Gas Industry Workers

In reply to the Hon. M.C. PARNELL (4 September 2018).

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment):

Since 1 July 2018, work health and safety has been the responsibility of the Treasurer and I have been advised that:

In South Australia, all persons conducting a business or undertaking (PCBUs) are legally required under work health and safety legislation to provide a safe and secure workplace, including site monitoring for atmospheric contaminants and the management and control of risks to the health and safety of workers. Exposure of workers cannot exceed legislated workplace exposure standards for airborne contaminants. A range of environmental and personal monitoring systems must be in place to meet this duty.

There are considerable differences between the Leigh Creek Gasification Plant and the Queensland underground coal gasification project undertaken by Linc Energy, referred to by the honourable member. The main difference being; the shallow depth of the Queensland operations with a drilling depth of only 120 metres, versus Leigh Creek with a drilling depth of 500 metres; and its proximity to water aquifers, with none in the area of operation of Leigh Creek, as well as robust geographical containment features in Leigh Creek.

Since December 2017, SafeWork SA has recorded a number of proactive worksite visits and compliance audits at the Leigh Creek site. SafeWork SA inspectors have focused their discussions on designs to eliminate or minimise health risks or mitigating the gas exposure risk by adherence to higher order controls; in this case the use of engineering containment controls to negate the risks of harmful exposures to hazardous chemicals.

It is also important to note that there is combined regulatory oversight of the Leigh Creek site, including the Petroleum and Geothermal Energy Act 2000, Environmental Protection Act 1993as well as the Work Health and Safety Act 2012. This involves the Department for Energy and Mining as overall lead agency, with support on environmental safety provided by the Environment Protection Authority and workplace and worker safety by SafeWork SA.