Environmentalists fail to deter Norwegian plans to drill The Bight

The environment movement has won bipartisan support for an independent inquiry after protesters failed to win shareholder support to stop Norwegian oil giant Equinor drilling in the Bight.

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The environment movement is celebrating bipartisan support for an independent inquiry into plans to drill for oil in the Great Australian Bight.

Minister for Resources Matt Canavan

Greenpeace spokesman Nathaniel Pelle

The Coalition on Thursday matched Labor’s announcement this week that in government it would implement another layer to the already exhaustive approval process being imposed on Norwegian oil company Equinor.

Minister for Resources Matt Canavan said he would commission an independent audit of the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority’s (NOPSEMA) “current consideration of exploration in the Great Australian Bight’’.

The Coalition review would be done by the nation’s Chief Scientist and Labor’s by the incoming minister for environment and resources.

Greenpeace spokesman Nathaniel Pelle welcomed the bipartisan support for an inquiry but said nothing short of a total ban on drilling would be acceptable.

“It’s an excellent sign that both the Labor and Liberal Party’s are finally recognising that the risk to The Bight is real and of exceptional importance to Australians,’’ he said.

“It clearly demonstrates that Equinor’s proposal for deep sea drilling in The Bight is not a normal resource proposal.’’

The Coalition policy announcement was made after protesters failed to win enough shareholder support to win a motion against drilling, at Equinor’s AGM in Norway on Thursday morning Adelaide time.

Environment groups used the meeting in Stavanger to address shareholders for more than half an hour, before the vote to adopt their ban proposal was lost.

Speaking from Norway, Wilderness Society spokesman Peter Owen said: “Oil drilling in the Great Australian Bight is just so toxic that even Australia’s two major political parties have now committed to reviewing it”.

Paddle-out protesters take to Oslo harbour to demonstrate against a planned oil exploration by Equinor in the The Great Australian Bight. Photo: Ola Vatn AFP.

In the AGM Equinor chief executive Eldar Saetre responded directly to the delegation: “Dialogue is a key value and really important for us, and that’s why we also met with a broad set of stakeholders’’.

“Our No.1 priority is safe and responsible operations.’’

Despite protests, the company insists it can drill for oil safely at the site, 476km west of Port Lincoln and is in the final stages of an approval application to NOPSEMA.

Meanwhile, launching the Greens’ environment election policy in Adelaide on Thursday, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said she would introduce legislation to stop drilling in The Bight if she was returned to the Senate. “Equinor has not listened to the impassioned plea to get big oil out of The Bight, but the Greens have,’’ she said.