2025-05-29
This morning, a Victorian Greens request to urgently debate the Albanese Labor Government’s decision to approve the extension of the North West Shelf gas project in the Victorian Parliament was denied.
The Victorian Greens used a tool that allows MPs to bring matters of urgent public importance forward for debate in the Parliament at short notice - arguing that as the state faces worsening drought and NSW reels from once-in-500-year floods, the project’s 6.1 billion tonnes of emissions will fuel climate chaos impacting every Victorian, harming public health, driving up insurance costs, and endangering future generations.
The request was denied. In response, the Greens say: if Labor approving a climate bomb with projected emissions of up to 6.1 billion tonnes isn’t a matter of urgent public importance, then what is?
It comes on the same day that state Labor has made comments boasting of billions of dollars in new gas investment in Victoria this year alone.
The Greens have accused the Victorian Labor Government of following in Albo’s footsteps, saying that Labor is guilty of ‘climate betrayal’ at both levels of government.
The North West Shelf Project will release more emissions than every coal-fired power station in Australia combined, locking in fossil fuel use until 2070 - decades beyond the climate deadlines set by the IPCC and Paris Agreement.
The Victorian Greens say that the Parliament shouldn’t be avoiding scrutiny and debate on such an important matter that will impact every Victorian.
Quotes attributable to Leader of the Victorian Greens, Ellen Sandell:
“Woodside’s massive new gas project is a climate bomb - the equivalent of opening 12 new coal-fired power stations. Labor’s approval of this disastrous project will blow our climate targets, supercharging floods, bushfires and extreme weather already hitting Victorians. If that’s not a matter of urgent public importance for Parliament to debate, I don’t know what is.”
“It’s incredibly disappointing to see Labor here in Victoria boasting about new gas projects the day after their federal Labor colleagues approved Woodside’s climate disaster. Future generations will never forgive Labor for this climate betrayal”
-ENDS-