Labor's climate talk a lot of hot gas
The North West Shelf Extension is the textbook example of everything wrong with Australia’s gas policy. Its approval comes off the back of a dangerous myth that more gas means cheaper prices for Australians.
The first act of a re-elected Albanese Government has been to betray future generations.
Before the final votes are counted, before ministers have even had time to get their feet under their desks, the government has approved one of the biggest fossil fuel projects in our history: the North West Shelf Extension.
The North West Shelf isn’t just another gas project. It’s the expansion of a decades-old gas hub off the Pilbara coast in WA, near one of the world’s oldest cultural sites, Murujuga. It threatens endangered marine life at Scott Reef. It will pump 4.4 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere – 10 times Australia’s annual domestic emissions. And nearly all of the gas will be shipped overseas.
All this, approved under broken environmental laws a government-appointed review found unfit for purpose back in 2020. Laws Labor promised to fix, but hasn’t yet, after the prime minister intervened to stop an agreement that was reached with the Greens and........
© Pearls and Irritations
