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

There were a number of other issues, which I will get back to in a minute, but what Senator Colbeck has just said confirms what I said last night. The exploration permit lasts six years, renewable for another five years and then with the option for another five after that, for a total of 16 years. There is an option for a retention lease after that, which it seems can go on with no limit to the renewals. And then there is a production licence that goes for five years and then on ad infinitum into the future. So I was probably being conservative by saying that companies can have a commercial interest in an area for up to 26 years before production occurs. If there is no limit to the number of times they can have their retention leases renewed, it will be in excess of that, and those companies will then argue property rights. So I ask Senator Colbeck: if an oil or gas company exercises these rights over a frontier resource area identified by the Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources, goes out, gets a tax break and gets a permit for that area for 26 years or longer and, in the course of those 26 years, community attitudes change or a significant new environmental effect or risk is identified that is not currently provided for in the environment plan—one or other, but let us assume the latter—what can the community do about getting that permit or lease back from the oil company?