Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak, in the short time that is available, on the report of the Senate Standing Committee on Economics, entitled Matters relating to the gas explosion at Varanus Island, Western Australia. The significant impact of the Varanus Island gas explosion was apparent to senators a long time before we came to this inquiry, and the inquiry indeed substantiated the significant economic impacts.

The committee sought a way to ensure that Western Australia is prepared in the circumstances that the unthinkable happens again, and I think the committee’s recommendations set that out very successfully. In terms of market transparency, emergency powers and issues in relation to pricing, our recommendations certainly point a way forward. But I want to challenge senators opposite in relation to the dissenting report. In the parliamentary hearings we had, there were plenty of opportunities to prosecute the former WA Minister for Energy, Fran Logan, but there was no evidence through which senators opposite were able to substantiate their recommendations calling for a judicial or other form of inquiry. That way forward offers very little for the people of Western Australia by way of ensuring that this kind of circumstance does not happen again. We require diversification of the energy markets in Western Australia, which was well established in the majority report; we require greater transparency in relation to those energy markets; we require a permanent gas bulletin board; and we require an examination of emergency powers and the market. These are substantial directions for a way forward, and I am disappointed that the opposition have sought to turn this into a parochial political witchhunt.

Debate interrupted.