Madeleine King (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I acknowledge the contribution of the member for Curtin to the debate on the amendment before us. Contrary to what has been incorrectly stated in this place—again, throughout the day and before—this bill does not give me, as Minister for Resources, sweeping powers to override approvals. It includes a technical amendment allowing the government to adopt future recommendations for the offshore environmental management review, and I would note that the private senator's bill introduced by Senator Cox, the Protecting the Spirit of Sea Country Bill, would require precisely the same kind of amendment for it to go forward without damaging the streamlining provisions, which, as I explained before in the last portion of this debate, means that you don't have to go through, and therefore TOs and the community don't have to go through, two series of approvals processes. Again, streamlining provisions were agreed to in this place many years ago.

Any changes made to offshore regulations are subject to the usual oversight procedures, including parliamentary scrutiny and disallowance, as has always been the case. I repeat again: we've introduced a government amendment to further clarify that future regulatory changes are consistent with and will not diminish our national environmental laws. That's an amendment that is before the House and has been tabled, and you all would be aware of it, I'm sure. The amendment requires the Minister for Resources to consult with the minister for the environment and that the minister for the environment agree that any proposed regulatory changes are consistent with Australia's national environmental laws.

Everybody wants certainty in relation to consultations. The member for Curtin mentioned, of course, that the industry does. Equally, as we heard from the Senate inquiry last week, those that would like to be consulted would like to have that set out in a stronger fashion, and that is what we are working toward through the work being done on the regulations. That includes notions that we have been told: that there should be more requirements around face-to-face interactions around how one communicates for consultations. That work is going on right now.

In relation to the role of gas and various things that have been said about it, I would also note the view of the International Energy Agency, which has made it clear in its Net Zero Roadmap that, in all scenarios it has modelled globally, gas will play a role in firming renewable energy in the net-zero transition. They have stated:

… natural gas-fired capacity remains a critical source of power system flexibility in many markets, particularly to address seasonal flexibility needs.

Of course, the Australian Energy Market Operator and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the ACCC, have repeatedly warned of seasonal shortfalls on peak demand and structural shortfalls in gas supply in the east coast market emerging well before 2030. These very public reports have indicated that, at least in the short term, new supplies of gas are going to be needed to make sure we have reliability of supply. In the longer term, gas will help smooth the transition to renewables while guaranteeing high energy security, both for Australia and for our partners in the region.

I spoke before of how important it is that Australians have access to affordable gas and that Australian industry has access to affordable gas. We all know that critical minerals and rare earths will be required for green energy technologies—I noticed there was some debate on this in the House this morning. Of course, to process those critical minerals and rare earths, we will need more gas—hence the increase in demand for gas in Western Australia, because there is no alternative as yet, although, as you would know, the government—

I would love to take that interjection, Member for O'Connor, but I don't think nuclear power provides the heat required for the processing of critical minerals and rare earths. I think the gas—

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