Federal Labor’s decision to extend Woodside’s North West Shelf until 2070 sends a clear signal to the gas industry that it will not let the concerns of scientists, Traditional Owners and ordinary working people stand in the way of corporate profits.

Woodside’s North West Shelf project is one of four critical parts of its Culture, climate and ecology destroying Burrup Hub project, near Karratha. Traditional Owners vehemently oppose it, saying it will devastate more than 1 million pieces of 40,000-year-old rock art, petroglyphs created by incising, carving or abrading the rock, in Murujuga National Park.

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The Western Australian government’s own report sounded a warning, too, about Murujuga.

If it is allowed to go ahead (environmental plans are pending), Woodside’s project would be the largest fossil fuel project in the Southern Hemisphere. It would be responsible for more than 6 billion tonnes of carbon over its lifetime.

Environment Minister Murray Watt made his decision........

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