Ian Macfarlane (Groom, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Energy and Resources) Share this | Hansard source

For the member's information—I did not see her but I can guess who it was—I remind her that, in terms of reserves, Queensland has much more gas. I appreciate that the Western Australian government has had some philosophical and practical differences with regard to the idea of a single regulator. Nonetheless, and very much to his credit, the WA minister, Minister Moore, has played a constructive role in the negotiations to ensure the industry can move forward.

The Montara oil leak was a very serious incident and an incident which was without precedent in the oil and gas offshore industry in Australia. Nonetheless, there are lessons to be drawn from both that incident and the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. It has been extremely pleasing to see the Western Australian government Minister Norman Moore, the Minister for Resources and Energy, who has just presented his statement, and the industry, along with the coalition, working together to produce a non-controversial but best-case outcome. I congratulate Minister Moore in particular for that approach. I know that, at times, states fear that the Commonwealth is trying to take them over, but the minister realised early that we could all win out of this scenario; in fact, give the community, in particular, the confidence they need to continue to support the exploration and development of the oil and gas industry. The government and industry need to learn from the mistakes that have been made and make changes to the structures and operations that are necessary to make sure that incidents like Montara do not happen again.

The proposals outlined by the minister are an important step in that direction; however, the response must not be just about prevention. It must also be about ensuring the public have the confidence that the authorities responsible for the oil and gas sector and the wider resource industry are able to perform and protect the industry and the environment.

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