NOPSEMA attendance at parliamentary event in South Australia

Recent media reporting has highlighted NOPSEMA's attendance at a South Australian Parliamentary event relevant to the safe and environmentally responsible regulation of energy activities offshore South Australia. In the interests of transparency, NOPSEMA provides the following information on the event and our participation

On 19 March 2019 NOPSEMA will be presenting on safe and environmentally responsible management of offshore energy projects at the 'Friends of the Resource Sector Forum' hosted by the South Australian Parliament.

Greenpeace has recently written to NOPSEMA enquiring into the nature of NOPSEMA's involvement in the event. The following is an extract from the correspondence NOPSEMA has provided to Greenpeace in reply to their enquiry.

“NOPSEMA was invited to participate in the Forum by the South Australian Minister for Energy and Mining to ensure the Parliament is aware of the role performed by NOPSEMA as the independent regulator for offshore oil and gas activities in Australian Commonwealth Waters. The bipartisan event is being funded by the South Australian Parliament and jointly facilitated by the Minister and the Shadow Minister for Energy and Mining for the benefit of the invited parliamentarians. NOPSEMA has a statutory function to promote and advise stakeholders on its regulatory responsibilities and takes this function very seriously. In addition to providing regular briefings to parliamentarians across the political spectrum and at all levels of government, NOPSEMA actively engages with a broad range of stakeholders. In 2018, for example, NOPSEMA took part in 785 liaison activities ranging from community open days to face to face briefings with stakeholders including environmental Non-Government Organisations.” 

In all engagements, NOPSEMA seeks to promote the benefits that independent, expertise based regulation provides to all stakeholders in achieving robust safety and environmental management outcomes through evidence based decision making.

NOPSEMA accepts a wide range of invitations from stakeholders to speak on the regulatory regime, and while in Adelaide NOPSEMA will also be meeting with representatives of an environmental conservation organisation that has an active interest in activities in the Great Australian Bight. 

For transparency, NOPSEMA posts the content of its presentations to our website. This practice will apply for the event with parliamentarians on 19 March.

Categories:

• environmental management