Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister representing the Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities (Senator Conroy) to a question without notice asked by Senator Waters today relating to the concerns of government agencies over coal seam gas and the inadequacy of state regulation on these matters.

Unfortunately, the minister was not able to shed an awful lot of light on the questions that I posed to him. The first issues I raised in my question were the concerns that various government agencies, including CSIRO and the National Water Commission, have recently had and publicly stated about the long-term impacts of coal seam gas and the cumulative impacts, which are not being looked at. It is not just those bodies that hold those concerns; the Queensland government itself in its recommendation report to the minister through its Coordinator-General, which is effectively the approving body for these matters, admits that it does not know the long-term impacts on the Great Artesian Basin.

So there is a massive amount of uncertainty here about what this industry is going to do to our groundwater, on which much of our farming relies and on which all of us rely for our three square meals a day. The minister said: 'Don't worry about it. The federal conditions cover that. They require a stage 1 coal seam gas water monitoring and management plan.' I am aware of that, and those plans should now have been prepared. The companies had six months to do that. I would now like the minister to release those plans. They have not been publicly available. They are not subject to public scrutiny and they should be. I would like to see a copy of those plans, which are meant to contain programs and schedules for aquifer connectivity studies. It makes no sense to me that an approval would be granted without the information in those aquifer connectivity studies. Surely before the minister could be satisfied that it was okay to approve coal seam gas mining he should have done such aquifer connectivity studies, or at least be in possession of them. Unfortunately, it seems that the precautionary principle has once again gone out the window.

I next asked the minister about some alarming admissions made by the Queensland government, through the head of their LNG enforcement body, at a conference broadcast on Radio National Breakfast last Thursday. That fellow said that coal seam gas wells would have aquifer and regional scale impacts. Not only that; he said that the Queensland government is monitoring only 10 per cent of the coal seam gas wells for leaks or for aquifer connectivity. I am afraid that Minister Conroy, and through him Minister Burke, says that they are not aware of those comments. You cannot have your cake and eat it too. If they are saying that state regulation is adequate, surely they need to inform themselves of the various positions of the states, in particular that of Queensland, where this industry is most advanced, and the fact that these impacts are acknowledged as being likely to occur. On the issue of whether regulation should be left to the states, we are not proposing that it be taken off the states. What we are proposing is an additional tier of regulation and additional protection in the form of federal regulation, because groundwater and food security are national issues and should be dealt with by this parliament.

In my final question to the minister I raised the mounting scientific and community concern about coal seam gas and the inadequate state regulation of coal seam gas, and the minister said that he did not accept that premise. I am afraid it is a bit tricky to say that he is not across what the states say but then not accept that it is inadequate. If he is not apprised of information about the states how can he be confident that there is an adequate regime? That did not add up to me. I pressed him on whether or not he would adequately resource the department's monitoring and enforcement section to monitor the various federal conditions that Minister Burke has imposed. Unfortunately, he did not give a response to that. I certainly hope Minister Burke follows up with some more detail about resourcing for those important public servants, who do a critical job and deserve more support and more numbers.

I also raised the need for a water trigger in our environmental laws and asked whether the government would reconsider its refusal to back a moratorium until we have better information about long-term impacts. Unfortunately, the minister did not address either of those two points, and they really go to the nub of this industry. The federal government is not properly regulating the industry because it lacks the power to do so. It has no water trigger under our environmental laws and that should be rectified. We will be moving for just that in this place shortly.

Lastly, it was a great shame and embarrassment that last week every single party bar the Greens voted against my motion for a moratorium on coal seam gas mining until we have better information about its impacts. I do not see what is wrong with getting full information, or at least better information, before one makes a decision with significant consequences. Do the old parties not want better information about long-term impacts? Do they not care about long-term impacts? Are they simply blinded by the royalties that they are receiving from this industry? It would appear so. The Greens will not vacate this space. We will be pushing for better laws and better regulation of coal seam gas mining because that is what these communities deserve and that is what our environment needs.

Question agreed to.