Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Colbeck needs to explain specifically what that process is in terms of new environmental risks or concerns. My understanding is that the issue that is looked at is whether it is economically viable in the current circumstances. I want to know specifically how my scenario plays out. Let us assume that an oil company gets a lease over one of these frontier areas and, in the course of that five, 10 or 16 years, a new environmental risk is identified that is not covered in the environmental plan, and that retention lease comes up for reassessment. Can the community then terminate the permit on the basis of that environmental risk without paying compensation to the oil company, which at this point has done nothing because it has not been commercially viable to do so?