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CHEYNE:

From Schwartz Media, I’m Cheyne Anderson, filling in for Ange McCormack. This is 7am.

A new bill that redefines Australia’s gas industry has a surprising section smuggled in the fine print.

It’s designed to change, not just the way we approve gas projects, but reshape the balance of power inside the Labor cabinet and take powers away from Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek.

So, who’s behind it, and what does it say about Labor’s actual position on fossil fuels?

Today contributor to The Saturday Paper, Royce Kurmelovs, on the most powerful minister nobody's heard of and the significant powers she may soon have.

It’s Monday March 4.

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CHEYNE:

Royce, you've been looking into a bill. It's the government's very first bill of 2024 and it's to do with the gas industry. Can you tell me a bit about what this bill is and what people began to notice once they got a closer look at it?

ROYCE:

Yeah so the bill itself concerns how offshore petroleum projects are regulated. Its title has a very fun title of the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006.

Audio excerpt - Resource Minister Madeleine King:

"In addition to enhancing safety outcomes for Australia's offshore resources sector workforce, this bill introduces amendments to enable changes to be made to the environment regulations under the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act. 2006."

ROYCE:

The point was to push this through, bring in some better regulations, look after for people that work on site and it’d be all good. However when the bill drops and people start to look at the detail on it, it contained a provision that shocked a lot of people, particularly in kind of environmental groups and environmental NGOs. They looked at this and found it contained a provision which out of nowhere, seemed to change how the approvals process for new offshore gas projects is carried out. Essentially, what it did was change out who ultimately had final approval over these projects, and it kind of tweaked that legislation in a way that seemed to suggest that the environment minister, which is Tanya Plibersek, would be taken to automatically assume with any changes that were made by the resources minister, who is Madeleine King. And in doing so, it seemed to give wide ministerial discretion to the resources minister to essentially change the process by which, environmental approvals for offshore oil and gas projects take place.
Naturally, when this dropped, it immediately sparked a wave of people going: well what's this? The Greens reacted pretty heavily towards it, and they put out a press release calling this sneaky.

Audio excerpt - Green’s Leader Adam Bandt

"Are the donations to Labor the reason why the resources minister announced her decision to change the rules for Santos to fast track their project and ignore the concerns of the locals?"

ROYCE:

The environmental NGOs immediately started calling around to find out what was going on and where this came from, because no one had seen this before. There had been no consultation on it, no flagging with anyone. They attempted to call the Environment Minister's office to say, hey, what's up? What's the deal with this change? And were directed to King's office. And so from that point onwards, there was just a whole range of confusion about what was actually going on.

CHEYNE:

Right. So it's a fairly significant change tucked away in this bill. Why has it come about?

ROYCE:

The question of why now is one that everyone has been asking themselves. Part of the impetus for introducing this piece of legislation has to be the industry campaign that has been running over how these environmental approval processes work. There are some very good examples of this. For instance, there was a letter that was released under Freedom of Information, this was sent by the Santos chief, Kevin Gallagher, to the government and co-signed by the heads of South Korean and Japanese petroleum companies. In this letter, it makes several calls of action to the government.

One of them it appears to be a call to water down the consultation requirements around indigenous owners about what can be done on their land.

Audio Excerpt - Speaker 1

"After the fly was revealed, a letter from Santos's CEO, Kevin Gallagher, asking the minister to make sure that those approvals are watered down, that they're having so many issues, so many issues asking First Nations people for permission for free prior and informed consent to drill in Commonwealth waters for offshore gas."

ROYCE:

And it's important to understand that this letter seems to have been a direct response to a legal win by indigenous woman and traditional owner Raelene Cooper, who has been an activist as part of the Save Our Songlines campaign.

Audio excerpt - Raelene Cooper:

"Our culture is more valuable than short term gas projects. We want to practice, protect and share our unique cultural heritage for the benefit of all people now and into the future. We do not want to see our heritage destroyed."

ROYCE:

She took on Woodside, this is the Scarborough Gas Project, and her case challenge a part of that project and held it up essentially.

Audio excerpt - Reporter:

"A significant win in a David and Goliath battle."

Audio Excerpt - Raelene Cooper:

"What if I don’t have any more tears in me? And what they're doing out on Murujuga is disgraceful and disgusting. At the end of the day, they had no authority to do this and they still don't."

ROYCE:

and this spruiked industry as kind of another in a series of litigations that were kind of interfering with their ability to to continue to work on these projects.

CHEYNE:

Yeah, so clearly the industry is applying pressure to the government there. But at the same time our government does have commitments to reduce emissions so why would a government want their environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, to have less oversight over the way oil and gas projects are approved?

ROYCE:

Well, I wanted to ask this to both Minister King and Minister Plibersek’s office. When I tried to talk to Minister Plibersek’s office, there was no response or questions were directed to Minister King’s. It's not entirely clear why this provision was inserted into this legislation. And there are, generally speaking three options. The first option is that it was a mistake. No one quite saw, like no one, quite understood the scope of the change being made. The other option is that it was it was included, people were briefed but no one really paid attention to the fine print on this. And the third option is that it seems like a bit of a power play between two competing figures within the party, and two portfolios that have historically been at odds. The resources portfolio and the environment portfolio have often been at loggerheads for the last two decades.

It is not entirely clear what happened here. But it is fascinating to watch what looks to be a fight, or at least some sort of disagreement within, Labour government otherwise committed to action on climate change over the role of its environment minister on this particular issue.

CHEYNE:

After the break - Who is Madeleine King?

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CHEYNE:

I want to talk to you about the resources minister Madeleine King. It's her portfolio that's getting this new power over the approvals process. What do we know about Madeleine King and her relationship with the oil and gas industry?

ROYCE:

Madeleine King was the daughter of a refinery worker at the Kwinana Oil Refinery in Western Australia. She went on to become a lawyer. She then went on as a ministerial advisor. And she's now a representative in the Pilbara, which is a huge resources electorate. And, in some ways she has been very good at advocating for people in her electorate, which includes a lot of iron ore miners, nickel producers and gas companies like Woodside. I have seen her give addresses to two oil and gas conferences now, the Society of Petroleum Engineers conference, and also the 2023 APIA conference.

Audio Excerpt - Madeleine King at APIA:

"It's great to be back here in South Australia as Sam pointed out. As many of you know of course, I'm from the Western Australia. We're not going to argue whether Perth or Adelaide is better we all know they’re two great cities."

ROYCE:

And both times, she comes out pretty gung ho about the future of the oil and gas sector, the importance of gas as a transition fuel.

Audio Excerpt - Madeleine King at APIA:

"But very importantly, in both of our states, openly acknowledge the critical role to play in the energy transition."

ROYCE:

Madeleine King is very convinced that oil and gas has a role to play in that transition, despite the role of burning petroleum, burning gas in driving climate change.

Audio Excerpt - Madeleine King at APIA:

"What I’ve got behind me which might upset some of the people that are using petrochemicals to glue themselves to the footpath outside."

ROYCE:

She is on the labor right, which sets her at odds with Tanya Plibersek, who is a representative on the labor left who is a very successful figure within the Labour Party in her own right and she is seen by some to be potential leadership material. So from the outside, based on the limited information that's available, because again no one's talking frankly about what went on here, where it looks like there's a bit of a power play between the resource portfolio and the environment portfolio.

CHEYNE:

Yeah. So seeing as there is a transfer of some powers here from Tanya Plibersek to Madeleine King. Does that create tension between the two ministers?

ROYCE:

Well it's unclear what the relationship is as Minister King and Minister Plibersek at this stage are doing their best to ensure that there is no public perception of disunity or disagreement within their portfolios. Labour, because they are facing an election next year, they are making a determined show to show unity. And so this means that if there are simmering tensions between both ministers, they're making a very good show of not showing anyone. So there is, historically speaking, always been a tension between the resources and industry portfolios and the environment portfolios. This goes all the way back to the governments of Bob Hawke and Paul Keating.

Audio Excerpt - 1989 Climate Advertisement:

"Our world is changing like never before in history. Now the greenhouse effect threatens to wipeout our entire species. And it won’t only effect animals, but people. People like you and me and the generations to come."

ROYCE:

You see in records that have been released on the disclosure laws that after a period of time, cabinet documents that show even in 1989, 1990, when the Hawke government was first mulling over whether it might do something about climate change. You see the industry portfolios immediately pushing back

Audio Excerpt - 1992 Climate Advertisement:

"Mum, look what’s on telly. There wouldn’t be much left in the kitchen, or even have energy to rely on."

ROYCE:

You see this again around 1995, when Paul Keating was talking about introducing a carbon tax for the first time, his efforts to do so were immediately opposed by industry and reflected through the industry department. This is a consistent theme within Australian governments in Australian politics that we're still potentially seeing play through today. With instances like this one, it's hard not to escape the conclusion that this is a power grab.

CHEYNE:

And Royce, this is a major change. The government didn't hold consultations about it, they didn't talk about it with the public. What do you think their approach to this bill tells us about how Labor thinks about scrutiny over their environmental record?

ROYCE:

I think what this tells us is that there are two different factions within the Labour Party that are having two very different conversations about climate change and the environment.

On the one hand, you have this group of people that want to do something about issues like climate change, issues like the environment. On the other hand, you have a group in the Labour Party that appear to be scared, nervous, worried that they may not win the next election.and they don't want to do anything that might upset anyone. Particularly powerful industry players with billions of dollars at disposal to run campaigns against them that may hurt their election chances. And so you see within this in a moment that calls for action. You have a group in the Labour Party that appear to be hesitating, who don't fully appreciate the situation we are in collectively, and who are more interested in the needs of industry than they are of the Australian people more broadly.

The idea of a bill being introduced without no notice, without no consultation, without no foresight, being dropped in Parliament. All of a sudden buried in a bill that's otherwise about workers rights that would allow the minister to essentially rewrite the rules as they see fit. At some point, that is the primary concern of these organisations. Where it goes from here remains unclear.

But the potential for it to be carved out into a separate piece of legislation is possible, and everyone's kind of watching nervously to see what happens. Because essentially, with the support of the coalition, Labor could force this through and it would be law. And then the future remains unwritten.

CHEYNE:

Royce, thanks for your time.

ROYCE:

Thank you.

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CHEYNE:

Also in the news today…

The first air-drops of food have been made by the US, Egyptian and Jordanian airforces over Gaza.

With Israel still refusing to allow aid via its land borders, Egypt’s single border crossing severely limited, and some 550,000 people on the brink of famine, air drops are becoming one of the only ways to get food into the territory.

And both the Labor and Liberal parties are claiming positives in the aftermath of the Dunkley by-election.

The Liberal party received a swing of more than 3%, well-short of the 6.3% needed to win the seat, but also short of the average swing that oppositions historically score in by-elections.

I’m Cheyne Anderson, thanks for listening. Ange McCormack will be back tomorrow.

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