COAL seam gas companies and landholders would not be required to provide incriminating or commercially sensitive information to the newly established GasFields Commission, under legislation currently being considered by the State Government, which has been widely slammed by farming groups.
The criticism has led to calls for a parliamentary committee tasked with investigating the legislation to recommend an amendment to the bill which would widen the GasFields Commission's powers to force access to this information.
The GasFields Commission Bill 2012, which was introduced to parliament in December, proposes the regulatory framework which the independent government body will work under to oversee the delivery of government regulation as the CSG industry rollout continues across the state.
Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney has previously said the GasFields Commission should be provided "ombudsman-like powers" in order to be able to act confidently to ensure compliance of relevant legislation and ultimately restore faith in the CSG sector among sceptical landholders.
The GasFields bill is currently being considered by the State Development, Infrastructure and Industry Parliamentary Committee, which held public hearings in Brisbane and Toowoomba last week.
This follows more than a dozen written submissions to the committee late last year from various key stakeholder groups.
A final list of recommendations is due from the committee by the end of March.
While there was widespread support for the establishment of the commission, among the major points of contention, which were raised repeatedly during the public hearings by landholder groups, were the clauses in the legislation detailing the ability of the GasFields Commission to force businesses and individuals to hand over "relevant" information during investigations.
According to the proposed legislation, landholders, gas operators and other entities must provide "relevant information" to the commission unless, among other reasons, "the giving of the relevant information might tend to incriminate the entity" or "the relevant information is confidential to the entity or the giving of the relevant information might be to the detriment of the entity's commercial or other interests".
These two clauses have been widely slammed by farming groups, which claim it is too broad a definition and could incorporate almost any type of information, enabling stakeholders to "cover up" serious breaches, ultimately jeopardising the commission's ability to be able to make informed decisions and ensure compliance.
Rural lobby groups ranging from Cotton Australia to Property Rights Australia raised concerns that gas companies already had a long-standing history of being evasive with the information provided to landholders on even simple cases, such as the placement of infrastruc- ture across farmland, and the GasFields Commission powers should be widened to allow the body to force access to relevant information, even if it is commercially sensitive or reveals wrongdoing.
Queensland Murray-Darling Committee chief executive Geoff Penton stated in his group's submission to the inquiry that any information which is incriminating because it reveals breaches or potential environmental risk is "surely the sort of the information that is required" for the GasFields Commission to review the compliance of legislation and regulation.
Similarly, Bar Association of Queensland president Roger Traves SC also called for an amendment to the bill, stating the clauses allowed entities to avoid providing information on "a very wide range of things which will impair the commission's activities".
Queensland Resources Council chief executive Michael Roche called for a definition to be provided as to what exactly constitutes "relevant" information.
State Development, Infrastructure and Industry Parliamentary Committee chairman David Gibson said concerns over the clauses in the legislation would be strongly considered by the committee.
He said the public hearing process had revealed there was strong support for the concept of the GasFields Commission and the current appointed commissioners.
