FUTURE OF NORTH WEST SHELF HANGS IN BALANCE AFTER FOUR DAYS OF HEARINGS
Friends of Australian Rock Art’s Judith Hugo and Susan Swain explaining their challenge to the Environment Minister’s approval to extend Woodside’s North West Gas Shelf project to 2070.
The future of Australia’s biggest gas project and broader questions about Commonwealth environmental questions hang in the balance after four days of Federal Court hearings of the challenge to the Environment Minister’s approval of Woodside’s plans to keep exporting gas from the Pilbara for another 40 years.
The case, brought by two activist groups - the Australian Conservation Foundation and Friends of Australian Rock Art (FARA), last week saw questions raised about ministerial powers and accountability, business influence on ministerial decisions and whether the national environment laws adequately consider climate change.
The case follows Environment Minister Murray Watts’ decision last year to approve Woodside Energy’s proposal to extend its operations on the North West Gas Shelf, just down the road from the World Heritage-listed indigenous rock art in the Murujuga National Park.
Wooside and the federal government have rejected the environmental advocates claims that the approval does meet Commonwealth environmental laws; but those same laws have extensive ministerial discretion and do not explicitly demand things like climate change must be assessed - only that that is an option.
Justice Catherine Button reserved a decision on the matter last week and will now be considering the numerous and complex legal arguments involved, from both parties that brought the appeal, to the government’s defence of Minister Watts’ decision and implications for Woodside.
Ngaarda Media’s Breakfast Show host Lynnese O’Donoghue recently spoke to two of the key campaigners involved in the challenge.
Back in 2007, FARA co-convenors Judith Hugo and Susan Swain were involved in the original efforts to gain heritage listing for the hundreds of Murujuga rock art sites as WA’s 100th national park.
The pair told Ngaarda Media about their concerns that the approval only looked at the economic side of the equation, not the environmental and the recognised international cultural value of what was at stake.
You can listen back to that interview with below.