Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker, I ask leave of the House to make a ministerial statement relating to Australia's offshore oil and gas resources sector security inquiry.

Leave granted.

I thank the opposition. I wish to take this opportunity to update the House on the progress of the inquiry, which the government announced early this year, into the security of our nation's offshore oil and gas facilities being conducted by the Inspector of Transport Security, Mick Palmer AO APM. Mr Palmer has recently reported to me that his inquiry is progressing well and that he is receiving outstanding cooperation and support from the oil and gas industry. Mr Palmer formally launched the inquiry with a briefing to the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA) board in Perth on 10 April 2011 during their national conference.

The inquiry, which is the first-ever comprehensive review of our nation's offshore oil and gas facilities security, is in response to the growing threats from international terrorism and piracy. It is important to note that, while at this time there is no known specific threat against any of our facilities, in light of the current global security environment it is crucial that we remain vigilant and take all reasonable steps to ensure our security preparedness and arrangements are equal to any emerging threats. An act of terrorism against any offshore facility in or near Australian waters would be not only extremely damaging to our natural environment but also very costly to our economy. This growing sector already employs more than 10,000 Australians and generates over $22 billion in annual export earnings.

Australia's reserves of oil and gas are concentrated offshore in the north-west of Australia, Bass Strait and the Timor Sea. The development of these oil and gas resources has raised Australia's international profile in global oil and gas production, but such a profile may also attract undesirable attention in highlighting Australia as a potential target for terrorism or other criminal acts including piracy. Add to this the fact that current exploration and production activities in Australia are moving towards deeper and more distant waters, in increasingly remote offshore locations, and the critical importance of continuous vigilance in regard to the issue of security becomes obvious.

Consequently, the Inspector of Transport Security is assessing the quality and effectiveness of current security arrangements in regard to the offshore oil and gas resources sector together with the response capabilities of resource operators and government to any security incident or attack on offshore oil and gas exploration and production infrastructure. Specifically, the inquiry is looking at:

Due to the wide-ranging nature of the inquiry, I wrote to all of the relevant federal, state and territory ministers together with peak oil and gas bodies, ship owners, port operators and operators of offshore facilities.

This support has been forthcoming and as a consequence, the inquiry is being conducted in consultation and close cooperation with a range of federal and state/territory agencies including particularly the National Security Advisor, and with the active support of the federal Attorney-General, the Minister for Resources and Energy and the Minister for Defence.

Additionally, letters of support have already been received from the Northern Territory Minister for Transport, together with positive industry responses from APPEA and a wide range of industry corporations including ExxonMobil, Woodside, Apache Energy, BP Developments Australia, Shell, Beach Petroleum, Chevron Australia, Inpex, ENI, BHP Petroleum and PTTEP.

APPEA is also providing physical support to the inquiry in the form of two liaison officers to work closely with the inquiry and to facilitate policy and security level meetings and site inspections both within Australia and overseas.

The operational phase of the inquiry commenced with site visitations in the Bass Strait, and further domestic discussions and site visitations are planned for the Northern Territory, Western Australia and Timor-Leste during the June-August period.

International policy meetings in the United States have commenced with the support and cooperation of the US Government Accountability Office, the United States Coast Guard, and the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, with the Inspector of Transport Security leading an inquiry team to the United States last month.

Mr Palmer is due to provide me with an interim report in late 2011 but I anticipate, due to the nature and width of the inquiry and the logistical difficulties associated with aspects of many of the site visitations, that the inquiry will not be completed until the latter part of 2012.

I recommend the inquiry to the House and put on the record the appreciation of the government for the unqualified cooperation and support being provided to the Inspector of Transport Security by the states and territories and the oil and gas industry.

I ask leave of the House to move a motion to enable the member for Wide Bay to speak for six minutes.

Leave granted.

I move:

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent Mr Truss (Leader of The Nationals) speaking in reply to the ministerial statement for a period not exceeding six minutes.

Question agreed to.

Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I welcome the minister's report on the security inquiry into Australia's offshore oil and gas resource sector and the progress of the work of Mr Mick Palmer on this issue. Protecting Australia's $24 billion a year oil and gas industry is vital for Australia's future energy security. As the minister notes, the industry employs some 10,000 Australians across the country. Offshore oil and gas production provides a major input into our economy and its infrastructure is of critical national importance.

There are around 170 oil and gas production platforms in operation around the Australian coast, from the Timor Sea, to the North-West Shelf, to Bass Strait. As we all know, some of those oil and gas platforms are actually a long way from our coastline. Australia's gas production for domestic and export markets continues to increase every year; however, petroleum liquids production is still falling. In 2000-01 Australia produced 272.4 million barrels of petroleum liquids. By 2009-10 this had fallen to 186.9 million barrels.

There is further scope for exploration and appraisal drilling to address the growing demand for petroleum liquids, although significant prospective areas offshore are out of limits because they are in national parks, in particular around the Great Barrier Reef, and so we will never know whether or not there are winnable resources in such areas. While Australia accounts for approximately 0.6 per cent of the world oil supply and 1.5 per cent of the worldwide demand, our oil and natural gas accounts for nearly 56 per cent of primary energy consumed in Australia.

With the rise in international piracy and the threat of terrorism, it is certainly timely to revisit the security requirements in place to protect our offshore oil and gas assets. Last year, pirates were involved in an unsuccessful attempt to attack and take over an oil rig off the coast of Nigeria, with a firefight erupting between the Nigerian navy and the pirates. As the minister notes, there is no suggestion of a particular threat against any oil and gas platform in Australia but vigilance is certainly necessary.

It is clear that a potential security threat would be extremely damaging to our national economy and affect our energy security if it were in fact to succeed. I note that the inquiry by the Inspector of Transport Security, Mick Palmer, will examine a number of important matters and report on potential improvements to our offshore oil and gas security regime. When the minister announced the inquiry on 1 February 2010, a draft report was due to be provided in late 2011. But I understand that is now to be an interim report, with the final report due out in the second half of 2012, which is quite a long time away. While it is important to get all of this right, as it deals with national security, it should be noted that it does look somewhat like another one in the long list of delayed reports by the Labor government.

There are also some policy conflicts here. While the inquiry is welcome, this report comes while the parliament is still considering the current budget, which slashes $21 million for aircraft surveillance of our coastal waters, which will result in 950 fewer hours of aerial surveillance each year. That does seem to me to be a bit inconsistent because, if we are seriously interested in security and assessing what happens in these particular production areas, the surveillance aircraft may well provide the first alert. There is also a wind back in other areas of border protection by this government. Almost every budget has cut the resources available for airport security and for customs and quarantine.

The coalition will always support sensible moves to enhance our maritime security regime. The coalition has a history of proposing and supporting sensible measures to enhance our maritime security regime and in this case the security of our offshore oil and gas assets. For example, in 2005 the coalition amended the Maritime Transport Security Act 2003 to require operators to write and follow security plans, including security risk assessments, and develop preventative strategies to manage risk. The coalition in government had a strong record of securing Australia's borders and strengthening security requirements across the maritime industry, including our offshore oil and gas assets.

The industry is of vital significance to Australia's economy. In addition to being a major employer, it is an important part also of our energy security. We must do what we can as a nation to keep these valuable resources, and the infrastructure that services them, safe and particularly protect them from any risk of terrorism, pirating or other dangerous activities. So I commend Mr Palmer. I note with satisfaction the cooperation that the industry are giving to this inquiry, because they also recognise how important it is to keep their valuable assets safe.