Labor legends push Tanya Plibersek to block WA gas project
Prominent Labor figures are pushing for Tanya Plibersek to block Woodside’s plans to extend the life of Australia’s biggest LNG project out to 2070.
Labor great Kim Beazley, two former Labor premiers and two former Labor ministers have urged Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek to block Woodside Energy’s plans to extend the life of its North West Shelf project, in a move that underscores the growing divisions within Labor over conflicting industrial and environmental ambitions.
Mr Beazley – a former deputy prime minister and opposition leader who until 2022 was the governor of Western Australia – is one of several high-profile Australians to sign a letter to Ms Plibersek calling for her to intervene and prevent the project from going ahead.
Other high profile Labor signatories to the letter include Australia’s first female premier, Carmen Lawrence, former WA premier Peter Dowding, former science minister Barry Jones and former international development minister Melissa Parke.
The letter comes amid growing tensions within Labor over its environmental policies. While industry is concerned about the potential consequences of Ms Plibersek’s proposed “nature positive” changes to environmental approval processes, resources minister Madeleine King has been pushing to update legislation to avert spurious legal challenges from activists and environmental groups against major gas projects.
Woodside is planning to extend the life of the Karratha gas plant, Australia’s first and largest liquefied natural gas facility, out to around 2070. The plant to date has been fed with gas from the North West Shelf. Under Woodside’s plans, the plant will have its life extended with a supply of gas from Woodside’s Browse fields.
The Browse gas fields contain a comparatively high amount of carbon dioxide.
The letter to Ms Plibersek says the carbon pollution from the project will be several times greater than the combined savings expected from all of the Albanese government’s climate policies between now and 2030.
“On this ground alone, the proposal should be rejected,” the letter says.
The signatories argue that the extension of the plant’s life was likely to have “profound and irreversible” impacts on the ancient rock art nearby.
The North West Shelf gas plant is the largest of several major industrial developments on the Burrup Peninsula, or Murujuga, which is home to more than one million petroglyphs.
Ms Plibersek is leading Australia’s application to have Murujuga added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.
The letter says any decision to allow the extension of the project would lead to further degradation of the area’s heritage value.
“Scientific evidence that industrial pollution from gas processing on the Burrup Peninsula is degrading the ancient Murujuga rock art is clear and compelling, and the outdated North West Shelf facility is by far the largest contributor to the pollution load,” the letter says.
“This pollution, and the ongoing presence and proliferation of heavy industry on the Burrup is a fundamental threat to both the heritage values and the success of the proposed Murujuga World Heritage listing.”
The letter urges Ms Plibersek to delay any decision on the project until there has been a fresh independent assessment of the heritage impacts of the proposal.
“As Minister for the Environment and Heritage, you have a unique responsibility to ensure the protection of Australia’s most precious heritage places for current and future generations,” it said.
“Like the Tasmanian dam decision by the Hawke Labor government in 1983, you have an opportunity to act in the national interest today, by making a decision to protect Murujuga’s ancient heritage that will be remembered and appreciated for generations to come.”
Ms Plibersek has already twice used her ministerial powers to block proposed projects.
Late last year, she blocked the development of a dedicated wind farm terminal at Victoria’s Port of Hastings on the grounds that wind turbines would have “clearly unacceptable” impacts on nearby wetlands.
The minister also knocked back Woolworths’ plans to expand a distribution centre on the NSW central coast over concerns that it could harm a population of rare orchids.
The expansion of the centre had been expected to create 240 jobs.
Ms King, meanwhile, has begun working to amend approvals processes following Federal Court decisions last year that caused delays for Woodside’s Scarborough gas project and Santos’s Barossa gas project. Indigenous groups have accused her of trying to deprive them of one of the few avenues of appeal open to them.
Woodside began its environmental approvals process for its plan to pipe gas from Browse to the North West Shelf in October 2018. It has since moved through most of the approval milestones and is now waiting on decisions from the responsible federal and state ministers.
The company has said it plans to employ carbon capture and storage as part of the Browse development.
An analysis by the Australian Conservation Foundation released last week claimed that Woodside’s expansion and extension plans at North West Shelf and the nearby Pluto project would lead to lifetime emissions of more than 13 times Australia’s total annual emissions from all sources.
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