Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Amendment (Regulations References) Bill makes technical amendments to the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006 to future-proof specific references in provisions of the act to regulations made under the act.

There are several sets of regulations made under the act dealing with separate matters, such as safety, environmental management and resource management. Each of the regulations is scheduled to sunset over the next few years. There is a risk that current references in the act to the specific titles of regulations will become ineffective when the regulations sunset and are remade with a new title. The amendments made by this bill are therefore necessary to ensure that the act does not need to be amended each time regulations under the act sunset and are remade, with associated risks to the ongoing effective operation of the act.

Effective references to regulations are critical to the operation of a number of provisions of the act, including provisions which set out regulations subject to monitoring and investigation under the Regulatory Powers (Standard Provisions) Act 2014 and polluter pays and financial assurance obligations.

The amendments will enable the titles of the regulations, or provisions of regulations, relevant to each affected provision of the act to be prescribed by regulation. When the title of a set of regulations changes as a result of remaking those regulations, the reference can be updated by regulatory amendment.

I commend this bill to the chamber.

Debate adjourned.