Mr ENTSCH (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources) (10:33 AM) —I move:

The Offshore Petroleum (Safety Levies) Amendment Bill 2005 is intended to amend the Offshore Petroleum (Safety Levies) Act 2003. This act imposes levies on the operators of facilities engaged in exploration for, and production, processing and conveyance of, offshore petroleum. The levies relate directly to regulatory activities carried out by the National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority and are used to fully fund the cost of the authority’s operations.

This amendment bill is consequential on passage of the Offshore Petroleum Bill 2005 constituting the rewrite of the Petroleum (Submerged Lands) Act 1967. This amendment bill is necessitated principally by the fact that the proposed Offshore Petroleum Act would have a different title than the one it replaces. There are three types of amendments. First, there is omission of references to the Petroleum (Submerged Lands) Act 1967 and replacing them with the relevant references in the proposed Offshore Petroleum Act. Second, there are provisions to ensure amendments or name changes to other acts or regulations referred to in the existing act will not have any effect on key definitions in the act. Third, there are transitional provisions.

There are no changes to the levies provisions in the Offshore Petroleum (Safety Levies) Act and this bill will have no financial impact on either Commonwealth revenue or expenditure. I commend the bill to honourable members and present the explanatory memorandum.

Debate (on motion by Mr Gavan O’Connor) adjourned.