Article by Paige Taylor, courtesy of The Australian
19.03.2025
Business leaders have urged Labor to join Peter Dutton in a bipartisan commitment to fast-track the expansion of the North West Shelf gas project and end six years of deliberations.
The Opposition Leader said a Coalition government would instruct the federal Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water to fast-track its assessment of the project, which has now been waiting more than six years to secure state and federal approvals.
The Association of Mines and Exploration Companies said Mr Dutton demonstrated an understanding that the Commonwealth environmental approvals process was broken with Wednesday’s announcement that a Coalition government would green light Woodside’s proposed 50-year extension of the North West Shelf project within 30 days.
“This recognises the need for change to Australia’s approvals process and identifies the need for more decisive decisions, in a timelier manner, to be made with respect to projects of state and national significance,” AMEC chief executive Warren Pearce said.
“On this issue, the Coalition is cutting through the noise to make the right decision and at the same time demonstrating an understanding that the federal approvals process is broken and needs fixing.
“The Commonwealth government should swiftly remove any doubt and support this decision to create a bipartisan solution and provide a vote of confidence to the industry.”
WA Labor’s former environment minister Reece Whitby approved the extension after a six-year process involving departmental assessments. Woodside’s proposal has been with Commonwealth regulators for about seven weeks. It wants to extend the life of the project until 2070.
Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek is weighing up latest unreleased findings from the government and Woodside-sponsored rock art monitoring program. There are more than one million ancient Aboriginal petroglyphs in the area around the gas plant. Indigenous campaigners and numerous scientists argue the plant’s emissions are accelerating the erosion of that rock art.
Mr Dutton said on Wednesday that supporting the North West Shelf expansion was about making sure there was certainty in the energy market.
He said the Albanese government wanted to please voters with green leanings in inner-city Sydney and Melbourne “because that’s where their battleground is against the Greens”.
“So they’re being dragged further and further to the left,” Mr Dutton said.
“I think we can take comfort in what the government’s gone through – the Labor government here in WA, they’re not a cowboy outfit … And if there was credible environmental concerns on the table, surely the Cook government wouldn’t have approved this extension.”
Ms Plibersek said Mr Dutton’s announcement was reckless and would open the door to protracted legal challenges, which could set the project’s timeline back years.
“Pre-judging projects is against the law, so Peter Dutton’s dangerous move risks sending the project back to square one,” Ms Plibersek said.
“We have been left cleaning up the mess for taxpayers on at least two projects where the Liberals rashly promised to do things outside of the legal process.
“This is further proof Peter Dutton would plunge Australia back into Scott Morrison-style chaos.
“Clearly, Peter Dutton wants a system where getting projects approved depends more on whether he likes you, not whether you comply with the law. That’s no way to run a government.”
Mardudhunera woman Raelene Cooper, a campaigner against the expansion of the North West Shelf gas project, said the decision was “far too important to exploit for cheap political points”.
“Well they bulldozed 5000 pieces of our ancient rock art to build the North West Shelf. More of the same means even more destruction. The acid from this gas plant is eating away at our stories, our heritage, and soon there’ll be nothing left if it’s allowed to continue. Does Dutton know anything about that?” Ms Cooper said.
“The WA government admitted last month they hadn’t even bothered to read the Murujuga rock art monitoring report, which was first handed to them in June last year. The WA government literally commissioned this research and then decided to wave through Woodside without even reading their own report. They are a joke.”
Teal MP Kate Chaney, elected in 2021 to the once-safe Liberal seat of Curtin in Perth’s leafy western suburbs, had repeatedly called for Ms Plibersek to block the giant project but more recently shifted. She is willing to see it go ahead under specific conditions.
“We need to be disciplined about working out whether the benefits exceed the costs,” Ms Chaney said.
“The federal government is currently working through the approval process to determine whether the project meets environmental and heritage standards.