Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

In response to the contributions that have been made in relation to the amendments that have been put forward by One Nation, the government would like to make it very clear that we do not support retrospective legislation, because it has significant impacts on Australia's reputation and credibility and it breaches fundamental principles of law and justice. However, we also believe that the bill before us at the moment strengthens Australia's offshore oil and gas decommissioning framework and ensures former titleholders can be called back to decommission and remediate the environment in a broad range of circumstances. I can assure the chamber that the government is absolutely committed to ensuring the costs of decommissioning remain the responsibility of the oil and gas industry. As noted by one of the contributions on this particular amendment, in the case of the Northern Endeavour, legislation will soon be coming before parliament to impose a levy on the industry to recover the associated costs, and I can assure this chamber the Australian taxpayer will not be footing the bill.