The NSW Government has been slammed for “despicable” and “shameful” actions in State Parliament to defer the ready-to-go PEP-11 Bill.
On Thursday, June 29, the Government supported a Motion from Independent MP for Sydney Alex Greenwich to refer the Minerals Legislation Amendment (Offshore Drilling and Associated Infrastructure Prohibition Bill 2023) to the Standing Committee on Environment and Planning for scrutiny.
The Bill relates to PEP-11, an application for offshore oil and gas exploration over an 8,200sqm areas stretching from Newcastle to Wollongong.
Minister for the Central Coast and Member for Wyong David Harris said the Bill could create legal risks for NSW and conflict with Commonwealth law, with unintended consequences.
He said the NSW Government supported the actions of Independent MP Alex Greenwich to ensure there was full scrutiny of the Bill and to avoid possible further legal action relating to PEP-11.
“Central Coast Labor MPs have opposed the PEP-11 proposal at both a state and federal level and have campaigned to stop the exploration going ahead,” Harris said.
“We want to see this offshore mining process ended but the action of the former Coalition government demonstrated that intervention must be lawful and consistent with state and federal laws.
“Unlike the Liberal-National Party, we won’t jeopardise the process by playing politics with this issue.
“It is important we allow the proper process to play out because we have seen what happens when conservative governments have gotten involved and caused delay in this area.”
But Member for Terrigal Adam Crouch says that if the Minns Labor Government was all for environmental protection as it says, it would be supporting the Bill instead of “kicking it down the road”.
“It is simply despicable that the Government has decided to kick this Bill, which would protect our pristine coastline from polluting offshore drilling and mining, down the road into committee,” he said.
Crouch said the deferral of the Bill to the Environment and Planning Committee would prevent any progress being made until November at the very earliest.
“It is shameful that this well-drafted and ready-to-go Bill will not see the light of day until November at the very earliest, which conveniently is at the end of the Parliamentary sittings for 2023,” he said.
“The actions taken by the Minns Labor Government leave the door open to proponents of PEP-11 to push ahead with projects.
“The unintended consequence of deferring this Bill is that it signals to companies wanting to undertake offshore drilling and mining that it’s acceptable to go ahead, as the Government would rather save its own face than take real steps to protect our environment.”
Sue Murray