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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-03-25 Daily Xml
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Oil and Gas Sector

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (14:49): My question is again to the Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy. Can the minister explain why a strictly confidential internal departmental assessment was made and a draft letter approving a variation to Ambassador Exploration's work plan for PEL570 was sent to Ambassador's managing director before Ambassador had made an application for the variation? An email which was sent to Mr Barry Goldstein, who the minister referred to before, on 1 February 2013, one week before Ambassador lodged their application for variation to their work plan, says, and I quote:

When you came to me on Friday last week, in strict confidence I was asked to score the proposed work programme using the bid assessment score sheet with published criteria…

Staff member—and I will leave that person's name out—

was not available and you needed an answer that evening. The work programme was scored as per the standard methodology.

Can the minister explain why that work was done, assessing the application before the application is lodged?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy, Minister for Small Business) (14:50): I will have to get a detailed answer from the department, but I can only assume it is in a bid to reduce red tape.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: So, I don't know why that occurred, but I suspect that's probably what it is. I think the mocking from members opposite of our hardworking and diligent public officials, who administer our petroleum exploration licenses—

Mr Marshall: Do you support that?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Do I support reducing red tape? Yes, I do.

Mr Marshall: No, you don't.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I note in the Leader of the Opposition's interjections that no, we don't. We do support reducing red tape, and we can do things to try to speed up the processes. If the Leader of the Opposition just says we've circumvented processes, I would ask him to provide evidence. Without having the details in front of me, I can only speculate. Let me give a hypothetical situation about another matter. Perhaps, for example, there is someone who's got a work program and is in constant contact with the regulator and, I don't know, financing is coming to a close and they need to drill a hole, and the application is all in order but the paperwork hasn't been filled out. Is the opposition really asking us to tell people to delay? Let's wait and have a look first at what the answer is before we assume that the Leader of the Opposition's privileged remarks here in the parliament turn out to be fact or fiction.

The SPEAKER: The member for Mitchell and the leader are called to order. The deputy leader and the member for Heysen are warned a first time and the member for Adelaide and the deputy leader are warned a second and final time. The member for Schubert.

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