Coal seam gas projects worth almost $50 billion are under fresh scrutiny, after allegations of rushed, incomplete approval processes that sidelined possible environmental impacts.
Efforts will resume this week in a Senate committee to make public documents and comments by a Queensland whistleblower.
Senator Glenn Lazarus of the Palmer United Party and Greens Senator Larissa Waters plan to press fellow members of the Senate inquiry into Queensland Government Administration to lift a gag imposed on evidence presented by former state bureaucrat Simone Marsh.
Ms Marsh was told only minutes prior to appearing at a hearing last November in Brisbane that her comments would be taken “in camera”. While her submission to the inquiry has been posted online by the committee, some of the documents – including an email obtained under Queensland’s Right to Information law detailing the approval rush – have been redacted.
Among the suppressed documents is a draft letter dated 31 March, 2010, from a senior government official to the head of one of the project developers, Santos.
A fragment of the letter – made public for the first time in Ms Marsh’s submission – reveals that Colin Jensen, then head of the state’s Coordinator-General set up to streamline major projects warned Santos that the absence of key information meant most of the project could not be approved. Missing elements included “operational plans” for the location of CSG wells and pipelines, and how it would accord with environmental protection laws.
“It would appear that there is only sufficient information for an assessment of the transmission pipeline and one train of the LNG facility,” Mr Jensen’s letter said.
Despite the absence of basic details of the project, now worth some $24 billion, it was approved less than two months later, with government officials having to draw up much of the detail themselves, Ms Marsh told Fairfax Media.
A second project, the $US20 billion QGC LNG project controlled by UK-based BG Group, was approved soon after, also with little independent oversight, Ms Marsh said.
“There are many people being negatively impacted by CSG activities, and in my view, they have a right to know how these impacts came about,” said Ms Marsh, who resigned from her government role on June 23, 2010, the day of the QGC approval.
The companies state on their websites that their projects are fully compliant, with BG Group noting the environmental assessment of its QCLNG Project “took more than two years, involved more than 4000 meetings, briefings and presentations across interest groups, and resulted in a 12,000-page report”.
Senator Lazarus, chair of the five-member committee, said he will ask for Ms Marsh’s evidence to be made public: “I am determined to ensure the Senate Inquiry into the [Campbell] Newman Government gives all Queenslanders the opportunity to share their concerns and for their information or evidence to be made publicly available”.
Senator Waters said she had amended the terms of reference of the inquiry to include CSG approvals under the previous Labor government of Anna Bligh, with “Ms Marsh’s whistle-blowing in mind specifically”.
“It’s vital that Ms Marsh’s important evidence is made public, especially with the rush of coal and gas expansion across the country, and with this being a key issue in the NSW election,” Senator Waters said.
The committee is due to hand down its report on March 27, the day before the NSW poll.
The sole Coalition member, Ian Macdonald, said the committee “had been a farce from day one”, and was aimed at embarrassing the Newman government – which lost power in January.
Senator Macdonald said Ms Marsh’s evidence had been withheld because it made “substantial allegations” against public servants, lawyers and other people. “If things are made public, all of them will of necessity be entitled to come forward to clear their names,” he said.
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With Amanda Hooton