Page 971 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 26 July 1989
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NATURAL GAS SUPPLIES
Discussion of Matter of Public Importance
MR SPEAKER: I have received a letter from Mr Collaery proposing that a matter of public importance be submitted to the Assembly for discussion, namely:
The distribution and sale of natural gas in the Australian Capital Territory.
MR COLLAERY (3.07): Mr Speaker, this may seem a boring subject, and I gather it does not meet with the full interest of the audience, but I am not about to throw any cold air on the subject. This subject concerns all the consumers of the ACT, particularly energy consumers and in particular those people who are presently and those who may be connected to the gas supply in the ACT. That includes residential and commercial users. We in this house are aware that there was some difference or apparent difference of opinion between the Deputy Chief Minister and AGL Canberra recently. But I do not rise to speak to that issue in particular, other than to indicate that clearly there is a dialogue between this Government and AGL Canberra at the moment which has recently subsided through the granting of a price increase.
Looking at that issue, the Residents Rally came across some issues of considerable importance to the ACT, to our relationship with a Federal authority and to the general policies of the industry and commerce section of the ACT Administration. Mr Speaker, AGL Canberra acquires all its natural gas through the pipeline from Moomba in South Australia to Sydney via Dalton, where a 58-kilometre spur pipeline deviates the gas to Watson, ACT. At Watson the custody of the gas is transferred to AGL Canberra. The total pipeline link from Moomba, South Australia, to Watson, ACT, is owned and operated by the Commonwealth Pipeline Authority. That was established in 1973 to provide a national pipeline grid for natural gas reticulation from production wells to the consumption centres.
An agreement was signed in July 1981 by AGL Canberra for the supply and haulage of natural gas by the Pipeline Authority to the ACT. In contrast, Mr Speaker, natural gas for New South Wales is supplied under an agreement with the South Australian wellhead producers, with a separate agreement for haulage by the Pipeline Authority. In other words, New South Wales pays the Pipeline Authority as a common carrier, as it were, to haul the gas through the pipeline to Wilton, near Sydney. But, for the ACT, the Commonwealth Pipeline Authority charges the ACT purchaser - that is, AGL Canberra - a levy to use the 58-kilometre pipeline spur from Dalton to Watson in the ACT.
Mr Speaker, the most troubling aspect is that the inquiries the Rally launched on this matter showed a number of issues to do with price and the role of the Federal Pipeline
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