PETROLEUM (SUBMERGED LANDS) ACT 1982 - PREAMBLE
PETROLEUM (SUBMERGED LANDS) ACT 1982 - PREAMBLE
WHEREAS in accordance with international law Australia as a coastal State has
sovereign rights over the Continental Shelf beyond the limits of Australian
territorial waters for the purpose of exploring it and exploiting its natural
resources:
AND WHEREAS Australia is a party to the Convention on the Continental Shelf
signed at Geneva on 29 April 1958 in which those rights are defined:
AND WHEREAS by the Seas and Submerged Lands Act 1973 of the Commonwealth
it is declared and enacted that the sovereignty in respect of the territorial
sea of Australia and in respect of the airspace over it and in respect of its
sea-bed and subsoil, and the sovereignty in respect of certain internal waters
of Australia and in respect of the airspace over those waters and in respect
of the sea-bed and subsoil beneath those waters, is vested in and exercisable
by the Crown in right of the Commonwealth:
AND WHEREAS the Parliaments of the States and the Legislative Assembly of the
Northern Territory have certain legislative powers in respect of the sea-bed
and subsoil referred to in the last preceding recital and the Parliament of
the Commonwealth has vested in the Crown in right of each of the States and
the Crown in right of the Northern Territory certain proprietary rights in
respect of that sea-bed and subsoil:
AND WHEREAS it has been agreed between the Commonwealth, the States and the
Northern Territory that, in place of the scheme provided for by an Agreement
between the Commonwealth and the States dated 16 October 1967—
(a) legislation of the Parliament of the Commonwealth in respect of the
exploration for and the exploitation of the petroleum resources of submerged
lands should be limited to the resources of lands beneath waters that are
beyond the outer limits of the territorial sea adjacent to the States and the
Northern Territory (being outer limits based, unless and until otherwise
agreed, on the breadth of that sea being three nautical miles), and that the
States and the Northern Territory should share in the administration of that
legislation; and
(b) legislation of the Parliament of each State should apply in respect of the
exploration for and the exploitation of the petroleum resources of such part
of the submerged lands in an area adjacent to the State as is on the landward
side of the waters referred to in paragraph (a); and
(c) legislation of the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory should
apply in respect of the exploration for and the exploitation of the petroleum
resources of such part of the submerged lands in an area adjacent to the
Northern Territory as is on the landward side of the waters referred to in
paragraph (a); and
(d) the Commonwealth, the States and the Northern Territory should endeavour
to maintain, as far as practicable, common principles, rules and practices in
the regulation and control of the exploration for and the exploitation of the
petroleum resources of all the submerged lands referred to above that are on
the seaward side of the inner limits of the territorial sea of Australia:
The Parliament of South Australia enacts as follows: