On 19 September 2019, the Senate referred an inquiry into Australia’s oil and gas reserves to the Senate Economics References Committee for inquiry and report by the first sitting day in March 2020.
In February 2020, the reporting date was extended to 16 September 2020. On 15 June 2020, the Senate granted the committee an extension to report by the 16 December 2020. On Thursday, 12 November 2020, pursuant to the temporary order agreed on 23 March 2020, the Senate Economics References Committee agreed that the time for presentation of the report of the inquiry into Australia's Oil and Gas Reserves be extended from 16 December 2020 to 30 June 2021. On 11 May 2021, the Senate granted the committee a further extension to report by 2 December 2021.
On 30 November 2021, the reporting date was further extended to the 10 February 2022.
Submissions
Since the commencement of this inquiry in 2019 the Government has undertaken a number of different reviews including policy announcements and released publications for consultation. For example, the Offshore oil and gas safety review, Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism review, Decommissioning offshore oil and gas infrastructure and the development of the Beetaloo Strategic Basin Plan to name a few. If you have any views that you would like to share with the committee in regards to these new areas or existing issues then the committee would welcome your submission or a supplementary submission to one you have already provided the committee.
Initial submissions to the inquiry Submissions closed on 1 November 2019, with 39 submissions received.
Given the passage of time since submissions closed, the committee has agreed to reopen submissions, with the closing date for submissions being Friday, 3 September 2021.
However, it is important to note that the committee is not obliged to accept every document it receives as a submission. The committee has the option to accept a document as correspondence, or not accept it at all depending on its content.
Odgers Senate Practice clearly indicates:
"…a submission made to a committee becomes a committee document, and it is for the committee to decide whether to receive it as evidence and whether to publish it."
It is standard practice for submissions published by the committee to remove signatures and personal contact information. However, if you wish for your submission to be kept confidential, or you would like your name to be withheld (that is, your submission published on the inquiry website, but all personally identifying information removed), please state so clearly in your submission.
Further information can be found in our procedural documents.
*Please note that previous submissions made to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee will be considered by the committee and will not be required to be resubmitted.
Drafting a submission
To assist your document being received and accepted as a submission to the inquiry, we recommend your comments stay focused on the terms of reference.
Documents that don't address the terms of reference and diverge onto extraneous issues are unlikely to be accepted as submissions. Further guidance on making a submission can be found on the Making a submission webpage.
Form letters or documents containing repetitive themes
Form letters that are received as part of letter writing campaigns are likely to be received in the following way: a sample of the document may be accepted as a submission and published with a written indication of how many such documents were received.
Similarly, documents received that are not strictly form letters but demonstrate repetitive themes are also highly likely to be acknowledged in the same way: a certain number taken as samples with a written indication of how many such documents were received.
The committee hopes this information will assist you in the drafting of your submission.