Once re-elected, the Labor-led government will work on a legislation that will create a unitary regulatory body for Australia's oil and gas industry.

Resources Minister Martin Ferguson said that the piece of legislative measure would be a priority by the government as he stressed that the tonnes of oil and gas leak incident from the Montara oil field incident called for the importance of a single regulator.

Mr Ferguson said that the Montara incident in Western Australia pointed to "a clear need in a very sensitive, important national industry, both environmentally, economically and from a health and safety point of view, for a strong single national regulator that's well resourced and focussed."

He acknowledged that the WA government has expressed reservations on the federal government's proposal but he gave assurance that the government is open to any ideas that the state may wish share and discuss with the commonwealth.

Mr Ferguson said that the government is all willing to conduct further negotiations with the WA state authorities as he dispelled notions that such discussion would merely dwell on talk fest.

The minister said that the parties to be involved in the forthcoming discussions would also touch on the recent oil spill that caused widespread environmental concerns in the Gulf of Mexico.

He asserted that the Gulf of Mexico and the Montara incidents would be a good reference points for those who would join the negotiations, adding that "there are lessons and experiences to be shared between, for example, Australia and the US."

Mr Ferguson assured that the planned talks would "be very focussed in a practical way about what went wrong, what should we be focussing on to try to prevent any similar incidents in the future."