Qualifications: NONE

Just what qualifications does an environmental minister need to have, surely some knowledge would be required. The Gorgon Carbon Capture and Storage operations will be a major part of the global portfolio of CCS projects supported by the Australian-led GLOBAL CARBON CAPTURE and Storage Institute. It will also be the world's biggest demonstration of CCS technology for many years to come and receive $60 million in funding from the Australian government

What does that mean for Australia quite simple, there are no guarantees that CCS will even work at Gorgon and that taxpayers have been fitted out a company once again to pay for any problems that arise.Under Mr Garrett's approvals, Gorgon's proponents will be able to start the project without having to even prove that CO2 injection works at the site. In fact they only have to agree to monitor whether it doesn't work, even then the concerns are aimed at an underground fish species rather than the more pressing issues of release into the sea. This would lead to potentially dangerous acidification or into the atmosphere where it could blow out Australia's greenhouse gas emissions strategy.

What are future repercussions or safety measures will be put in place? The 28 new environmental conditions were stringent on the dangers facing the Flatback turtle but virtually silent on those presented by injecting millions of tonnes of CO2 into the seabed. This is a huge CCS experiment using WA waters as a laboratory. Did Mr Garrett even consider that the joint ventures had already been warned by technical experts, about the risks of leaks because of geological faults in the Barrow Island strata?

The state and federal government agreed to jointly accept any long term liability arising from the storage of CO2 in geological formations under Barrow Island as part of the Gorgon project.So it appears safety and the environment are being cast aside for the sake of greed. Mr Barnett has lumbered taxpayers not the multinational proponents of Gorgon, with the downside costs, both economic and environmental of this excessively risky experiment.