Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Brown for his question. In 2008, Santos and the QGC referred coal seam gas proposals in southern Queensland and Gladstone for consideration under federal environmental law as outlined in the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. On entering his portfolio, the Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, Tony Burke, visited Gladstone to inspect the site and visited Chinchilla to look at existing wells. He met with representatives of local governments and community members who were opposed to the project. His decisions must be strictly in accordance with the provisions of the national environmental legislation. While there are significant economic benefits, which must be a consideration in Mr Burke’s decision, the environment minister’s focus has been on protecting environmental matters.

We must protect the Great Artesian Basin, our threatened species, our waterways and the Great Barrier Reef. The minister imposed, as Senator Brown mentioned, more than 300 conditions on those projects which provide these environmental protections and allow the jobs and investment in Queensland to go ahead. There was rigorous assessment, including environmental impact statements for each project, Queensland Coordinator-General’s reports on each project, public consultation and expert advice from the minister’s department and Geoscience Australia. The assessment considered matters of national environmental significance, including listed threatened species, listed ecological communities, the world heritage values of the Great Barrier Reef and listed migratory species. Also considered were potential impacts on agricultural land among other economic and social matters. Conditions include that ground water pressure must remain above conservative thresholds or be re-established, and that may involve reinjection, water monitoring plans—(Time expired)