Mark Arbib (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Government Service Delivery) Share this | Hansard source

I inform the committee that the government opposes the Greens amendment moved by Senator Siewert. The government’s purpose in giving the responsible minister the power to appoint a commissioner is to enable an independent inquiry into the operational, human and regulatory factors relating to a significant offshore petroleum or greenhouse gas incident, a power the minister does not presently have. Undoubtedly a minister establishing a commission of inquiry would take a broad view of the issues to be considered in any proper consideration of the operational, human and regulatory factors relating to the incident, the subject of the inquiry. The minister would want to ensure that all the lessons that could be learnt were in fact learnt.

There will be circumstances where the issues referred to in the Greens amendment are relevant to the incident to be investigated, but there will be other occasions where some or all of those issues are peripheral or not relevant at all. It is inappropriate to mandate in the legislation some of the terms of reference of a commission of inquiry, particularly terms of reference relating to matters in relation to which there already exist adequate Commonwealth powers and processes to investigate and consider. The committee can be confident that the responsible minister would look to any commission of inquiry established by him or her to provide a comprehensive report on the causes and consequences of the incident being investigated. In the government’s view the amendment is therefore unnecessary. Under the national response plan there would also be an automatic review. I hope that assists.