Parliamentary Committees

Natural Resources Committee: Unconventional Gas (Fracking)

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS (16:03): I move:

That the interim report of the committee, on its Inquiry into Unconventional Gas (Fracking), be noted.

The Natural Resources Committee's Inquiry into Unconventional Gas (Fracking) was referred by the Legislative Council to the committee on 19 November 2014, so we are almost to the birthday. That was done on the motion of the Hon. M.C. Parnell MLC, as amended by the Hon. T.A. Franks MLC, pursuant to section 16(1)(a) of the Parliamentary Committees Act 1991. The terms of reference for the inquiry included inquiring into potential risks and impacts in the use of hydraulic fracture stimulation (fracking) to produce gas in the South-East of South Australia and, in particular:

1. the risks of groundwater contamination;

2. the impacts upon landscape;

3. the effectiveness of existing legislation and regulation; and

4. the potential net economic outcomes to the region and the rest of the state.

Since the inquiry was advertised in November 2014, more than 175 separate submissions have been received, and evidence has been taken from 48 witnesses at 14 public hearings held both in Adelaide and the South-East of South Australia. Much of the evidence received has been of a very high quality and has been important to the committee in drafting both this interim report and commencing the development of its ultimate recommendations, which will come out in the final report next year.

In February 2015, the committee made a fact-finding visit to Millicent in the South-East of South Australia to take evidence from local communities and visit sites relevant to the inquiry. A further fact-finding visit was made to the Darling Downs region of Queensland to meet with community representatives who had experienced the recent rapid development of the gas industry 'build phase' in their region and to view and discuss the many associated impacts. I think, on behalf of all of the committee members who attended at that visit, I can say that we were very grateful for the time and the experiences relayed to us by the people we met in the towns of Dalby, Chinchilla and Roma in those few days.

The Queensland visit was particularly useful in providing members with insight into what unconventional gas development looks like in an established agricultural and residential region, albeit one larger than South Australia's South-East. While it had been emphasised repeatedly during the inquiry that fracking has been occurring in South Australia's Cooper Basin for several decades, it was obvious to the committee that there are a number of significant differences between existing gas development in the Cooper Basin's sparsely populated arid zone and potential gas developments in the more densely populated and much wetter South-East region.

One sentiment expressed by a number of people with whom we met in Queensland was that they were impressed that the parliament of South Australia was doing an inquiry into unconventional gas development before any production had occurred, suggesting that this would have been beneficial in Queensland rather than waiting until mid and post development to try to understand and mitigate the impacts.

As a personal comment, I suppose I would say that the reason we are doing this inquiry is that we have an upper house in South Australia and they do not in Queensland. Unfortunately, in many cases in that state, whether it be the Labor party in power or the conservative grouping, the lack of an upper house has meant that a lot of these inquiries do not occur, so I think we should take that as a great strength of this house.

The committee returned to the South-East in September 2015 for well-attended hearings at the chambers of the District Council of Robe and also to view the site of the Jolly-1 exploration well, which has been a point of some contention in the region.

The committee appreciates the strong public interest in this inquiry and the considerable efforts made by witnesses to attend hearings and present evidence. We understand that there remain some knowledge gaps in the information we have received thus far, and the committee will be seeking out relevant expertise to address these gaps. Our members look forward to continuing their work on the unconventional gas inquiry into the new year and to delivering the final report in 2016.

I wish to thank all those who have given their time to assist the committee with this inquiry. I also commend the members of the committee: the Presiding Member, the Hon. Steph Key, Mr Jon Gee MP, Mr Chris Picton MP, Mr Peter Treloar MP, the Hon. Robert Brokenshire MLC, and the Hon. Gerry Kandelaars MLC, for their contributions to this report. I can say that, in the tradition of the Natural Resources Committee, and committees chaired by the Hon. Steph Key, that work has been effected in a very cooperative manner.

I would also like to extend thanks to the member for Mount Gambier, Mr Troy Bell MP, the Hon. John Darley MLC, and the Hon. Mark Parnell MLC, the member for Hammond, in another place, Mr Adrian Pederick MP, and the member for MacKillop, Mr Mitch Williams MP, for their assistance with an interest in the inquiry. I also give my sincere thanks to the Research Officer, Barbara Coddington, and the Executive Officer, Patrick Dupont, for their assistance. I commend this report to the house.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. J.M. Gazzola.