What appears to be an admirable bill to improve worker safety in the offshore sector, includes amendments undermining already poor environmental approvals process and transferring Ministerial powers from the Environment portfolio to the Resources portfolio. Labor needs to do much better given we need to stop all new fossil fuel approvals according to the IEA and climate science.

The Federal Labor Government is moving to undermine environmental approvals and conditions of offshore gas projects and carbon capture and storage projects by moving Ministerial authority over National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) from the Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek to the Resources Minister Madeleine King.

The Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Legislation Amendment (Safety and Other Measures) Bill 2024 was introduced on 15 February 2024 by Resources Minister Madeleine King. It is the first piece of legislation for Federal Parliament this year.

While most of the bill focusses on improving worker safety in the offshore resources sector, the streamlining of approvals is a trojan for the Fossil Fuel companies to avoid stringent environmental and cultural heritage approval processes for both gas extraction projects and for carbon capture and storage projects, poor though they may presently be.

Royce Kurmelovs in the Saturday Paper article explains:

If passed, the amendments will mean the environment minister is automatically assumed to agree with any regulatory changes made by the resources minister concerning directions to NOPSEMA on how it makes decisions during approval processes.

As these regulations have not yet been written – pending the outcome of a current review – this would give Resources Minister Madeleine King broad ministerial discretion to rewrite the way projects are approved.

The Saturday Paper, 24 February 2024, Madeleine King set to take offshore gas approval power from Tanya Plibersek

In her speech to parliament on 15 February Madeleine King said:

In addition to enhancing safety outcomes for Australia’s offshore resources sector workforce, this bill introduces amendments to enable changes to be made to the environment regulations under the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006while maintaining the validity of streamlined arrangements endorsed under section 146B of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999….

The amendments proposed in this bill will enable changes to be made to the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage (Environment) Regulations 2023 while ensuring that those changes do not impact the application of streamlined approval arrangements already in place under section 146B of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.

APH Hansard 15 February 2024

The Australia Institute noted that the changes proposed in the bill allow the Minister to relax the rules imposed on offshore oil and CCS projects even when those rules were a condition of the projects’ approval under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

“The Government did not even finish its consultation on how to run consultations before introducing legislation to let it bypass legislation. This is premature, and suggests the process has been rushed to avoid scrutiny,” says Bill Browne, Director of the Australia Institute’s Democracy & Accountability Program.

“Given how disruptive and destructive offshore oil and gas projects can be, they should not be built unless they have a genuine social licence to operate from the people whose lives and livelihoods will be affected.

“With the failure to enshrine a Voice to Parliament in the Constitution last year, it is particularly important that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to be heard and genuinely included in existing consultation processes.

“Local communities and businesses can already feel overwhelmed in the face of powerful, well-organised fossil fuel companies, and laws and regulations should address that imbalance, not exacerbate it.”

Australia Institute – 15 February 2024

The Labor Government has already rejected including a Climate Trigger into Australia’s National Environment Laws based on a Senate Majority Report, but did pass an enhanced water trigger amendment in late 2023, which was an election promise. The Prime Minister, when he was an MP in opposition in 2005, proposed an Amendment to the national environment laws for a Climate Trigger.

Last November the Government passed it’s Sea Dumping Bill which will fast track offshore carbon capture and storage projects, including international transport of CO2 for CCS. This is despite carbon capture and storage falling woefully short of projected sequestration capacities. The IPCC has ordered a specific Methodology Report on Carbon Dioxide Removal Technologies, Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage in the next few years. See Our September 2023 explainer: The scam of Carbon Capture and Storage: 5 video explainers

This is one more instance where the Federal Labor Government is maintaining support for new fossil fuel extraction, and carbon capture and storage, and not empowering environmental processes that takes into account Australian and global climate targets, and climate science.

References:

Parliament House – Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Legislation Amendment (Safety and Other Measures) Bill 2024 https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r7149

Royce Kurmelovs, The Saturday Paper, 24 February 2024, Madeleine King set to take offshore gas approval power from Tanya Plibersek https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2024/02/24/plibersek-sidelined-over-gas-project-approvals

APH Hansard 15 February 2024, https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Hansard/Hansard_Display?bid=chamber/hansardr/27606/&sid=0022

Australia Institute, 15 February 2024, Media Release, Offshore gas must not bypass genuine consultation with traditional owners, local community https://australiainstitute.org.au/post/offshore-gas-must-not-bypass-genuine-consultation-with-traditional-owners-local-community/

Photo of Trojan Horse by Stanley Zimny, CC BY-NC 2.0 DEED https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanzim/52582019151/