2025-09-12
The Australian Greens have called Labor’s decision to rubber stamp an extension to Woodside's North West Shelf project ‘a betrayal’ to voters hoping for strong climate action.
Earlier today, the Environment Minister gave final approval to extend Woodside's mega-polluting North West Shelf gas project through to 2070.
This approval will generate up to 6.1 billion tonnes of emissions over its lifetime and threaten to push whole ecosystems to the brink of collapse.
It will become the biggest new fossil fuel project in the Southern Hemisphere.
Last year was the hottest year on record, and scientists have made it clear: any new coal or gas project makes things worse.
The extension puts the rock art at Murujuga on the Burrup Peninsula at critical risk, and has been subject to a three year Federal Court action under the Aboriginal Heritage Protection Act (AHPA) led by Raelene Cooper.
This extension will also increase the likelihood of a massive gas field being built on the pristine Scott Reef, home to threatened endangered species like the green sea turtle and pygmy blue whale.
The science consistently tells us that in order to keep warming under 1.5 degrees, we must be committing to net zero by 2035.
This will not happen while Labor continues to back more coal and gas.
Quotes attributable to Leader of the Australian Greens, Senator Larissa Waters:
“Labor has caved to pressure from a dirty gas corporation. This approval is a betrayal and a disastrous decision for the future of our planet.
“Our environmental laws, which allow the Environment Minister to sign off on projects that will make the climate crisis worse, are broken. Minister Watt’s next test is to enshrine environmental laws that protect the climate so another massive gas project like this is never approved in Australia.
“In a time where we have been living through a once-in-a-decade weather event almost every year, this approval will mean more intense floods, fires and species extinctions, plus more pollution each year than all of Australia’s coal stations combined.
“This extension also endangers the sacred Murujuga rock art that includes the earliest depiction of the human face on the planet. And it puts pressure on beautiful Scott Reef and on the Kimberley for new fracking sites to feed this hungry gas plant.
“People believed Labor when they said they’d take real action on the climate crisis, but instead in the first 6 months of this parliament they’ve caved again to the pressure of coal and gas profits.
“People didn’t vote for Woodside’s carbon bomb.”
Quotes attributable to Australian Greens environment spokesperson, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young:
“The approval of Woodside’s climate bomb has blown apart Labor’s credibility on protecting our climate and environment. On the eve of the government announcing the 2025 climate targets, this is a terrible sign that the fossil fuel companies are still dictating government policy.
“This decision highlights why we need new environment laws. It’s beggars belief that in 2025, the Environment Minister is signing off on fossil fuel projects that will make the climate crisis worse.
"It is devastating that so soon after the public elected one of the most progressive parliaments in Australia's history, one of the new Environment Minister's first acts in the job has been approving one of the biggest, dirtiest gas projects in Australia out to 2070.
“We cannot protect our climate, nature and heritage sites like the Murujuga rock art while we are digging up and burning more and more fossil fuels.
“The Albanese Government has a choice to make. They can work with the Greens to bring in new environment laws that actually protect nature and our climate or they can work with the Liberal party and the Minerals Council to make it even easier for massive carbon bomb projects like this to be approved.
“This monstrous gas expansion will be an environmental disaster – unleashing gas pollution on a huge scale, destroying cultural heritage and threatening pristine ecosystems like Scott Reef, home to threatened endangered species like the green sea turtle and the pygmy blue whale."