The Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Legislation Amendment (Safety and Other Measures) Bill 2024 (the Bill) proposes amendments to the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006 (OPGGS Act).

The Biodiversity Council submits that the EPBC Deeming Part should be omitted from the bill for several reasons. First, the policy behind the Part is wrong in principle because it would override, indefinitely, an important environmental protection in the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). Second, the Part is inconsistent with the Government’s wider environment policy, as set out in its Nature Positive Plan.1 Finally, the Part takes an objectionable approach to legislation, because it buries a de facto ‘carving out’ of the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage regime from the EPBC Act under an obtusely-worded deeming provision in another Act. We deal with these points below, after describing the legislative context.