The APIA Adelaide Dinner was held on Thursday 13 March at the Adelaide Hilton.
Attendees heard from Senator Birmingham, who holds responsibility for the Murray-Darling Basin and provided an update on the Federal Government’s “˜one-stop-shop’ for environmental approvals and other developments in the environment portfolio. As a Liberal Party Senator for South Australia, he also updated members and guests on economic developments and opportunities for natural gas and the pipeline industry in SA.
Senator Birmingham stressed that his Government will be making a number of changes through dedicated repeal days to try and improve the economic environment for businesses, and spoke about the Government’s commitment to reduce the level of red tape and regulation.
“We want to make sure we find ways – and smart ways – to get Government out of the way of businesses making decisions to invest and expand in Australia,” he said.
“Federal Parliament will sit, for the first time ever, not to consider new laws or new regulations or new impositions that can be placed on Australia, but with dedicated time set aside to say “˜What can we withdraw from the books? What can we eliminate to actually take the level of red tape and regulation out of play, and free people up?'”
Birmingham said that a priority for the Environment portfolio, is the pursuit of one-stop shops for environmental approvals, whereby, by a referral of Federal assessment and approval powers to the states, new projects will not have to comply with competing sets of processes under both State and Federal jurisdiction.
“We hope and trust that this will speed up the approvals process; that it will be cheaper to comply with, and will make it more straightforward.
This is one of the real headline reforms of our Government; it is progressing extremely well, with enthusiasm from all of the states.”
Senator Birmingham issued a challenge to engineers and pipeline operators on the ground to use their in-depth knowledge of compliance regimes to communicate with Government.
He thanked the industry for the work it does to help facilitate the growth of great Australian industries and secure future prosperity.
The evening was proudly sponsored by PII Pipeline Solutions and GPA Engineering.