The Government have announced a Commission of inquiry into the uncontrolled release of oil and gas from the Montara Wellhead Platform in the Timor Sea.

The Montara wellhead oil spill has finally been plugged, but not before the platform caught fire. The spill pumped millions of litres of oil, as well as gas, into the Timor Sea for more than 10 weeks, impacting in numerous ways on the marine environment and animals in the area. The reaction from the Government throughout this disaster has been lack lustre to say the least. From Federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson's attitude of denial to Environment Minister Peter Garrett's lack of action, it is clear that the environment was second place in the Government's mind.

It was only after Rachel's flyover of the spill site, and WWF's scientific visit to the site, that the Government was forced into commissioning their own very short survey of the area. Their five day survey, five weeks after the spill began, noted that many animals, including hundreds of false killer whales and dolphins, seabirds, turtles and sea snakes, were seen moving or feeding in the oil and that this was likely to put them at risk. There has been no on-going monitoring of the impact on the marine environment during the 10 weeks of the spill.

We have also now heard a significant number of reports from credible sources of serious oil impacts in Indonesia. We are still waiting to hear whether the recently announced inquiry into the Montara spill will address these issues and take evidence from, or hold hearings in, Indonesia.

Recently, the Greens were sent a DVD by the West Timor Care Foundation. The video appears to show that oil is impacting on fishing grounds for Indonesian fishers. We have also heard reports of oil much closer to the Indonesian coast during the past several weeks - and as yet these reported sightings of oil and dead fish have not been investigated by Australian authorities.

The Greens have been repeatedly calling for an independent public inquiry into all aspects of the oil spill - what caused the leak and the fire; its impacts on our environment and fisheries; what kind of regulatory prevention and resources need to be in place for the future; and how the Government handled this whole incident. There is a very real concern that the inquiry into the spill could happen behind closed doors.

The terms of the Government's inquiry into the Montara spill are;

• the likely cause(s) of the incident;
• the regulatory regime (including safety, environment and resource management), including the adequacy of monitoring and enforcement;
• the adequacy of the response;
• environmental impacts and whether any further measures are warranted; and
• provision and accessibility of information to stakeholders and the public.

This disaster has almost certainly caused untold damage to the marine environment and has left a legacy that will need to be dealt with long into the future - and it is clear that we need to know exactly what has occurred here to help ensure it does not happen again.

You can submit to the inquiry  - submissions should be lodged no later than 22 December 2009.

You can:

• Visit the website of the inquiry
• View the video footage of Indonesian fishermen encountering oil in the Timor Sea
• View the video footage of Rachel's flyover and send it on to five friends
• Check out some photos taken on Rachel's visit to the site
• Listen to an interview with Rachel on ABC's AM program 
• Look at some of NASA's satellite imagery of the spill
• Then check out SkyTruth's analysis of the NASA imagery
• Read Rachel's speech about this issue in Parliament
• Have a read of the Australian Institute of Marine Sciences response overview

Read what else the Greens have been saying on this issue