SCOTT LEVI, PRESENTER: Federal Member for Shortland who straddles a bit of the Central Coast as well Pat Conroy joins us on the line to talk about what went down in Federal Parliament. Good morning.
PAT CONROY, MEMBER FOR SHORTLAND: Good morning, how are you?
LEVI: Yeah, going well. We heard some fairly passionate pleas from our local member Emma McBride there and pointing the finger across the floor at another local member. What happened?
CONROY: So what happened was Zali Steggall and I moved a motion to suspend Standing Orders in Parliament to bring the Bill on. We need to bring the Bill on so we can have a debate and then have a vote to kill PEP-11 once and for all. And disgracefully, the entire Government including Lucy Wicks voted against that motion. So they wouldn’t even let us debate the Bill to stop PEP-11, let alone vote on the Bill to kill PEP-11, and it just demonstrates what utter hypocrites they are on this issue. They say one thing in Gosford and do another thing in Canberra.
LEVI: But when the Prime Minister who is Mr Pitt’s boss and calls the shots says that it’s not going to happen, isn’t it dead and buried?
CONROY: Oh absolutely not. Minister Pitt has been sitting on this for 251 days. While he’s been refusing to make a decision, Advent Energy has been going ahead and buying the equipment they need to start the oil and gas drilling, so they obviously think they are going to get the licence.
And if Mr Morrison and Ms Wicks really wanted to kill this project, they could have voted against it in Parliament yesterday. Instead they voted for the project, and I think the only rational explanation is that Keith Pitt is waiting until after the election to quietly approve the project. He knows that if he approves it before the election the community outrage will be massive. So he’s just sitting on his hands while Advent Energy go along and do their buying of equipment, and then he will quietly approve it after the election. Otherwise it would be dead now. Mr Morrison and Ms Wicks would have voted to kill it yesterday in Parliament.
LEVI: But is there any reason why they might let the exploration licence run its course? Maybe, you know, they’ve paid for that licence. If that time finishes, then they’ll kibosh the whole operation?
CONROY: Well the licence has run its course. It expired on the 12th February, and that’s why it’s been 251 days with the new licence on the desk of Mr Pitt. What Advent Energy are operating under is an interim licence which means they can go ahead and do more activities, but the licence has expired. It literally just requires one signature from Mr Pitt to kill this project once and for all, and the Government keep refusing to do that and it’s just offensive quite frankly given how strongly the community opposition is to this project.
LEVI: We spoke to the company a couple of weeks back in Western Australia, and as far as they’re concerned it’s business as usual. They’re even exploring carbon capture in the hole that they drill offshore and it’s over the horizon they say and it won’t be seen from the coast. They’re saying that with a growing population, you know, that we need the gas. It’s unrealistic not to keep the door open to offshore drilling for gas and oil. They say that it’s been happening for years in Bass Strait, that, you know, it’s not a problem and as far as they’re concerned, it could also be a way to reduce CO2 by sequestering carbon under the ocean floor.
CONROY: Well they’re wrong. The closest points to this gas area is five kilometres off our coast. At five kilometres, you will see the oil and gas drilling rigs. Secondly, if something goes wrong heaven forbid, it doesn’t matter how far out it is. It will wash on to our beaches and destroy our beaches and destroy the tens of thousands of jobs in hospitality, tourism, and recreational and commercial fishing that rely upon our pristine coastline.
And this is the wrong project in the wrong place. I’m not anti-gas, but this is the wrong place for it. We should be investing in renewable energy which is cheaper than gas, firmed up with pumped hydro and batteries. That is the long-term energy solution for this country. This project is bad for the environment, it’s bad for local jobs, and Mr Morrison and Ms Wicks could have killed it if they voted with the Independents and Labor yesterday.
LEVI: The Prime Minister has said it’s not going to go ahead, don’t worry about it. What’s the problem? I mean, surely you’ve got to take the word of the Prime Minister on that? He can’t, surely go to an election and let it happen when he said it’s not going to happen? I mean, that would be one of the biggest lies, the biggest backflips in history?
CONROY: Well I don’t expect anyone to take any politician’s word for it including mine. You should judge politicians on their actions. This Government has two ways of killing this project. Minister Pitt can kill it with a signature on a piece of paper. He hasn’t done so for the last 251 days since the licence expired. So they haven’t done the simplest course. The second way they can kill the project is by voting against it in Parliament which they did not do yesterday. They voted for PEP-11 in Parliament.
So don’t trust my words or Mr Morrison’s words or Ms Wicks’ words. Trust our actions. And Mr Morrison and Ms Wicks and the entire Liberal Party voted to keep PEP-11 alive yesterday in Parliament when they could have killed it stone-dead immediately. That’s why I am so angry.
LEVI: Pat Conroy, thanks for joining us.
CONROY: Have a good day, bye.