Max Chandler-Mather (Griffith, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

It's 2024, and once again we are facing the prospect of this government passing legislation—the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Legislation Amendment (Safety and Other Measures) Bill 2024—essentially written by the gas industry for the gas industry. Proposed changes introduced by this Labor government regarding how the oil and gas industry is regulated look to sideline the environment minister and strip them of their powers to oversee the offshore petroleum industry. The fact the gas industry is happy about this says everything you need to know.

It shouldn't come as a shock either, especially after it came to light, through a freedom of information request, that the CEO of Santos wrote to Minister King essentially demanding exactly these changes. The environment minister has said over and over again that she will fix Australia's broken environmental laws, and yet here we are. The resource minister wants to quietly give herself the power to bypass any changes from these laws with loopholes in order to approve new mega gas projects. The potential for one minister to be able to make changes in regulation but not have to review standards under environmental laws is abysmal policy. Make no mistake: this is a Labor favour for the gas lobby, and it comes at the cost of our environment—and not only our environment. It comes at the cost of our First Nations voices as well.

Climate change is here, and our wildlife, forests and ecosystems are already at breaking point. We cannot afford weaker environmental laws. Labor promised at the election to strengthen environmental laws, but now they're working with the climate deniers in the Liberals to carve out big gas projects from environmental and cultural heritage laws and hand over control to the pro-gas resource minister. Labor is breaking an election promise by working with the Liberals to fast-track new climate-destroying gas projects that take away the voices of First Nations traditional owners. This is on the back of the referendum and two historic cases regarding consultation with First Nations people for offshore projects. The first legislative action that the government has chosen to make this year is to turn around and silence First Nations voices. First Nations people have bravely been standing up for their right to be heard and consulted with. They have taken these giant gas corporations to court, and they have won. Now the government wants to change the rules in favour of the gas companies. It is well beyond time for truth and treaty in this country, yet we have seen this government vacate this space almost completely. This is the same government that said on election night that it was committed to the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full and that has committed to strengthening our environmental laws.

The amendment proposed to the OPGGS Act threatens to sideline the environment minister and bypass environmental approvals and First Nations consultation required by the EPBC Act for new oil and gas approvals. This amendment trashes our environmental laws and makes a mockery of consultation with the explicit aim of fast-tracking climate-wrecking coal, oil and gas projects.

The first legislative act of this government is teaming up with Dutton and the coalition to fast-track gas and stitch up a deal on the PRRT. Hiding a change that will give the Minister for Resources such wide-reaching powers in a bill for workers' safety is a cop-out and in bad faith. The government is trying to rush this bill through, avoid scrutiny and make it seem like this is not a complete power grab. The government hid section 2(2) from the crossbench and did not tell the Greens about it at all, which says all you need to know about what they think it's going to do.

This government is doing the bidding of the fossil fuel industry. We have known that for years. But this makes crystal clear not only how wide-reaching the gas cartel is but also the reach it has into our governments. It seems that when Santos says, 'Jump,' the government now asks, 'How high?' This change will lead to more gas and less consultation. We are in a climate crisis and the science is clear: we cannot have any new fossil fuel projects. The change pre-empts both the Nature Positive reforms that we have been promised and the findings and ongoing review into the offshore consultation process.

The proposed Barossa Gas Project is owned by none other than Santos, the very same company who has asked for these changes. Santos first proposed to build the Barossa offshore gas project north of Darwin and the Tiwi Islands in 2018 and has faced fierce opposition ever since. The Barossa Gas Project is one of the biggest new coal and gas project proposals in Australia. The Barossa Gas Project would emit 401 million tonnes of carbon dioxide pollution over its lifetime. That's the equivalent of 80 per cent of Australia's total emissions in 2020 alone.

There is something most people in Australia are absolutely aware of: that politicians in the old political parties—in particular, Labor and the Liberals—have been completely captured by the interests of massive multinational corporations, in particular the gas corporations. This is called state capture. It is where private actors, corporations like Santos, through their control over resources and through their influence, shape policies and their implementation in the service of their own financial interests. Santos is one of the most striking examples of this in Australia. It has been the biggest winner since COVID. At every level of government, Santos spends so much money on lobbyists to get access to politicians and to government officials, in particular the resources minister. Former Labor resources minister Martin Ferguson's chief of staff is the company's head of government and public affairs. Let that sink in for a minute. In the 2022 financial year, the fossil fuel industry gave Labor and the Liberals around a million dollars each. Why would they do that if not to advance their interests?

This is what we know and have seen time and again from both Labor and Liberal governments—that bills have been moved in this place to give gas, oil and coal corporations more power to ram through not only projects that are destroying our environment but also projects that often they don't pay much tax on. We've also seen PRRT changes that are so weak that we'll see students pay more back to the government on their HECS debt than oil and gas corporations will pay on the PRRT tax bill.

I've said before and I'll say again that the government claims that this won't really change much around approvals. If that were the case, why move it at all? If it doesn't change much or doesn't change anything at all and it's just business as usual, then why move these changes at all? We know that First Nations groups, environmental groups, experts and legal experts have all pointed out that this will make it easier for projects like the Barossa project to be approved, even where First Nations and traditional owners oppose it. The reason it's coming here, really, is that those First Nations groups stood up and won previously. Rather than the government celebrating the voices of First Nations people finally being heard, they turn around and bring a bill to this place that will silence those voices.

Now, this government claims to care about the Uluru Statement from the Heart and claims to care about passing a First Nations Voice. Well, how is it that, in the same term of government, we're debating a bill that will reduce the power of First Nations voices? We know that Australia is the third largest exporter of fossil fuels in the world. We know that we have a global role to play when it comes to tackling climate change, and we should be in this place debating a bill that bans the opening of new coal, oil and gas. Instead, we're debating a bill that may well help fast-track the Barossa Santos gas project—Santos, lest we forget, is one of the largest—

See this speech in context