Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill may proceed without formalities and be now read a first time.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a first time.

by leave—I move:

That the provisions of paragraphs (5) to (8) of standing order 111 not apply to this bill.

I table a statement of reasons justifying the need for this bill to be considered during these sittings and seek leave to have the statement incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The statement read as follows—

OFFSHORE PETROLEUM AMENDMENT (DATUM) BILL 2008

Purpose of the bill

The bill amends the Offshore Petroleum Act 2006 (the OPA) to make a minor correction resulting from a technical oversight in the amendments made in the Offshore Petroleum Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Act 2008 (the. Act).

Reasons for Urgency

In May 2008, the Act amended the OPA to, amongst other things, amend the Datum Provisions as part of the Government’s Australia Spatial Data Infrastructure Program. Subsequently, the OPA was proclaimed on 24 June 2008 and came into effect on 1 July 2008.

Included in the Act were amendments to specify use of Geocentric Datum of Australia (GDA94) to replace Australian Geodetic Datum (AGD66) for certain purposes. The amendments replaced all references to the AGD66 with GDA94, inadvertently shifting the position of graticular blocks by 200m in a north easterly direction. The OPA needs to continue to refer to AGD66 for determining the position of graticular blocks as all existing titles have been determined by reference to that datum. GDA94 is to be used for certain other purposes including describing coordinates of a point in a title.

Passage of the bill early in the Spring sittings will remove uncertainty about existing titles, facilitate award of new permits arising from the April 2008 Acreage Release and enable the next release of acreage in October 2008.

Question agreed to.