Offshore Electricity Infrastructure Legislation Amendment Bill 2022

The majority voted in favour of disagreeing with the following amendment:

That the amendment moved by the honourable member for Fairfax be disagreed to:

(1) Schedule 2, item 7, page 13 (lines 10 and 11), omit the item.

In other words, they were in favour of keeping item 7 of Schedule 2 in the bill.

Text of item 7, Schedule 2

7 Paragraphs 117(3)(a) and (3)(c) and (4)(d)

Omit “the Regulator”, substitute “the Minister”.

What does item 7 of Schedule 2 do?

According to the bills digest:

Item 7 inserts ‘the Minister’ in place of ‘the Regulator’ as the decision maker in terms of the form of financial security any licence holder must provide (paragraph 117(3)(a)), when the financial security is no longer required (paragraph 117(3)(c)) and the circumstances under which a reduced financial security can be accepted (paragraph 117(4)(d)). As set out in the Explanatory Memorandum to the Bill:

Given that financial security must be provided to and is held by the Commonwealth, and can only be recovered by the Commonwealth [section 119 of the Offshore Electricity Infrastructure Act 2021 (OEI Act)] it is more appropriate that the Commonwealth (rather than the Regulator [National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA)], which as a corporate Commonwealth entity is not formally part of the Commonwealth) has the power to make decisions in relation to financial security… The Minister still retains the discretion to delegate any of their powers under item 7 to the CEO of the Regulator under paragraph 303(1)(a) of the OEI Act.