Senator BARTLETT (9:45 AM) —I move:

I seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech read as follows—

The recent story in the Weekend Australian and the long months of research conducted by the Australian Democrats have made it clear that oil exploration and interest in the Great Barrier Reef and adjacent areas is alive and well.

The evidence is clear that there are substantial reserves of oil in the area. It is also clear that this profile of oil reserves has been developed over a number of years with the active assistance and research of government agencies and of international projects such as the Ocean Drilling Project.

For over 30 years, surveys, research, seismic profiling and drilling have occurred in the region. Even after the Marine Park was declared in 1975, vessels have returned to the GBR to conduct further testing, further surveys. That continues to this day.

A brief chronology of this exploration post 1975 is revealing.

1978—The Geological Survey Institute (GSI) seeks authority to investigate offshore areas in Queensland. Seeking confidential access to survey data from an earlier Shell Oil survey.

1979—GSI Reports that the Queensland Plateau adjacent troughs are likely to contain petroleum.

1979—GSI cruise—MV Eugene McDermott. Later in 1979, there is a meeting between GSI and oil companies (Esso, Santos, Philips, BP, AGIP, SPA) regarding their Coral Sea program.

1979—GSI seeks authority to conduct seismic tests inside the GBR. The proposal is later withdrawn after public becomes aware of proposal.

1979—The Commonwealth decides to uphold moratorium on oil drilling in the GBR region recommended by the Chair of the Royal Commission.

1979—Don Chipp of the Australian Democrats moves to have oil exploration in the GBR investigated by the Standing Committee on Science and the Environment.

1980s

1981—The Commonwealth Parliament passes the Petroleum (Submerged Land—Miscellaneous Amendment) Act 1981 which opened the Coral Sea to petroleum exploration and drilling. In the second reading speech, the Minister commits to not issuing “exploration permits within 30 miles of the reef” but no such prohibition was included in the legislation.

1981—The Australian Democrats urge far larger buffer protection for the Great Barrier Reef in debate on Petroleum Act.

1981—Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA) newsletter argues that the Great Barrier Reef is essential to Australia's oil future.

1982—Bureau of Mineral Resources seeks access to GSI data.

1982—GSI seeks authority for second cruise in areas where “petroleum exploration companies have indicated to GSI they are interested”

1983—Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Regulations prohibit oil drilling in areas of the Great Barrier Reef Region not declared Marine Parks.

1984—RV Rig Seismic (Division of Marine Geoscience and Petroleum Geology) proposes cruise in area, “to help determine the resource potential of specific areas, i.e. the Townsville Trough, the west part of the Queensland Plateau and the western part of the eastern plateau”. GBRMPA issues permit, with request to refer to the aims of the project as “purely scientific and not involved with petroleum exploration”. GBRMPA seeks similar approach for “future descriptions and publications of your research”.

1985—Rig Seismic cruise.

1986—The Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA) calls on the Commonwealth to ease restrictions on North-East Shelf, which includes the GBR and the Coral Sea.

1987—Rig Seismic second cruise. Principal objective “is medium to long term petroleum potential outside the GBRMP”

1990s

1990—Leg 133 of the Ocean Drilling Program conducts drilling studies in the GBR. “The results are highly significant for both AGSO and the petroleum exploration industry”

1990—The Resources and Energy Minister Alan Griffiths issues a comprehensive program for the release of offshore areas for exploration by companies, including the Townsville Trough, the Queensland Trough and the Capricornia Basin areas adjacent to the eastern GBR. Two days later Prime Minister Hawke indicated that no exploration would be allowed which would endanger the GBR, but it was not clear if this was a prohibition or simply a requirement for strict guidelines.

1990—Democrat leader Cheryl Kernot warns of dangers of oil exploration adjacent to the GBR: “The major threat to the reef comes from outside-from the Government's strategy of offshore oil exploration which would see drilling adjacent to the reef in the Townsville trough and the Maryborough basin, the Queensland trough and the Capricorn basin, where wind and currents would disastrously carry oil spill on to the reef, causing major ecological disaster.”

1990—Chevron voluntarily surrenders its four existing exploration permits in the GBR Region.

1991—The Petroleum (Submerged Lands) Act 1967 is amended to enable the Commonwealth to terminate the one remaining oil exploration permit in the GBR, Q/11P, owned by Petroz NL.

1992—Proposed exploration to the east of the GBRMP in the Townsville Trough by the BMR in support of leg 133 and indications of petroleum potential. The cruise does not proceed. Future exploration near the Park is not ruled out by the Hawke Government, although it will trigger the EP(IP) Act. (Note that BMR is now AGSO)

1994—A Bureau of Resource Science Petroleum Resources Branch letter indicates that the study of the Townsville Trough is “nearly completed”. The report “will contain no discussion of prospects, play types, source rock potential or petroleum prospectivity”

1996—An assessment of the ODP project comments on the industry interest created in the GBR as a result of leg 133, including in the adjacent Queensland Plateau. Future ODP legs in the area are recommended.

1997—Queensland Department of Mines and Energy writes to the Federal DPIE suggesting that areas east of the GBR in the Queensland Plateau and Townsville Trough “...could be legitimate exploration target areas. Could we impose on you to review both the Queensland Plateau and Townsville Trough areas and see if BRS are interested in releasing areas here?”

1997—The response from DPIE indicates DPIE will write separately about “the possible release of areas in the Coral Sea in future bidding rounds”

1997—A Ministerial brief, Queensland Department of Mines and Energy indicates “a number of large international oil and gas company representatives have shown interest in exploring for petroleum in waters offshore of Queensland”

1998—A story in Courier Mail (30 May) indicates that Queensland Department of Mines and Energy had recently sought to advertise for expressions of interest in “oils and gas appraisals” in areas underlying the GBR.

1998—The Australian Democrats question AGSO and Minister Parer regarding seismic testing in the GBR. Both deny any that there is any interest in the reef from oil company interests.

1998—The Democrats lodge an FOI for Great Barrier Reef oil plans.

1999—GBRMPA regulations take effect that prohibit mining operations, or research for a mining operation in the Great Barrier Reef Region.

1999—GBRMPA authorises CSIRO vessel Franklin cruise in the area. Cruise will apparently support proposed ODP trip in 2001.

2000s

2000—TGS-NOPEK (a seismic testing company) applies for permission to conduct seismic tests near the protect Lihou and Marion Reefs, 50km from the eastern boundary of the GBR Region. TGS-NOPEK admits that this is for commercial petroleum interest and that it follows previous seismic surveys of the area.

2001—TGS-NOPEK is informed that they must conduct an Environmental Impact Assessment under the EPBC.

2001—leg 194 of the Ocean Drilling Project (ODP) drills for core samples inside the GBR. 4 sites, 16 holes are drilled. A number of holes are drilled outside the GBR as well in the Coral Sea. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority does not require any impact assessment of the drilling and provides no opportunity for public comment or input. It permits the drilling despite the 1999 regulations prohibiting “research for a mining operation”. The ODP vessel carries representatives from both the oil industry and drilling industry. The Democrats have confirmed the presence on board of at least half a dozen people from industry. The ODP claims it is only investigating climate change.

2001—July, Shipping Review in the Great Barrier Reef. A submission from the Department of Industry, Science and Resources (DISR) notes that petroleum industry activities near the Reef require vessels to have passage on the landward side of the Reef and to transit across the Reef. Banning of petroleum industry ships could affect exploration and development of resources in the region outside the GBRMP and could negatively affect the economic viability of potential petroleum production in the Coral Sea. DISR notes similar concerns for flow-on impacts for other industries such as tourism and minerals that depend on shipping access in the GBR.

2001—The Australian Democrats secure documents through the Senate relating to the Ocean Drilling Project, legs 133 and 194.

This brief chronology, although not complete, provides a compelling picture of systematic exploration for oil in GBR and adjacent areas, by both government and industry.

It should be understood that exploration doesn't mean simply drilling holes in the hope that you strike the big one. Seismic testing and core sampling are both forms of exploration that provide evidence of the location and nature of any petroleum reserves. That is true even if the data derived from those activities may have scientific purposes as well.

It should also be understood that the amount of seismic testing that has occurred in the region cannot be explained by the needs of science. It can be explained even less by the management needs of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.

The current legal regime must also be understood. It is currently prohibited to drill for oil inside the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. The Democrats accept the Government's commitment that they will not allow such drilling to occur. Of most immediate concern, then, are the areas outside and adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. There are no prohibitions on oil exploration or drilling in those areas at all.

Government would have to give permission for oil exploitation to occur. As far as we know, there are no immediate plans to release acreage to the oil industry in the Coral Sea. That said, the size of the reserves and the long-standing interest in the area by the oil industry and the calls for acreage releases by organisations such as APPEA, indicate that if no action is taken, the pressure to release areas in the Coral Sea for further exploration and ultimately for exploitation will increase.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (Boundary Extension) Amendment Bill 2002 deals directly with this threat.

The bill extends the Great Barrier Reef Region out to the boundaries of the EEZ.

An area within the Great Barrier Reef Region is not necessarily within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. Inclusion within the Park occurs under Section 31(1) of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act 1975 that states that

Subject to subsection (5), the Governor-General may, by Proclamation, declare an area specified in the Proclamation, being an area within the Great Barrier Reef Region, to be a part of the Marine Park and assign a name or other designation to that area.

It should be noted that mining and petroleum drilling are not permitted in any part of the Great Barrier Reef Region that is not declared as Marine Park under the Great Barrier Reef Region (Prohibition of Mining) Regulations 1999 (Statutory Rules 1999 No. 339).

By becoming part of the Great Barrier Reef Region the bill immediately prevents oil exploitation. It does so, however, without creating an entirely new regulatory structure, a new bureaucracy or legal regime. Additionally, it does so without affecting other existing uses and users in the Coral Sea.

The effect of this bill will be directly to prevent oil exploration and exploitation in the Great Barrier Reef Region. It will also, then, protect some of the natural values of the Coral Sea such as Lihou Reef. Many people may not know that there are extensive reef areas in the Coral Sea that are well outside the boundaries of the Marine Park and the World Heritage Area.

Additionally, this bill will protect the existing Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. It will protect the GBRMP from the effects of oil drilling and the prospects of spills being carried into the Park. It will protect the GBRMP from a dramatic increase in shipping associated with the oil industry. Oil tankers using the inner route are already a concern of those who would protect the GBR. The likelihood of a major oil spill would increase significantly with increased oil tanker traffic. While the Authority has an oil spill plan in place, they recognise that a major spill will have major impacts. If the spill occurs in more remote areas, the difficulties of mitigating that spill are magnified.

This bill adds a very large area to the jurisdiction of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, but does not impose commensurate obligations. It is simply the most efficient method of ensuring that the areas adjacent to the GBR are protected from an imminent threat of commercial exploitation of very large oil reserves.

It should be added that the search for petroleum in and adjacent to the GBR is misdirected in a more fundamental way as well.

Only yesterday, the threats to the coral reefs of the world as a result of climate change and increasing sea surface temperatures were highlighted again by scientists. The primary cause of climate change and increased sea surface temperatures is oil and the burning of oil. Surely, we should be doing everything in our powers to ensure that threats to the GBR are reduced not increased. Allowing oil exploration in or adjacent to the GBR is a double threat.

The further irony is that big business all over the world is recognising that we are now leaving behind the age of petroleum. Hydrogen, solar, wind and other alternative and renewable forms of energy will be the industries and energies of tomorrow. This isn't speculative anymore. We are in the beginning stages of a transition to new industries that will be as dramatic and significant as the computer—as significant as the age of the automobile.

And yet, in Australia, we continue to throw public money into dirty and outdated energy sources— oil shale, coal, oil.

Here is an opportunity to protect the Great Barrier Reef, to protect the natural values in the adjacent Coral Sea and to invest money that would otherwise be spent on oil exploration on new technologies and new ideas that will also protect the Great Barrier Reef.

I commend this bill to the Senate.

Senator BARTLETT —I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.