Rex Patrick (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Resources, Water and Northern Australia. The minister will be aware that Northern Endeavour, a floating production storage and offloading vessel, is sitting off the coast of Darwin in lighthouse mode after the government forced the operator into liquidation. NOPSEMA's refusal to direct the company as to what safety issues needed to be addressed to get the vessel back into production, a criticism levelled at the government in the Walker review, is now costing the taxpayer $1 million per week—that is, 34 ICU beds per week. According to evidence provided at estimates, the government has spent more than $60 million thus far. By my estimation, the government is shortly going to run out of the offensive $76 million budgeted to deal with this. Have you got enough money in the budget to deal with this blunder? How much is the total cost to the taxpayer going to be? What is the plan to deal with this government induced money slick leaking from the vessel?