Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate:

(a)

notes that the British High Court is hearing a legal challenge to the decision to allow deep sea drilling in the North Sea, based on the concern that the oil and gas industry has not demonstrated its readiness to effectively respond to a large-scale spill in deep water;

(b)

welcomes the fact that Australia is in the process of reviewing and reforming the legislation and regulation governing the offshore oil and gas industry, in the wake of the recent Montara spill in the Kimberley and Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico;

(c)

raises concern that deep sea drilling licences continue to be granted in Australian waters before this regulatory reform has taken place, and before the industry has demonstrated it has appropriate risk management practices, response plans and resources in place to handle a deep sea spill in Australian waters; and

(d)

calls on the Australian Government to put in place a moratorium on deep sea drilling until the Senate has confidence that all the necessary measures are in place to prevent another serious spill.

Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Leave granted.

The government does not support the motion. Since 1964 there have been 3,040 wells drilled offshore from Australia and there has been one incident in shallow water. Nearly 90 of these wells have been drilled at depths greater than 1,500 metres, all without incident. The reality is that lessons need to be learnt by adjusting the actual practices, not by shutting down the industry. Australia already has a $16 billion trade deficit in imported fuel, which is expected to rise to $30 billion by 2015. If we were to shut down the industry, we would not be able to test or put into effect the lessons learnt, and Australia would have to rely on unsustainable sources of foreign oil, undermining our energy security. Shutting down the industry and putting the nation’s energy security, jobs and the economy at risk does nothing towards achieving better regulation in the industry.

Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Russell Trood (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There being no objection, leave is granted for two minutes.

Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am sure that Senator Ludwig made his statement in all good faith, reading from the notes he was provided with, but this motion does not say, ‘Shut down the industry’; it says, ‘Put a moratorium on until the Senate is satisfied that we can control a spill from any accident that happens with deep-water drilling.’ I raise this issue because, in the UK, the High Court has just made a decision that it will review a decision made by the UK minister to allow deep-water drilling, because it has come to light that neither the companies involved there, nor the country, have in place have any appropriate practices to control a spill from a deep-water oil well. In other words, we have not learnt yet from the mistakes in the Gulf of Mexico, where we had the biggest spill and the most significant impacts. We have not learnt here.

When I asked in estimates about what confidence we could have that we could control a spill in the Australian situation, the department had to admit that they cannot yet. The department have granted leases to BP off our Great Australian Bight. This is the same company that caused the accident in the Gulf of Mexico. The department have already granted BP these leases, and they had to admit that they do not at this stage have in place appropriate practices. They are having a conference to talk about it in August! ‘But it’s okay. We’re sure we can control a spill.’ Yes, they are having a conference in August, Senator Ludwig, to talk about how they would control and put in place better practices for a deep-water spill. That is not good enough, when this well is going into Australian waters, environmentally sensitive marine areas, and could affect endangered species. ‘But it’s okay. We’ll work it out after we have had our conference in August.’ That is not good enough. This Senate should expect better from our management agencies.

Question negatived.