Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

Minister, I'm going to go back to carbon dioxide streams, which I've asked you about. I have here, from the London protocol, 'Specific guidelines for the assessment of carbon dioxide for disposal into sub-seabed geological formations'. You've spoken about the London protocol. This is directly from it. In the introduction, at 1.2, it says:

The risks associated with carbon dioxide sequestration in sub-seabed geological formations include those associated with leakage into the marine environment of the carbon dioxide and any other substances in or mobilized by the carbon dioxide stream. In general, there are different levels of concern regarding potential leakage that range from the local to the global over both the short- and long-terms. These Specific Guidelines deal with risks posed by carbon dioxide sequestration in sub-seabed geological formations over all timescales and primarily at the local and regional scale and thus focus on the potential effects on the marine environment in the proximity of the receiving formations.

Section 1.3 says:

For the purpose of these Guidelines, the following categories of substances are distinguished:

.1 the CO2 stream, consisting of:

.1 CO2;

.2 incidental associated substances derived from the source material and the capture and sequestration processes used:

.1 source- and process-driven substances; and

.2 added substances (i.e. substances added to the CO2 stream to enable or improve the capture and sequestration processes); and

.2 substances mobilized as a result of the disposal of the CO2 stream.

Minister, if you were so in line with the London protocol, why couldn't you answer this question before? Why did I have to bring it to your attention that there is more to this, because of the substances? Even to capture the carbon dioxide, they have to use substances, and we don't even know what they are. As I said, this is a dog of a bill, and you are not giving the people any guarantees at all. This bill is allowing people to send their rubbish to us and dump it in our seabeds. You can't guarantee anything.

Minister, will you clarify the record and do you acknowledge what this document that I have just read out states about what other properties may be included in it? It's not just carbon dioxide; it can contain many other substances.