Woodside's North West Shelf project extension response delayed

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The Federal Government has given Woodside more time to respond to its proposed approval for a massive extension of the North West Shelf gas project. The deadline for the energy giant to respond to the environmental conditions placed on the 40-year extension was Friday, but negotiations remain ongoing.

Transcript

00:00Two weeks on, the climate movement is still making noise.

00:09Our environmental laws are so weak that you can push a fossil fuel power project as massive as this through them

00:14and the government can wash its hands and say, oh, but it passes all our environmental laws.

00:18The federal government has given provisional approval to keep the country's largest gas project running until 2070,

00:24saying its approval was subject to strict conditions.

00:28Those conditions have been shared with the project's operator, Woodside, but not with anyone else.

00:33The public and the traditional custodians whose country that these conditions supposedly will protect

00:39deserve to see those conditions and they should be able to be publicly scrutinised.

00:44The 10 days Woodside was given to respond to the conditions lapsed today, but that timeframe has been extended.

00:50In a statement, the company said it was continuing constructive consultation with the federal government

00:55and it recognises the importance of the matters being addressed by the proposed conditions.

01:00It did not reveal how long the extension is for.

01:03When the approval was given, Federal Environment Minister Murray Watt said the conditions were aimed at protecting

01:08ancient indigenous rock art adjacent to the project.

01:11So advocates argue it doesn't make sense the area's traditional custodians haven't seen them.

01:16There's a number of traditional custodians up at Muradjuga who have had no consultation whatsoever.

01:22If Woodside does agree to the conditions, there are other potential obstacles in its path.

01:26A last ditch legal bid by traditional custodian Raylene Cooper is set to be heard in the Federal Court

01:32from the middle of next month.

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