Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I thank all contributors to this debate on the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Amendment (Petroleum Pools and Other Measures) Bill. It is an important, albeit rather technical, change to our offshore regulatory framework. The bill contains amendments which will ensure the ongoing validity of apportionment agreements that are made under section 54 of the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act. These amendments will deal with areas where there may be multiple petroleum pools rather than a single pool.

The apportionment agreements allow for the Commonwealth and state governments, or territory governments, to come to an agreement where a petroleum pool might straddle two jurisdictional areas and allow us to provide certainty, particularly to those investors that may be seeking to develop that resource, so they can understand how we will split the benefits of the resource between investors and the Commonwealth or state and territory governments. These amendments will allow for governments to make these agreements where there may be uncertainty about whether a particular resource is simply a single petroleum pool or may in the future, after further geological information becomes available, in fact be a multiple pool. The bill underscores the government's ongoing commitment to investment in our offshore petroleum sector. It is critical that the legislation is appropriate to encourage that investment, and it is critical that we provide certainty to investors to allow those investments to occur.

I should note that while the Senate committees were looking at this bill there were some questions about the potentially retrospective application of the bill. We have made an addendum to the explanatory memorandum, and returned information to the Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills, to indicate that there will be no detriment because these agreements are entered into on a voluntary basis and, indeed, the only agreement under section 54 at the moment is that relating to the Torosa field, which is why we are moving these amendments in this bill. At this stage, I would like to table the addendum to the explanatory memorandum relating to the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Amendment (Petroleum Pools and Other Measures) Bill 2016. The addendum responds to those concerns raised by the Scrutiny of Bills Committee. The bill also, in a different schedule, amends the act to ensure that there is a clear regulation making power to support regulations that provide for the refund and remittal of environmental plan levies and safety case levies in certain circumstances. I commend this bill to the chamber.