of greenhouse gas. Greenhouse storage has been going on in the world for 40 or 50 years, through the petroleum industry. It is a matter of putting a legislative framework around it in our country, taking into account the importance of our coal industry and our petroleum industry. I am very pleased that we are continuing to refine and pull together the work that was initially done by the minister through his bill and the committee which I had the privilege of chairing. We are always looking at offshore safety and the difficulties that can arise from bad experiences.

This bill was introduced in the last parliament and, because of the election, it is now being brought back into this place. I believe a bipartisan approach is being adopted, which is very important, because the regulation and safety of this industry are matters that we should agree on and should get right. It is so important for our nation. Australia needs to be at the forefront of ensuring there are strict regulations in light of what has happened in other parts of the world and, indeed, in our own waters recently.

The purpose of these bills is to make minor policy and technical amendments to the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006 and the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage (Safety Levies) Act 2003. On the back of the Montara Commission of Inquiry and the recent events in the Gulf of Mexico, the Australian government, to its great credit, is trying to improve the regulatory regime covering petroleum operations in line with the terms of the inquiry. Point No. 2 of the report of the inquiry stated that the government would review the adequacy and effectiveness of the regulatory regime applicable to operations at or in connection with the Montara oilfield, including under the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006, and including the adequacy and effectiveness of all safety, environment, operations and resource management plans, and other arrangements approved by a regulator and in force at relevant times.

It has been apparent for some time that it is the responsible Commonwealth minister that increasingly carries the political responsibility for the offshore oil and gas industry. That is why we need these improvements to the role of the National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority—to ensure that it can properly regulate the safety of offshore petroleum wells and related activities.

The miscellaneous measures bill will enact the government’s intention to strengthen the role of the National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority; make clarifications on how titleholder provisions apply where titles are held jointly by two or more titleholders; make clear that a titleholder’s responsibility under the occupational health and safety provisions of the act is for wells, and not more broadly for facilities; and to make some technical amendments to achieve a more enforceable regulatory regime and to update the act.

The safety levies amendment bill provides transitional arrangements to ensure that appropriate levies may be collected for pipelines in designated coastal waters. The government amended the act in 2009, removing provisions that reference pipeline safety management plans and pipeline management safety plan levies and replacing them with a safety case levy that includes pipelines. The current amendments provide transitional arrangements to allow states and territories to amend regulations under their petroleum legislation relating to designated coastal waters so that it reflects the recent changes made by the Commonwealth to its act and regulations. The states and territories have some jurisdiction in this area.

The Montara oil spill made it clear that we needed to augment NOPSA’s functions to ensure that it can effectively and fully regulate the structural integrity of petroleum and greenhouse gas facilities, wells and well related equipment, even where certain structures such as pipelines and wells may not have people at or near them for extended periods of time.

Although these amendments do not extend NOPSA’s role beyond that of an occupational health and safety regulator, this nevertheless represents a step towards a more powerful and centralised regulator. In recognition of the fact that a regulator cannot be everywhere at once, and that it relies on the titleholder informing them of compliance with its requirements and directions, these amendments toughen some of the offence provisions by making them strictly liable where the offences involve an act or omission alone. This means that NOPSA no longer has to prove what a titleholder did or did not intend to do with respect to a safety function, but merely that a certain action took place.

A higher safety burden is therefore placed on titleholders in respect of some offences under the bill. At the same time, part 5 of the miscellaneous measures bill properly assigns to wells the duties of titleholders under the OHS provisions of the act. As it exists, the act could imply that a titleholder has duties in relation to facilities over which the titleholder has no direct responsibility or reasonable control. Under the proposed amendments to the act, the titleholder’s liability is properly assigned to areas that it has control over, such as all aspects of well design, construction, maintenance and operation, rather than facilities in general.

This bill makes a very good contribution to upgrading and putting our legislation in order. When we look at our own problems with the Montara well and also the difficulties in the Gulf of Mexico in recent times—the problems in the wetlands, the social issues for all those people around that area and the economic downturn in the fishing and tourist industries for the United States—we see the need to have very good regimes in place. I commend the minister for getting on with the job, and I support the bill.

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