More light has been thrown on the delays to the decision on Woodside's application for an extension to the lifespan of its North West Shelf project. 

As reported in ENB, the deadline for the federal environment minister to make a decision on Woodside's application has been extended until the end of March, after Canberra's request from the WA government for the provision of a Murujuga rock art report caused a delay. 

When the reason for the delay was made public, Reese Whitby, the WA environment minister, decried a "nerdy little bureaucrat" in Canberra, trying to cover their mistakes. 

Yesterday at Senate Estimates Senator Tim Ayers, representing DCCEEW, rebuffed Whitby's comments and backed his Canberra colleagues saying: "We've got a very fine department composed of people who work very hard in the public interest.  

"We have increased the size of the department so that the applications get done more speedily and that the environmental and other development questions are considered properly."  

Likewise, refusing to rise to Whitby's bait, Bruce Edwards, the head of the environment approvals division at the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water maintained a polite tone, describing WA based government bureaucrats as "state officials who are doing their very best job and to provide what they could." 

Ayers agreed, adding: "We as a government really enjoy working with the Western Australian Government. There are very fine state government doing a very fine job."  

Edwards explained that the delays in making the decision was now due to having to review the "several hundred pages" of information that had been provided and the fact that the Conservation Council of WA (CCWA) has made another application for a reconsideration of the referral "which we also need to consider, and we need to go through Australian government Solicitor legal review." 

In 2022 Environmental Justice Australia (EJA), representing the Environment Council of Central Queensland, wrote to Plibersek asking her to consider replacing the 2019 section 75 assessment decision (which proclaimed the North West Shelf expansion application as a controlled action) with a decision that recognises its impact on protected plants, animals and places.  

In their letter to the minister the EJA stated that basis of the section 75 decision was limited to just a consideration of the effect of Woodside's project on "National Heritage places (sections 15B and 15C of the EPBC Act)." 

The EJA stated the "decision-maker did not properly consider or consider at all information on the adverse impacts on matters of national environment significance of the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the Proposed Project aggregating with other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere." 

Anna Chapman, the CCWA's fossil fuels program manager, confirmed to ENB that they too had filed a reconsideration request, asking the minister to include in her considerations the possibility the North West Shelf program could include fracking operations. 

"CCWA's reconsideration request asks the Minister to reconsider the scope of the assessment, and ensure everything we now know about the impacts of this project are considered in the assessment process. 

"That includes Woodside's admissions about using the North West Shelf to unlock the Kimberley for fracking, which was canvassed by Woodside CEO Meg O'Neill on stage at their 2024 AGM." 

Hung parliament pressure

As if this wasn't enough for the government to contend with, in the event of a hung parliament after the forth-coming federal election, the Greens and teals have said they will pressure PM Anthony Albanese to block Woodside's plans.  

The plan to extend the life of the North West Shelf project to 2070 has been strongly opposed by Climate 200-backed teal independent MP Kate Chaney who described the WA government's approval of the extension last year as a "terrible" decision and called on Plibersek to knock back the project. 

"There is no doubt that the ­Murujuga rock art is being ­severely impacted by high levels of acid pollution, causing irreparable damage," Chaney said. 

"Since my election, I have been contacted by nearly 600 people in Curtin who are concerned about the proposed expansion of the North West Shelf gas processing plant. The scale of the environmental, climate and heritage issues at stake cannot be overstated. 

"While gas will continue to play a role in our energy transition, locking in gas fields until 2070 and beyond is unacceptable – especially when it comes at the cost of our natural environment and national heritage." 

Likewise, the Australian Green party's resources spokeswoman Dorinda Cox said: "Should we have a power-sharing arrangement in the next parliament we will absolutely be taking Labor to task on this, because it's so important.  

"Tanya should take into consideration what her legacy wants to be post-politics. We would never do this to the pyramids in Egypt, we would never do this to Stonehenge, but … we are now looking down the ­barrel of making a decision that cannot be reversed, that will ­destroy that beautiful and amazing place all in the name of a gas export hub" said Sen Cox. 

Meg hits back

All this comes on the day Woodside releases their full year results, and speaking on a webinar to accompany the release, company boss Meg O'Neill took aim at the opponents of the controversial project, calling them "just pro-coal." 

"I continue to be pretty frustrated that it's taken more than six years to grant approval to extend the life of an asset that's been operating for 40 years, when we're not planning to do anything that's outside the fence line we've already established.  

"We're at the point where we're looking at business decisions that are ahead of us, things like drilling new wells to bring new gas to the markets, particularly the domestic gas market, which needs it as early as 2028 we're having to ask ourselves ‘Can we make that decision with confidence?' - not knowing if the federal approval is going to be granted?  

She also criticised the approvals and regulatory landscape, referring to the request lodged by the CCWA. 

"I think it's proof of some of the challenges that Australia faces in the approvals environment that you've got things like reconsideration requests that come in at the 11th hour, where proponents, who have no skin in the game, can ask the minister to review decisions that were made 40 years ago.  

"Hopefully we'll get an approval before the election...I think the outcome of further delays means more coal in the energy mix longer so if you're serious about the environment."