Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

There is barely a question in that rant, but, nonetheless, in case Senator Hanson-Young missed it, NOPSEMA, the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management. Authority, was going through a very rigorous process in relation to BP—very rigorous. On 16 November 2015 and again on 16 May 2016, when the BP announced environmental plan for the proposed petroleum exploration was declared, it had not yet met the criteria under environmental regulations. It was completely appropriate for NOPSEMA to do so. BP went through the process of submitting a new environmental plan for NOPSEMA's assessment. That was on 12 August 2016. On 28 September 2016, NOPSEMA requested further information from BP, and on 11 October 2016—that is, of course, today—BP took the commercial decision and announced it would not proceed. But NOPSEMA and environmental approvals did exactly their job, and to denigrate them or anybody else in this process is ridiculous from Senator Hanson-Young while she cheers the loss of jobs. (Time expired)