STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator BLEYER (Tasmania) (13:37): Imagine a humpback whale gracefully gliding through the warm, breathing sea, only to be confronted by an abandoned, decaying gas rig. That is the grave reality in our oceans. There is no legal obligation on offshore oil and gas corporations to clean up after themselves.

We know this because the Wilderness Society just exposed this legal loophole in the Federal Court. There are currently 6,000 kilotonnes of oil and gas infrastructure in our oceans which will have to be cleaned up. That's 110 Sydney Harbour Bridges.

Left alone, the rigs decay and leach poisons into our oceans. Cleaning up this hazardous, toxic, rusty mess from our oceans will cost at least $60 billion. Three companies have recently used insolvency laws to dodge removing their rig junk.

Renters and onshore mining corporations have to pay a bond, yet offshore oil and gas corporations are getting a free ride. This government says it has consulted on laws which will make these corporations prove upfront they can pay for the clean-up. So where are the laws?

I would say it makes no sense, but, then again, this Labor government has a very cosy relationship with the oil and gas corporations. Whether it's a minister being given free AFL tickets by a big gas corporation or the offshore energy regulator being packed with former senior oil and gas industry people, this government is putting big corporations' interests ahead of the communities.

As the Maritime Union of Australia here today has been fighting for, the government needs to clean up the law and make corporations— (Time expired)