Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment and Water) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank the Leader of the Nationals for moving this amendment to the Nature Repair Market (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2023. I really appreciate his concerns about the Great Artesian Basin. He is absolutely right in saying that this is a vital water resource for Australia and that it must be protected. I thank him for the intent of the amendment that he has moved.

Given that the government have only just received notice of the amendment, we're not in a position to support it today, but I would say that we are very keen to work with the Leader of the Nationals on the intent of his amendment. Certainly, as we advance our reforms to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act next year, I would be very pleased to work with him on making sure that we can give these assurances for the Great Artesian Basin, and more generally for the impact that carbon capture and storage would have on water resources.

The intent behind expanding the water trigger, as we have done, is to ensure that new unconventional gas projects will be assessed on their impact on water resources. That has been a longstanding commitment of our government, and it's a very commonsense reform. It makes sure that coal seam gas is covered by the water trigger. Other types of unconventional gas were not really contemplated when the original water trigger was written. We're expanding the water trigger to cover those other types of unconventional gas. This has been recommended in a number of inquiries: the Northern Territory government's Pepper scientific inquiry, the 2018 Senate inquiry into water use by the extractive industry and the Senate inquiry into oil and gas exploration and production in the Beetaloo basin. All of these recommend that the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act water trigger be expanded to unconventional gas.

As I say to the member for Maranoa, while we're not in a position to support this amendment today, I would be very happy to work with him next year as we further develop our EPBC reforms. That will give us the opportunity to consider the science and to work more broadly with industries, farmers and other affected people—the water users of the Great Artesian Basin—and make sure that we get any details of further amendments correct.

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