Government approves extension of Woodside’s North West Shelf project

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The life of Australia’s largest oil and gas project will be extended to 2070 after receiving environmental approval from the federal government. Woodside proposed the life extension to its West Australian gas facility six years ago and it has sat under assessment since then.

Transcript

00:00Well, in granting this extension, the Federal Environment Minister Murray Watt said that

00:07he has imposed strict conditions on Woodside for this project.

00:12He didn't go into too much detail, but we do know that it is in relation to the industrial

00:16emissions from that plant and specifically their impact on nearby Aboriginal rock engravings.

00:23So the peninsula in which the Karatha gas plant is home to is also home to about a million

00:28ancient Aboriginal engravings that are thought to be among the oldest in the world.

00:34So we know that for the last two years, the Western Australian government has been funding

00:39a monitoring program here in the northwest to study those rocks and to try and ascertain

00:46what, if any, impact industrial emissions from plants like the Karatha gas plant and other

00:51industry on the borough are having on those engravings.

00:55We know that the sort of broad aim of that program is to eventually develop a set of

01:00criteria.

01:01So a set of standards, which sets the minimum acceptable levels of pollution over the Borough

01:07Peninsula.

01:08So it seems to be that that program is what the Federal Minister is referring to in those

01:14conditions.

01:15Again, it's still very early days, and we'll wait to see if we get some more detail on the

01:20Federal Government.

01:21Now, of course, this is a big day for oil and gas giant Woodside.

01:25As you mentioned, this project has been grinding through the state and federal approvals process

01:30for more than six years now.

01:33So let's take a listen now to the head of Woodside, Meg O'Neill, reacting to today's decision.

01:39We have a very strong working relationship with the Muraduga Aboriginal Corporation.

01:44We've worked closely with traditional custodians for more than 40 years now.

01:48And whilst we haven't always gotten it right, we have very strong working relationships now.

01:53And we support the World Heritage Listing, and we believe industry and heritage can coexist.

01:58I'll leave it to the state and the federal government to comment on the UN report.

02:03And what's been the reaction from the local traditional owners?

02:10Well, Joe, there is a lot of people with traditional connections to the petroglyphs, more than five

02:16different language groups.

02:17We know that for some, today is going to be a very tough day.

02:22One source that we know in town told us that it's been considered a day of mourning for some

02:29people of those different groups.

02:31We were going to speak with a Nalama woman today.

02:35So the Nalama people are one of the five language groups that have connections to the rock engraving.

02:39She said she was too distressed to speak with us today.

02:42And I think that speaks to how this decision has been received by some in the First Nations

02:49community.

02:50We also spoke with Kayleen Daniel today.

02:53Now her mother, Tootsie Daniel, was one of the fiercest advocates for protecting the rock

02:58art in recent years.

02:59She passed away last year.

03:01She had actually met with the former environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, pleading for her

03:06to not extend the Northwest Shelf project.

03:11But speaking to Kayleen today, she did want to stress that, you know, for the people that

03:15are advocating for the preservation of the rock art, they don't see this as the end of the

03:20story.

03:21So we're going to keep campaigning for, you know, stronger protections for those engravings.

03:28And of course, keep pushing for a World Heritage listing at some point in the future.

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