Arabic version: إقرار مشروع قانون الهواء الآمن في الإقليم الشمالي

According to ABC News, Northern Territory parliament has passed the CLP government’s “safe air” bill, allowing an environmental monitoring scheme to be established for toxic air pollutants emitted by the gas industry on Darwin Harbour.

NT Lands, Planning and Environment Minister Joshua Burgoyne said the scheme would be operating by “the middle of next year”. Six new monitoring stations around Darwin Harbour are planned to measure volatile organic compounds, including cancer-causing benzene. Existing stations around the harbour do not measure those emissions, while current Darwin measurements of volatile organic compounds are undertaken by gas companies under their licence conditions.

The legislation follows a toxic-emissions scandal involving Inpex and a decades-long methane leak and cover-up at the Darwin LNG facility involving ConocoPhillips and Santos. Inpex is being prosecuted by the NT Environment Protection Authority after under-reporting benzene emissions by 13,000 per cent and toluene emissions by 11,000 per cent. Toluene can irritate the eyes, skin and respiratory tract.

Burgoyne said industry would pay for the scheme and that Territorians would not pay. The bill states that “specified persons or classes of persons” may be required to contribute towards all or part of its costs. He said the environment department and the NT EPA would oversee the program, with monitoring results available for everyone to see.

Independent MLA Justine Davis and Shadow Environment Minister Manuel Brown criticised the bill for leaving key details to regulations rather than spelling them out in law. Davis said the bill did not define “safe air” or specify toxins, monitoring locations or consequences for companies that breach requirements. Brown said the legislation was an opportunity to introduce stronger protections, including pollution limits.