The environment minister, Murray Watt, has knocked back two last-minute objections to Woodside’s North West Shelf extension, clearing the way for a final decision on the controversial development.
Greenpeace and the Conservation Council of Western Australia were among groups opposing the expansion who were denied reconsideration related to the project, communicated to them via Watt’s department of climate change, energy, the environment and water on Thursday.
Officials said the request did not meet the requirements for reconsideration and did not include “any substantial new information about the impacts” of the project.
Watt is set to meet with members of the Labor Environment Action Network, an influential grassroots organisation within the Labor party, on Thursday night, following his visit to Western Australia this week.
The deadline on a decision on Woodside’s plan to extend its gas processing plant in WA’s remote north-west out to 2070 is due by the end of the month, one of the first major political challenges for Watt in his new portfolio. His decision follows a six-year assessment process involving state and federal authorities.
A delay in the decision by former minister Tanya Plibersek pushed the final sign off out to after the WA state election in March and the 3 May federal election.
During the campaign, then opposition leader, Peter Dutton, vowed a Coalition government would make a ruling on the application within 30 days, under a new “national interest” test that forces decision-makers to give more weight to a project’s social and economic benefits as part of the environmental assessment.
The project is fiercely opposed by environment groups, which say it could damage Indigenous rock art and the local environment and lead to billions of tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
Watt last week told Guardian Australia last week it was “certainly his intention” to make a ruling before the deadline, rather than seek another extension.
Greenpeace Australia Pacific WA campaign lead Geoff Bice said the knock back on their request for reconsideration was deeply disappointing.
“The primary purpose of Woodside’s North West Shelf extension is to process gas from the Browse gas field underneath Scott Reef,” he said. “The minister should be looking at these gas mega projects as a whole, rather than broken into arbitrary pieces.
“The North West Shelf facility is one of Australia’s dirtiest and most polluting fossil fuel projects. The decision to refuse Greenpeace’s reconsideration request brings Woodside one step closer towards drilling for dirty gas at Scott Reef.”
The WA Environment Protection Authority last year described the proposal to open the Browse basin for development as “unacceptable” due to its impact on marine life at Scott Reef. The reef is home to more than 1,500 species, many unique to the area.
The Conservation Council of WA’s executive director, Matt Roberts, said it was “particularly disappointing” the reconsideration request had been dismissed one day after Watt was in Perth this week to speak with mining industry representatives and other stakeholders.
Roberts said Watt had declined to meet with the council or Greenpeace while in WA on the grounds it would be inappropriate while the reconsideration request was still under review.
“The dismissal of this reconsideration gives us grave concern that it paves the way for Minister Watt to make a decision on the North West Shelf extension despite the fact that he is just 10 days into his new job and this project will have long lasting negative impacts for generations to come,” Roberts said. “Disappointingly, as far as I am aware, Minister Watt did not even meet with any of the concerned Traditional Owners on this trip.”
Greens leader Larissa Waters accused Labor of secretly preparing to approve the project.
“This was the new Labor government’s first big climate test, and Anthony Albanese is lining up to fail it spectacularly – approving Woodside’s carbon bomb even faster than Dutton planned to,” she said.
“Australia’s environment laws are broken, but a rapid-speed approval by Minister Watt indicates he has no intention of fixing them. The coal and gas industry must be rubbing their hands together.”
The department told Guardian Australia in a statement it considered the requests under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.
“These requests were found to be invalid, meaning that the applications did not meet the requirements of the EPBC Act and EPBC regulations for a reconsideration request.”
