The report of the Independent Review of the PTTEP Montara Action Plan makes some very strong statements on the significant and sweeping changes in governance and oil field practice that PTTEP needs to make to reach the kind of safety and risk management standards the community expects of it if it is to operate in Australian waters.

These statements reinforce the findings of the Montara Commission of Inquiry – which found conclusively that the widespread and systematic shortcomings in PTTEPs governance and procedures were a direct cause of the Montara disaster.

The report suggests that if PTTEP complies precisely with the Montara Action Plan then it can meet industry best practice standards in all of its Australasian operations. It also concludes that the success of this program of cultural and practice change ‘will depend entirely on the quality of its execution’.

To this end we believe that it is absolutely crucial that the Australian Government undertake intensive and comprehensive monitoring of PTTEP’s compliance with the Action Plan in all its Australian operations and report publicly on this compliance.




I have significant reservations about PTTEP being allowed to continue to operate in Australian waters, given the findings of the Montara inquiry. I will be seeking more information from the Government as to how compliance with the action plan will be monitored and keeping a close eye on progress reporting through the mechanisms of the Parliament.

We note that the independent review concludes that until the action plan is completed and fully implemented, questions remain about whether PTTEP will be effective in meeting industry standards for good governance and good oilfield practice.

This means that the action plan must be completed before it is operating at the kind of standard the Australian community rightfully expects in return for our shared oil and gas resources.

This is why the report stresses that ongoing governmental oversight will be crucial to ensure PTTEP’s compliance with the action plan (over 18 months).

We believe that until PTTEP has fully complied with and completed the Action Plan and demonstrably achieved industry best practice in governance and oil field practice it should not be granted any additional licenses to establish any new operations in Australian waters.

The Independent Review also makes a number of important recommendations concerning the offshore petroleum industry as a whole.

One message that came through to me during the Montara disaster and the subsequent inquiry was that PTTEP were unlikely to be the only offshore operator who were cutting corners on good governance on environmental risk and worker safety, that there had been a number of other ‘near misses’ in the past, and that stronger regulation to achieve better governance and oilfield practices was required right across the industry.

To this end we will continue to both work with and put pressure on the government to  ensure that we do put in place a world-class regulatory regime to ensure that ALL companies operating off our shores comply with the highest standards of safety and risk management.

We believe that significant cultural change is required across the offshore oil and gas industry to ensure that the safety of workers and our precious environment is put ahead of all other considerations.

A short sighted price war, or purposeful manipulation the dairy industry? You decide, but one thing for sure is that regardless of Coles and Woolworths' assurances of absorbing the costs of slashed- price milk, the farmers will eventually suffer.
Dairy farmers are right to be sceptical about a promise from the duopoly. For example, more than a year has passed since both Coles and Woolworths promised they would end restrictive covenants aimed at preventing competitors opening stores close to their own, yet in 2011 many of the covenants remain.
With this in mind, how are we to trust their word? How are we to believe they are about to place the welfare of dairy farmers above their single bottom line when they have not acted in this way previously?
Despite the duopoly's frequent spotlight on rolling back prices, it is worth noting that bargains generally buck the trend because Coles and Woolworths' grocery prices have risen 41 percent since 2000; that's eight percent more than the OECD average.
With this in mind I am joining other parliamentarians in supporting a call from the Australian Dairy Farmers for an ACCC inquiry into the action of Coles and Woolworths.
It is impossible to believe these $100 billion giants of retail would be so naïve as to consider such a price cut as anything but damaging to all dairy farmers, regardless of which processor they are contracted to.
Pura and Betta will invariably be pressured by customer demand to reduce their prices in line with those offered by the supermarkets, and these processors have offered no such promise of absorbing the costs. They will pass them on to farmers.
It was only a year ago when dairy farmers contracted to National Foods were being forced to sell their milk at below the cost of production. Matters have only marginally improved since then, and such a predatory pricing tactic could certainly see a return to financial strife and more farmers leaving the industry.
This is all about increasing market share of unbranded product, forcing consumer prices down and dairy farmers to the wall.
The ACCC must recognise this and show some backbone in their inquiry. They failed our farmers in 2008 when a similar inquiry backed the giants
Twenty three cents out of every dollar spent in Australia goes to Coles and Woolworths, it is time they recognised that it is not only consumers but also producers who keep them in business.

“No Australian official ever saw Mr Habib in Egypt,” the Australian government says. What do you think?

Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown, speaking in the Senate, last week asked the Government if it was aware of Egypt’s General Omar Suleiman’s reputation as a torturer and a murderer. He also asked whether the Australian Government or members of its intelligence service had met General Suleiman and whether there was involvement in the illegal detention of Australian Mr Mamdouh Habib in Egypt.

In the Senate, the next day, Senator Conroy replied:

“In his question, he asked : Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. It is known by the government that Mr Habib was detained in Egypt. Has any member of the government or its intelligence services met Mr Suleiman? Were they involved in the detention and torture of Mr Habib in Egypt?”

“I can now furnish further information: Mr Habib’s allegations are not new. In 2005 the Australian Government asked Egypt to investigate Mr Habib’s claims of mistreatment.”

“The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has advised that during 2001-2002 Department officials made several attempts at senior levels to confirm Mr Habib’s detention in Egypt and to obtain consular access.”

“Egypt never confirmed that Mr Habib was in custody and consular access was never granted. No Australian official ever saw Mr Habib in Egypt,” Senator Conroy said.

“Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade officials have met Mr Suleiman, in particular in his capacity as a lead negotiator on Middle East peace process issues.”

Today, The Age reveals that an Egyptian intelligence officer has supported Mr Habib's claims that Australian officials watched as he was tortured in Egypt.

Mr Habib was detained in Afghanistan in 2001 and he says he was repeatedly tortured in Egypt before being sent to the US detention centre in Guantanamo Bay.

He was released in 2005 without charge and returned to Australia.

Last week was a low point in our nation's politics.

On one hand, we had the opposition quibbling over the cost of funerals for the victims of the Christmas Island boat tragedy. On the other, we had the government stubbornly refusing to relocate the survivors to the mainland, citing bureaucratic process over common sense and compassion.

Caught in the middle were those vulnerable people who came to our country seeking our protection and support.

If tragedy puts leadership to the ultimate test, both sides have failed miserably. Sadly this episode has exposed the ugliest aspects of our politics.While most Australians would have been thinking of how to extend the hand of compassion to those who have suffered so much, there are others who have sought to score political points.

For instance, the decision of opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison to start a row about costs on the day of the funerals for the survivors took politics to a new low. His comments were not only grossly insensitive, but they actively sought to foment community resentment against a group of people who have experienced profound human suffering.

Following widespread community outrage, Mr Morrison later acknowledged his comments were insensitive and the wrong time and place. What he and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott fail to recognise is there is no time and place for this kind of gutter politics. Saying sorry after deliberately fanning the flames of racial prejudice simply doesn't cut it.

Sadly, the government also failed to show moral leadership. Immigration Minister Chris Bowen was right to allow the survivors of this tragedy to fly to Sydney so the funerals could be held closer to family. But, his insistence that they return to Christmas Island (the very place where they lost their loved ones) less than 48 hours after the funerals was stubborn and failed any common-sense test.

When this boat tragedy first occurred, I called on the government to allow the survivors to be relocated to the mainland, so they could be closer to family and key support services. This was particularly true of the young Iranian boy who lost both his parents and other children who were orphaned.I welcome the Minister's decision to allow this boy to be brought to Sydney to be with family, but I can't fathom why Mr Bowen didn't make this call to begin with. Instead this poor child was flown half-way around the country, to Christmas Island and back.

The Minister insisted that his position was based on the ‘‘best advice'' given to him. Yet we know that at least one of his key advisers, Professor Louise Newman (head of the government's Health Advisory Panel on Immigration) said the boy should not be kept on Christmas Island.

Despite this advice, the Minister took action only after realising he'd misread the public mood. It's sad to think that politics could get in the way of the welfare of a vulnerable child and the Minister needs to make a similar ruling on the other survivors.

Following last week, neither side of politics has much to be proud of.

Now all political leaders should draw a line in the sand. Rather than fanning the flames of division, we should be celebrating compassion as a shared Australian value. If we abandon it in pursuit of cheap headlines, then we become all the poorer for it. I hope that when we come to reflect on the politics of 2011, last week is the exception, rather than the rule.

This blog was first published on the National Times on Tuesday, 22nd February 2011.

Greens Leader Bob Brown discusses the carbon tax, mining tax and constitutional issues with Paul Bongiorno on Meet the Press.

Click the more link for the transcript.

PAUL BONGIORNO, PRESENTER: Hello and welcome to Meet The Press. Nature, the destroyer, made another unwanted appearance in 2011. New Zealand's deadly earthquake dominated the week, dwarfing the concerns of Canberra. As with our own natural disasters, the scale of destruction and human suffering in Christchurch was a powerful unifier in the normally fiercely combative forum of parliament.

JULIA GILLARD, PRIME MINISTER (TUESDAY): Today our family is suffering a very devastating blow. I am sure many Australians, like me, have watched the images on TV today and they have been truly shocking.

TONY ABBOTT, OPPOSITION LEADER (TUESDAY): The bonds of love stretch tight and close across the Tasman. Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of New Zealand at this time.

PAUL BONGIORNO: But the harmony did not linger long, with the flood levy passing the house by the narrowest of margins and now running the gauntlet of the Senate. On Thursday, the Prime Minister announced a controversial carbon tax by July next year - something she promised wouldn't happen.

JULIA GILLARD (16 AUGUST 2010): There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.

TONY ABBOTT: How can she possibly justify today's betrayal?

JULIA GILLARD: The Australian people have voted for change. They voted for a carbon price.

TONY ABBOTT: Since when does one vote trump 149 votes, unless the real Prime Minister of this country is Senator Bob Brown?

PAUL BONGIORNO: The Leader of the Greens, Bob Brown, is a guest … But first what the nation's papers are reporting this Sunday, February 27. The ‘Sunday Age’ has “Christchurch shut for months”. A third of its buildings in the city centre will be demolished as rescue crews continue the painstaking task of searching for more than 200 missing people. The ‘Sunday Mail’ reports “petrol freeze mooted to offset carbon tax”. Petrol prices could be frozen under a cent for cent excise cut. The Gillard government will consider to limit the early impact of the carbon tax. The ‘Sun Herald’ leads with “Gaddafi slaughter”. His own ambassador to the United Nations has likened Muammar Gaddafi to Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot as dramatic amateur video shows injured demonstrators being taken to hospital. The ‘Sunday Telegraph’ carries the story, “Hawke says Combet should be next Prime Minister”. The paper says the former prime minister has been caught out speculating about the Labor leadership. And welcome back to the program Bob Brown. Good morning, Senator.

SENATOR BOB BROWN, GREENS LEADER: Good morning. How are you, Paul?

PAUL BONGIORNO: Well, we know from the election campaign Julia Gillard did talk of a carbon price and an ETS by 2012. It was the Greens who were talking about a temporary carbon tax. Are you responsible for making her a break her promise?

SENATOR BOB BROWN: Well, the people of Australia voted for a minority government. I might add here that in talking with Tony Abbott in the wake of the election, he said he would be prepared to negotiate on anything, in terms of reaching government. We were successful in striking a compact with Labor, with Julia Gillard. She now is acknowledging that compact in the wake of the vote of the Australian people who want action on climate change. That is what we are working hard to achieve.

PAUL BONGIORNO: Can I pick you up on that. In your talks with Tony Abbott as both leaders were trying to form government, did he keep on the table an ETS or a carbon price?

SENATOR BOB BROWN: No, he did not. But he did comment that he was prepared to negotiate on anything, in terms of achieving government. That obviously included the potential for negotiations on climate change, but we did not get to specifics like that. This was a historic election outcome with a minority government, negotiating with a number of independents as well as the Greens, and one of the upshots of that, regardless of what Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott committed to during the election outcome, was the insistence that in forming government, we take action on climate change and the Prime Minister, to give her her due, has not only agree to that, but she is following through. The result is going to be a very good one for Australia.

PAUL BONGIORNO: There’s discussion in the papers this morning that the Greens would insist that transport, that petrol be kept in, and there is now talk that maybe the Gillard government will offset some of that pain. Are the Greens sympathetic to compensation for any carbon tax that is introduced?

SENATOR BOB BROWN: Well, absolutely. Our job is to ensure that the average Australian householder and car user is not punished by a carbon price. The idea here is to make the polluters pay. The big corporate polluters, who are threatening this country's economy and jobs with dangerous climate change. That has to be underscored, all the way down the line, Paul, that no action on climate change is going to be very destructive of the economy, and I might add, that Tony Abbott's alternative prescription is to leave the polluting companies, the cause of the pollution alone, but to take $3.5 billion over forward estimates away from the Australian people services. When you look at that, that is the equivalent of 10,000 jobs. People like nurses and teachers in this country. That is a prescription that we will not be taking up. What we want to do is to see through a proper carbon pricing system, as is the experience over seven years in Germany, where they created 330,000 new jobs, we want to be following that positive path rather than cutting jobs as Tony Abbott would have it.

PAUL BONGIORNO: Tony Abbott says Julia Gillard has breached the trust of the electorate as we mentioned but he made his prediction.

TONY ABBOTT (THURSDAY): We will fight this tax every second of every minute of every day of every week, of every month. I think there will be a people's revolt against this carbon tax. I do not believe it will ever happen.

PAUL BONGIORNO: Senator Brown, are you on the wrong side of this people's revolution?

SENATOR BOB BROWN: Well, it is a pretty poor revolt that Tony Abbott is engendering here. I think the Australian people are smarter than he is. They are not going to be patronised like that. They want action on climate change. But they want the action to be reasonable. That is exactly what this climate committee is doing while Tony Abbott is tub-thumping and I think it is not going to wash with the Australian people.

PAUL BONGIORNO: The climate committee does seem to find it hard to agree. There are reports it has had four meetings and the only thing it can agree on is a framework that Tony Windsor in a press release on Friday said there is still no carbon tax. There is no agreement on a carbon tax at this point in time.

SENATOR BOB BROWN: We have agreed on a framework which would move us to a carbon price, through a carbon tax and then onto a carbon trading system, which everybody seems to agree on. No, there have been no definitive. We are due to report as the Prime Minister said, by 1st July. One of the things that is happening here, is that the committee, through the government, has announced the framework of now getting to working out what the figures will be in terms of catching up with the polluters. They are compensating households.

PAUL BONGIORNO: Just briefly, are you confident that there will be a carbon tax, that Tony Abbott is wrong?

SENATOR BOB BROWN: I think there will be a carbon tax on the polluters. There will be abundant compensation to low income earners for example who, even under the Kevin Rudd scheme, they were going to end up with more money in their pockets than they would have lost in Australia. It is the big polluting companies of course who have Tony Abbott to thank for saying that he put the impost on average Australians and allow the companies to get away scot free.

PAUL BONGIORNO: Time for a break. When we return with the panel, are Australians being diddled out of billions by the Gillard Government's mining tax compromise? And Tony Abbott let smoke get in his eyes when he came face to face with a carbon-polluting former Prime Minister on Thursday.

BOB HAWKE, FORMER PRIME MINISTER (THURSDAY): I thought I was coming out for a quiet cigar and what happens? (BLEEP) Bloody (inaudible) (LAUGHTER).

SIMON CREAN: You are always capable of that.

TONY ABBOTT: I am the person who is supposed to use scatological language around here.

PAUL BONGIORNO: You're on Meet The Press with Greens Leader, Bob Brown. And welcome to the panel, Eleanor Hall, ABC The World Today and Paul Osborne from AAP. Good morning Eleanor and Paul. Labor will need the Greens to get its mining tax through later this year. April last year saw the mining super profits tax unveiled, creating such a backlash that it helped cost Kevin Rudd his job. Julia Gillard diluted the tax, giving it a new name. Her sobriquet-stitching handiwork - according to Treasury – will cost the revenue a projected $60 billion over 10 years. But the Treasurer is not for turning.

WAYNE SWAN, TREASURER (MEET THE PRESS, 20 FEBRUARY 2011): We reached a fair agreement with the mining companies on the rate. It is very important that we have certainty in this area. It is important that that agreement is honoured.

ELEANOR HALL, ABC THE WORLD TODAY: Senator Brown, the Treasurer says this agreement must be honoured. Do you agree with him?

SENATOR BOB BROWN: Well, I think the Treasurer, along with Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Martin Ferguson backed off to the big three mining companies at the expense of the Australian taxpayer and householder and I don’t accept that. And the latest Treasury figures I question Ken Henry about these inestimates, Senate estimates during the week, are that taxpayers are going to use effectively $100 billion over the next 10 years. That is $10 billion a year in each Budget for the next decade, not available for such things as a National Disability scheme, or $2 billion of that would give us a national dental healthcare scheme or we could have high speed rail. I am not going to, and we Greens are not going to simply give up on that.

ELEANOR HALL: But the Treasurer raised the issue of certainty for this industry. Given at this point that you also looking to impose a carbon price on the mining industry, isn’t certainty a critical issue?

SENATOR BOB BROWN: The carbon price will apply to the coal industry. That is where it effectively is going to end up affecting a resource extraction. But built into the Treasurer's model is a one cent reduction in taxes for all of the miners. So they not only have got a massive reduction in the fair tax they pay on super profits to help this country run, but they’re going to get a tax break as well. I agree with those economists and very senior economists who think that Australia should have a sovereign find out of this massive wealth, which is largely pouring overseas so that this nation is able to provide the schools, the hospitals, public transport and housing that it requires in the coming years when we are not doing so well.

ELEANOR HALL: So you clearly do not agree with the Treasurer. How much pressure are you prepared to put on the government over this?

SENATOR BOB BROWN: The problem for us is Tony Abbott again because he would not collect a dollar off the big companies like BHP who are making tens of billions and exporting large amounts of those profits. The problem there is that if Tony Abbott got together with the Greens, Australians would be $100 billion better off in getting services over the next 10 years. But he is missing in action. He is a man who wants to oppose everything that is put up. But in so doing, he is robbing the Australian people of their right to good services and a more secure future. We will have to argue with the government but we are doing so from the disadvantage of having an opposition which is, if you want to look for a constructive opposition, it is missing in action.

PAUL OSBORNE, AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS: Senator, the carbon price is going to make nuclear power more affordable. Doesn't the carbon tax give more added impetus to the movement within Labor and the Coalition, and indeed internationally, to bring on nuclear power as a clean, green source of power?

SENATOR BOB BROWN: I had Bob Hawke, who we saw just a while ago, lobbying over a nuclear waste dump in WA just a week ago. No, the expense and danger of that is unnecessary. You will remember when John Howard, before the last election, but one, brought up the spectre of 25 nuclear power stations. He dropped it very quickly. It is so unpopular in Australia because those power stations will have to be sited near centres of population, use a great deal of water, which is scarce in our big cities, and it will not be as cheap as renewable energy in this solar blessed country of Australia.

PAUL OSBORNE: In your negotiations with the government, do you risk the possibility, as the Democrats did, falling apart over the GST?

SENATOR BOB BROWN: No. The Democrats supported a pretty unpopular tax. By the way, the GST was a 10% impost on everything.

PAUL OSBORNE: This carbon tax looks quite unpopular as well, doesn’t it?

SENATOR BOB BROWN: But nowhere near the order of that. I think it is much more popular. I think people are recognising, as long as they are looked after. As I had said earlier, households will be. It is the polluters that are going to pay. People see the common sense in that. And remember this, this is the difference with the GST, if we do not act on climate change, there is going to be a 5-20% hit on the national wealth later this century. That means our children or grandchildren are going to have massive costs put up against them, according to Sir Nicholas Stern, who was commissioned to look at this on behalf of the British Government. It is economically responsible that the Greens are trying to ensure to take the management responsibility, as we are doing now along with the Gillard government, something missing from Tony Abbott, to ensure that we do not leave the Australia that economically damaging legacy.

PAUL BONGIORNO: On Monday, the Opposition agreed with the government that the Senate's money bill on youth allowance was unconstitutional. Here is Christopher Pyne.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE, MANAGER FOR OPPOSITION BUSINESS (MONDAY): It is certainly up to the government whether it is presented to the Governor General, but that is a different distinction from whether we can consider it.

PAUL BONGIORNO: The opposition has made the concession that they can have the argument over a Senate money bill, but it is only that. It will not have the force of law. Does that deter you from trying to bring in other money bills originating in the Senate?

SENATOR BOB BROWN: They are not money bills. They are bills that come from standing appropriations which have already been passed by Parliament. The Constitution Section 53 and 54 is very clear on this. The Senate has equal powers with the House of Representatives. What a situation we get into if you follow the logic of Christopher Pyne there, and the Senate were to say, we are not going to pass bills coming up from the house, Private Member's Bills for example. This is uncharted territory and we need some maturity here. I have spoken to cross-benches in the house during the week, and to the government, and there needs to be a new compact between the two houses in the interests of stability to see that decent Private Members' Bills coming from both houses are passed by the upper house if warranted by the interest of Australia of the day. That is what the Constitution wanted. That is what we Greens are going to ensure happens. I am not about to devalue the Senate as the big parties appear to want to do.

PAUL BONGIORNO: Thank you very much for being with us this morning, Bob Brown.

SENATOR BOB BROWN: Thank you, Paul.