Vince Connelly (Stirling, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's a real pleasure to rise today and speak on the really important Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Amendment (Titles Administration and Other Measures) Bill 2021. I would like to start by acknowledging the comments from the member for Brand, who thankfully just made such a sensible contribution. She talked about the important role of natural gas as a transition fuel. I'm deeply pleased to hear that sort of commonsense approach. I certainly hope that the member for Brand is able to convince many more of her colleagues in the Labor Party and of course their business partner the Greens, many of whom absolutely demonise hydrocarbons in any form. This is a deeply irresponsible position to take. I certainly note the efforts of our wonderful Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction with our Technology Investment Roadmap. With our Technology Investment Roadmap, we are looking at that transition towards a lower carbon future, but we are doing it absolutely responsibly. We're doing it through technology and not through taxes.

I have a little bit of experience in the oil and gas sector. After my first career as an Army officer over about a decade, I spent almost a decade and a half in the mining and oil and gas sector. The roles that I had were to lead risk management programs, business continuity planning, which is obviously extremely important, and risk and crisis management. I have worked with companies like BHP, Chevron and Woodside Energy as well. I've been out to the sources, the actual gas fields, I've walked the processing facilities, and I've even driven the pipeline from the north of Western Australia, where those important hydrocarbons are transported, down to Perth and beyond—that natural gas which we all use in and around our homes and we know is so important. For over half a century, our oil and gas sector has really supported economic growth and jobs right here in Australia. We are the second-largest exporter of LNG in the entire world, and we see those benefits flowing through to our families, our communities and, of course, our economy. For the same thermal output—for the same amount of energy—natural gas burns at half the carbon dioxide output of coal. That just helps put into perspective how important natural gas is as a transition fuel as we move towards that lower-carbon future.

We have continued, on the back of a strong oil and gas industry, to develop and grow our economy. This is important, obviously, because this is the future that we'll be passing to our children. This is the future in which we will see manufacturing and other energy-intensive industries be viable. And also, of course, it's this investment in a strong economy that will help underpin our continued provision of adequate defence capability, helping to keep Australia sovereign and secure in the complex and challenging world ahead. As a country, it's crucial that we also remain prepared to respond to future challenges in the oil and gas sector. This includes decommissioning of offshore facilities, wells and pipelines which have exhausted their reserves. It's equally important that this is done with effective regulatory oversight and with the utmost safety to ensure protections for Aussie taxpayers, workers and the environment.

Whilst we are seeing the end of a life cycle for some facilities in coming decades, it's also a time when we are seeing exciting new ventures and new players enter the field—smaller companies that provide a fresh perspective and a different risk profile. This includes the development of the $10 billion Scarborough gas project off the coast of WA, which is set to deliver 3,200 jobs during construction, and the Dorado oil project, also off the coast of WA, which is another significant investment expected to create hundreds of jobs over the next decade whilst also being one of the lowest emission intensity oil projects in the region.

This bill will strengthen Australia's already successful offshore oil and gas industry by providing stronger regimes to address regulatory shortcomings and to reduce the risk of another incident like the Northern Oil & Gas Australia incident occurring. Implementing aspects of the Morrison government's enhanced offshore oil and gas decommissioning framework, this bill ensures that decommissioning is managed effectively by businesses involved in oil and gas development. It's these companies operating in Australia's offshore oil and gas regulatory regime that will be entirely responsible for making sure that their projects are capable and competent, in turn protecting taxpayers and the environment.

This bill provides for better government oversight of transactions involving a change in control of a petroleum or greenhouse gas titleholder through a merger or takeover. Such transactions are not currently captured by the act because there is no transfer of the interests of the petroleum title or titles. But, under this legislation, failure to obtain regulatory approval for this type of corporate transaction could now result in a significant civil penalty. In addition, the title can now be cancelled. This approach is consistent with similar regimes across the Commonwealth in acting as a deterrent to corporate misconduct. It's important that we also have the capability to call upon former titleholders to amend problems that a current owner or operator is unable to amend or that they have left behind, also known as a 'trailing liability'. As the act stands now, only an immediate former titleholder can be directed to decommission or remediate an area. But, with an estimated $60 billion in anticipated decommissioning liabilities due over the next 30 years, it's vital that this government has the power to make these directions. It must be made clear, though, that trailing liability is a measure of last resort where all other options have been exhausted. It ensures risks and liabilities remain in the hands of those responsible for developing the project. It sets an expectation that sellers will undertake due diligence before selling titles and assets to avoid being called back to decommission and remediate title areas in years to come. Not only this, it also reduces the environmental, health and safety risks associated with the abandonment of assets and ensures the financial obligations of decommissioning won't fall on the Australian taxpayer.

This bill increases regulatory oversight and scrutiny by providing specific decision-making criteria to ensure entities remain suitable to undertake petroleum project activities. This will better equip the government to screen applicants to determine whether they meet financial and technical capability requirements. It also provides for amendments to improve the administration of greenhouse gas titles, including enabling electronic lodgement of applications and documents. This legislation is all about enhancing regulations and reducing risks.

Even as Australia's offshore industry matures, significant new investments continue to be made. This includes the $4.6 billion Barossa LNG project, delivering another 600 jobs during the construction phase. Australian LNG is playing a significant role in reducing emissions, with our country being, as I said, the second-largest exporter globally. The International Energy Agency has found that, since 2010, coal-to-gas switching has saved about 500 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. To put it into perspective, that is the equivalent of taking 200 million cars off the road in that same period. There are some pretty staggering benefits, and it's a fantastic outcome. We know that natural gas is a flexible, reliable energy source that helps lower emissions. It supports renewables, keeping lights on when the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing.

The Morrison government is also investing in carbon capture and storage projects, which are also referred to as CCS. CCS is a proven and versatile technology. It cuts emissions from energy-intensive industries and helps create a hydrogen export industry for Australia. It's our government that's investing more than $300 million over the next decade in carbon capture, utilisation and storage projects and hubs, including the $50 million CCUS Development Fund and the $263 million CCUS hub and technologies investment stream. The additional investment will establish a new $250 million CCUS hubs and technologies program. This is set to fund large-scale CCUS projects in proximity to high-emitting industrial areas and to accelerate the development of carbon utilisation technologies with export potential.

This is an exciting new initiative, which has been welcomed by industry and energy leaders as providing greater certainty for projects to deploy and help transition Australia to that lower carbon future. In fact, in September last year, the Morrison government released its first new low emissions technology statement, highlighting CCS technologies in CO2 compression, transport and storage as one of five priority technologies for Australia, with an economic stretch goal of under $20 per tonne of CO2. Only the Morrison government recognises that CCUS is a critical technology for sustaining the resources and hard-to-abate sectors whilst promoting new market opportunities in LNG, hydrogen and carbon recycled products.

This bill is yet another way that the coalition is securing Australia's future in the oil and gas industry, making it more reliable and secure for generations to come. It embodies the government's unwavering commitment to having a globally recognised oil and gas sector which continues to deliver significant employment and economic activity right across Australia.

I'll conclude shortly with some comments around where I began, because it's worth highlighting again that we as a government are committed to transforming and moving towards a lower carbon future. We have a road map of how we're going to get there and we're going to do so responsibly. This is despite calls from those opposite and their business partners in the Greens, who would not act responsibly in the same way that this government does. I will tell you why this is important. We value our economy. We don't value our economy just because it gives us pretty graphs or figures that are positive to talk about in government; we value our economy because of what it provides. It provides a future, it provides jobs for our children and their children into the future and it also gives us the ability to invest, as we are significantly, in our defence force—an area that I have a great passion for.

So this government has committed $270 billion to defence capability over the next 10 years, and we're doing that because, again, it's responsible, given the contested nature and the uncertainty within our region and across the globe. But we can only make these investments if we continue to have a strong economy—these investments which provide that future for our children and the security, the stability and the sovereignty which we must continue to have, into Australia's future. We've heard before, and it bears repeating here, that we are moving towards a lower carbon future via technology and not taxes. We are promoting, here in this bill, a regulatory environment that lowers risks to help us achieve those objectives. I commend this bill to the House.

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