Bridget Archer (Bass, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I second the motion. Seismic testing is not new, but its application in the marine environment is increasingly controversial and disputed. As is often the case, in recent years more research has been undertaken to more closely examine its effects, and I acknowledge that still more research is needed. However, evidence is now emerging that seismic surveys are having a damaging effect on marine life, with recent studies by IMAS in the Bass Strait north of my electorate showing severe impacts on scallops, with up to four times higher death rates and a range of other sublethal effects, including altered behaviour, impaired physiology and a disrupted immune system. Likewise, research by IMAS has shown that seismic blasting is having seriously damaging impacts on rock lobster populations both in the Bass Strait and in Western Australia, and on krill populations.

Much of the opposition to the practice is now coming from the fishing industry, who are joining community and conservation organisations, which have shown there is a declining social licence for more social blasting—and the SPA permits that are attached to them—in our ocean, and that it is time for reform.

As we've heard, special prospecting authorities are a quick and cheap way of bypassing the usual annual permit, and they don't consider that cumulative impact of multiple projects on ocean ecosystems and marine life. Companies are not assessed as to their fitness and proper standing, or their criminal history, as part of the decision-making process, because of exemptions under section 695YB of the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act. This means also that companies who are being investigated for breaching the conditions of a previous SPA aren't excluded from applying the new permits.

Data collection companies can sell the survey data they collect from seismic blasting conducted under an SPA permit on the open market to anyone prepared to purchase the data, and the information is held by the company owning the data for up to 15 years as commercial in confidence, which is one of the reasons why we see so many companies bidding to conduct seismic blasting over the same areas within a year or two of each other, double dipping on profits by collecting the same mapping of what lies below the sea floor, at the expense of marine life.

A moratorium on seismic blasting in our oceans, in keeping with the recommendation of the 2022 Making waves Senate inquiry report, is needed, and urgent action should be undertaken to reform this system to remove the 15-year commercial-in-confidence clause and make all seismic data available to be reprocessed and available on the Geoscience Australia site, removing the need for more seismic blasting exploration projects in our oceans. It is time to press pause and take another look. I commend the bill to the House.

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