Tony Windsor (New England, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Kennedy is quite right. The capacity to police and prove things makes it very difficult.

What has come out of all of that is that Santos has removed itself from the pilot well and the government has agreed. I thank the government and the people I have been negotiating with for the last fortnight, who have been extremely positive in relation to this. I think most people—I hope on both sides of the parliament—recognise that there are very real issues here. This is not about playing a political game; there are legitimate issues.

I can remember something that happened in 2008. I attempted to amend the Water Act 2007 to allow a similar process that we are talking about now: an independent scientific process. That was passed by the Senate one night. The National Party and the Liberal Party supported the Greens, and it was passed. Press releases were sent out by many within the National Party about what a great thing they had done for the farming community. I remember Senator Joyce saying that the Liverpool Plains people would be so grateful to the National Party for what they had done. About 2 o'clock in the morning Mitch Hooke from the Minerals Council of Australia and others came into the building, and the very next morning the Liberal and National parties recanted their vote. It is one of the very few times it has ever happened, I am told. They recanted their vote on the pressures from the mining industry.

Proceed forward some time to 2008, and Melanie Stutsel, the environmental director for the Minerals Council of Australia, gave evidence to a Senate inquiry in response to some of the things that I had been suggesting at the time and had with the Howard government as well—the Howard government was still in play then. She gave evidence to say that a more appropriate role for the Commonwealth was to put in place a bioregional planning process where the states and territories would take that bioregional planning process into account when planning the release of exploratory or extractive licences. That is why the Minerals Council has not attacked my particular proposition: it is their words. They said at the time—and I have had discussions with them since and have high regard for a lot of people involved there, having known Mitch Hooke personally for many years—'Good idea, Tony, good idea—but we're not going to fund it.'

The minerals resource rent tax comes along, and they can fund it indirectly but not be in control of the process, as they are now through the exploratory processes. The Commonwealth will fund it, and it will be indirectly from the mining industry itself. So we will now have a process where potentially—if the states come onboard; although, the Commonwealth has given an undertaking that, if the states do not come onboard, it will legislate to the very same effect that the Commonwealth will take over some of those responsibilities in terms of the EPBC Act—an independent scientific committee is set up that will be funded to the extent of $150 million by the Commonwealth through the MRRT. That money will provide for these bioregional assessment processes. It will make the companies comply with a process that takes onboard that scientific information, some of which will be the very information that those companies have been finding anyway but has not been trusted by the community. So they do not have to pay for that anymore. The minerals resource rent tax will pay for that independent scientific bioregional assessment process.

I would urge people who are interested in this to read the Prime Minister's letter. It is very conclusive in terms of the issues that it raises and the processes that it involves. It will amend some of the states' legislation if they do not go down that track, and there is some reward built into it as well in terms of Commonwealth money. If they do not go down that track, the Commonwealth has given an undertaking that, if COAG cannot do it, it will legislate and do exactly the same thing in its own right, in terms of water being a trigger and the environmental bioregional assessment processes taking place.

I am very pleased to have been part of that process. In a sense, I thank Santos for doing what they did, because it brought this issue to a head. I am sure they did not mean to do that, but it has brought it to a head. I thank the members of this chamber who have privately and publicly said to me over the last few days that this sort of thing should have happened a long time ago. It could have happened in 2008 if the Water Act had remained amended, but that is history now. This is an opportunity for a fair go for people who live in these areas to have confidence in the process. (Time expired)

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