Activist makes final pitch to new Environment Minister as North West Shelf call looms

A teal candidate who almost won an ultra-safe Labor has also warned that more Labor seats would be targeted if Murray Watt approved the project.

Raelene Cooper, one of the founders of Save Our Songlines, in front of the North West Shelf gas project.

The traditional owner who led a successful, albeit short-lived, legal challenge against Woodside Energy’s Scarborough gas project has called on new Environment Minister Murray Watt to visit Western Australia’s Burrup Peninsula before he makes his decision on the contentious North West Shelf extension.

As WA Premier Roger Cook declared the approval of the project would be his highest priority for discussion when he meets with Senator Watt in Perth on Tuesday, Raelene Cooper – a former chair of the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation, the body set up to represent the various traditional owner groups from the Burrup, and a co-founder of Save Our Songlines – urged the minister to make the trip north as part of his meetings in WA this week.

And the Climate 200-backed candidate who almost won an ultra-safe Labor seat after a campaign centred on the North West Shelf has warned Senator Watt more Labor seats would be targeted if he approved the project.

Senator Watt replaced Tanya Plibersek in the difficult environment portfolio following Labor’s emphatic re-election and has already said he plans to make a decision by the end of this month on whether Woodside can extend the life of its North West Shelf liquefied natural gas plant on the Burrup out to 2070.

The proposal has become a lightning rod for Indigenous groups and environmental activists who believe emissions from the project will harm the Burrup’s million-plus works of rock art, accelerate climate change and risk endangered species in and around Scott Reef in the Timor Sea.

The WA government has already approved Woodside’s plans, leaving Senator Watt as the final regulatory hurdle.

Ms Cooper said it was crucial for the minister to visit the Burrup before he makes any decision on the North West Shelf.

“How on Earth can he decide whether to allow Woodside to keep emitting toxic pollution on our sacred Murujuga rock art until he has seen the impacts for himself?” she said.

Ms Cooper in 2023 successfully secured a Federal Court injunction halting Woodside’s work on the Scarborough gas project, but that was subsequently lifted. She also successfully lobbied Ms Plibersek to launch a Section 10 review to investigate whether Aboriginal sites were being threatened by the industrial developments in the area, although the former minister never handed down a decision based on that review.

“Hundreds of people made submissions to this process and it sat on the Environment Minister’s desk for the entire three years that Tanya Plibersek was in office,” Ms Cooper said.

“It would be ludicrous for Murray Watt to make a decision (about North West Shelf) before bothering to engage with all the evidence.

Ms Cooper’s comments came as Kate Hulett – the teal candidate who only narrowly failed to defeat Labor’s Assistant Minister for Climate Change Josh Wilson in the seat of Fremantle – said an approval could cost Labor at the next election.

Ms Hulett, who is visiting the Burrup this week, said she would help other independents target Labor if the government approved the project.

“If Labor approves an extension of the largest gas export facility in Australia, this government will prove they have learnt nothing and failed to listen,” she said.

New Greens leader Larissa Waters said the decision would be the government’s first test on climate. “You can’t protect the climate or nature by approving a project that would use 91 per cent of the government’s net-zero 2050 carbon budget,” she said.

Mr Cook said the North West Shelf approval would be the first point of discussion when he meets with Senator Watt.

While Ms Plibersek twice granted extensions on the deadline to make a call on the project, Senator Watt has repeatedly said he intends to hand down his decision by the May 31 deadline.