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

As I explained before, we are in fact seeking to improve consultation around offshore gas. The problem—and I've said this in the chamber earlier today and have said it publicly as well—is that right now we have what I call—and maybe it's a result of having been one—a lawyer's picnic around offshore gas approvals. That is no good for anyone, in my opinion and in that of the government. It is clogging up the courts, for one, but equally it is forcing those with interests and concerns to take their concerns to court—the traditional owners. That doesn't seem to me to be a sensible way to manage the approval system for offshore gas projects.

What I would sooner do, and what I'm trying to do—and this is a technical amendment that enables that reform to happen promptly—is make sure that the consultation provisions of the offshore regulations are fulsome and appropriate and that they ensure various levels of consultation are there, at a bare minimum, for the gas industry, so that they actually do it. That is what the reform is ultimately about. I know this is a staged process. If, in a perfect world, perfect historical legislation existed where this was simple, we might not be in this morass of misinformation that the Greens political party and their allies have sought to propagate around the country.

Yes, I would like it to be simpler. I absolutely would. But it's not because we have a situation where we have an offshore regime that is matching up to the EPBC Act, and the EPBC Act, as has quite rightly been pointed out by the member, does extend well beyond resources projects—roads, rails. Any kind of impact on any kind of environment is covered by the EPBC Act, as well it should.

But right now in our country we are seeing traditional owners as well as other community members finding that they are not getting the privilege of the proper consultation for offshore gas projects. If we do not progress these reforms soon, that will last while we pursue the EPBC Act. It would be appropriate to make sure that the traditional custodians that are right now being forced to go through various parts of the court system do not have to go through the court system. Rather we should ensure that the gas industry and those proponents, no matter where they are, undertake a proper consultation process. That is my intention.

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