Offers to talk over Woodside gas plans rejected
The latest court decision has sparked warnings that Australia’s energy security and investment attractiveness could be at stake.
Aboriginal campaigners rejected an offer of fortnightly meetings with Woodside Energy before launching the legal action that successfully blocked work at the company’s multibillion-dollar Scarborough gas project on the grounds of inadequate consultation.
Legal submissions from Woodside employees, released by the Federal Court in the lead-up to Thursday’s landmark decision, detail multiple meetings, correspondence and attempted engagement between the company and Indigenous woman Raelene Cooper over several years.
The submissions note that Ms Cooper, who launched the legal action, was first briefed on Woodside’s plans for Scarborough in 2018 when she was on the board of Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation. Ms Cooper was still on the board of the corporation, which is the body set up to represent the traditional owners of the Burrup Peninsula that is home to Woodside’s North West Shelf and Pluto liquefied natural gas plants, in December 2019 when it approved a plan including the Scarborough ambitions.
Ms Cooper and fellow Indigenous woman Josie Alec founded Save Our Songlines in November 2021 before Ms Cooper resigned from the corporation board in February 2022.
Woodside’s submissions detailed how, by last April, there had been five meetings, two attempted meetings, 19 emails, seven phone calls and 10 letters as part of its engagement with Save Our Songlines. Another meeting then took place in July, with Woodside offering regular engagement.
“Woodside offered to arrange fortnightly meetings to support consultation,” an affidavit from a member of Woodside’s Indigenous affairs team says. “However, Ms Cooper and Ms Alec declined that offer and stated they would need at least six weeks to process the information and respond.”
Asked what adequate consultation would look like, Ms Cooper told The Weekend Australian that it could not be defined by time or price.
“Consultation is a process where both parties are informed of what activities, what responsibilities, what their obligations are, and what their projects are entitled to and what they are actually doing, so the other parties can then contribute their information and consult with all parties, and allowing them to hear the concerns and the issues that individuals may have,” she said.
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