Dorinda Cox (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Minister. As I said in my speech in the second reading debate, the linking of this this bill to the Barossa Gas Project has been made pretty clear by my colleagues Senator Whish-Wilson and Senator Hanson-Young through the questions they've asked over the past few days. But the government is still unwilling to admit the connection of this bill to the Barossa gas field. This bill is going to be facilitated through what happens in Middle Arm and the inquiry that we have.

Opposition senators took the opportunity to ask that very valid question, 'What's happening now with the Middle Arm inquiry?' That's a very valid question to the government. But how do we, how does the Australian public, some of whom are here in the gallery today or watching online, believe anything that this government says they're doing when they can't even be transparent about what they're doing with this piece of legislation? We heard my colleague Senator Whish-Wilson, and also Senator David Pocock, talk very articulately about the science, about the reputation of Australia and about the capture of states and corporates by the gas cartels in this country and what they continue to do. Senator Whish-Wilson outlined what this bill could possibly do about facilitating the import and export of carbon waste for carbon capture and storage in waters that fall outside the Commonwealth jurisdiction.

It's like we're going to take our rubbish and just throw it over the fence into Timor-Leste's waters—one of the poorest countries in the world. We are a very fortunate country here in Australia, but just think we can dump it over there, where it's out of sight and out of mind—not our problem. We let companies, like the Santos mates of those over there, do the bidding on behalf of the government—because that's what they're doing. And that's what this company's plan is: to justify a carbon bomb. It's a cultural-heritage-destroying project—that's what the Barossa gas project is. The Tiwi people have been in court twice and there is currently a live injunction around the lack of respect and the lack of consultation with the Tiwi people.

In this project, as we know, Santos claims that they'll be able to capture their scope 1 emissions and transfer them to the depleted gas field, Bayu-Undan in the Timor Sea, 500 kilometres north-west of Darwin. As a proud Western Australian senator—and Senator Whish-Wilson mentioned this—I know that CCS has not been proven. Wheatstone is operating at a third of its capacity; CCS is a flawed, flawed system. We know that it isn't going to be at the scale that needs to be the option for this project—we know that! It only covers scope 1 emissions, and we know that the vast majority of emissions from the Barossa project are actually going to be scope 2 and scope 3. But we had that argument during the safeguard legislation. This government can try to spin this bill all they like—that it isn't giving a free kick to Santos, but it actually is. It's what we're all sitting here debating. We're very happy that the coalition have allowed us on the crossbench to continue to ask the questions that are so important.

Bayu-Undan is not that far from Darwin and it's not that far from my home state of Western Australia, which earlier this year was in fact flooded. People have spent millions of dollars going in there and cleaning up the mess that's linked to the science which is linked to the whole planet cooking because we continue this gaslit fascination and relationship with the coal and gas sector in this country.

Not only should we be moving away from fossil fuels—exactly as Senator David Pocock outlined—but our Pacific neighbours are urging us to do this. They're pleading with Australia in every UN forum. I was at COP27 in Egypt only last year and the Australian government didn't turn up on the first day to hear the UN Secretary-General give his address and talk about the planet boiling—didn't even have the decency to show up on day 1. Representatives flew in part way through COP and decided, 'We're here for the negotiations'. To negotiate what? Climate action? Really? You're not even listening to what's happening. We're completely in a bubble and ignorant of the fact that the climate science is very clear. The global community are urging us to listen, and we're just ignoring them. They're telling us, 'No more new coal and gas projects,' but we've got 116 in the pipeline. We're continuing to extend and open up new coal and gas projects in this country, and this bill will continue that legacy. It will continue to create climate bombs. Do we just think we're going to dump it in the seabed floor? It's ridiculous.

It's not just going to ensure that we go backwards on our climate action; it's also going to facilitate destroying the ancient burial sites that I spoke about during my speech in the second reading debate. These are the first point of contact in this country for First Nations people in the Tiwi Islands, in that strait, where their songlines run through. We've got evidence that this pipeline will run right over the top of that and destroy the point of contact for this nation. It's shameful that this government would talk about their respect for First Nations people in this country during the referendum and then come in here and ignore the fact that this bill is linked to the Barossa project. The Tiwi people, who are the traditional owners of the Tiwi Islands, are in the Federal Court debating and fighting against big gas companies like Santos to stop the destruction of these culturally significant sites. These sites are part of the history of this nation. But Santos couldn't even be bothered to find that out; they didn't think it was important.

I don't know about anyone else, but I don't think we're running a pipeline through the Australian War Memorial down the road, or through the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne—or through any graveyard in this country. How do people think that it's okay when somebody tells them they're doing that to an ancient burial site? 'Never mind, we'll just run a pipeline right through there.' They'll destroy that, all in the name of the Barossa gas field, which is directly linked to this bill.

Minister, has the government conducted any due diligence about the cultural heritage that could be impacted by CCS at Bayu-Undan in the Timor Sea?