11 - Sustainability and Local Content Requirements in Australian Oil and Gas Development: Has the Ship of Opportunity Sailed?

Summary

Over the past forty years, Australia has considered the establishment of Local Content Requirements to encourage the sustainable development of its petroleum resources. In light of the likely development of a new frontier petroleum province in the Great Australian Basin, once again the role of the state and local content provisions has surfaced as an increasingly important debate in harnessing of LCRs as a regulatory tool for effective local content development. This chapter argues the role of LCRs function to facilitate and contribute to intergenerational equity in the establishment of sustainable industries on the back of petroleum development. LCRs, when harnessed effectively, may stimulate value creation and economic diversification and are thus essential to assist in the establishment and development of local industries in Australia. This chapter analyses the importance and role of LCRs in two parts. Firstly, it examines and critiques the historic ‘industry-based approach’ to local content requirements, focussing on the two Australian parliament reports from the 1989 and 1998. Secondly, it examines the contemporary approach to LCRs stimulated by the likely development of a new petroleum province in the Great Australian Bight, and the role they are likely to play in future petroleum development.