North West Shelf project delay triggers election warning of less has and more ‘extreme ideology’

Australia’s top energy bosses have warned a hung parliament held together by the Greens and teals will “progress extreme ideology” amidst fears the Albanese Government will be forced to reject key projects to secure support.

The industry is voicing its concerns after the Federal Government delayed its decision on an extension of Woodside’s North West Shelf project as key independent candidates like Curtin’s Kate Chaney urged Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek to “knock it back”.

Woodside chief executive Meg O’Neill said the Greens and the teals holding the balance of power federally would be “a nightmare”.

She added that blocking the project — which also supplies local gas for WA — would lead to more coal use on the power grid. State-owned coal power stations in WA are set to be shut by the end of the decade, with gas and renewables as replacements.

“The people who are opposing it, they’re just pro-coal,” she said.

“At the end of the day, if the North West Shelf life approval isn’t extended, the outcome will be more coal in WA’s energy mix for longer.

“All these players claiming they care about the environment, it’s just not true.”

Beach Energy chief executive Brett Woods has warned voters about backing the Greens and independent candidates like the teals, arguing a hung parliament would “progress extreme ideology.

“This week, the Greens and a WA teal MP made it clear they would demand a minority government cancel the extension of Woodside’s North West Shelf Project — which has already generated $40 billion in royalties and excise for Australian taxpayers and is delivering natural gas to domestic and international markets amid increasing supply shortages. This is just the start,” he wrote in The Australian.

“A minority government risks handing over exorbitant power to a small collection of shuttered MPs wholly concerned with their narrow agenda rather than the greater good of the nation

“Australians should be aware we are close to handing over the keys to a minority government and that will be a horrific outcome for Australians who are already suffering deeply from cost-of-¬ living pressures.”

WA Premier Roger Cook said he was “disgusted” to hear that the teals and the Greens would contemplate using Woodside’s project as a bargaining tool to help Labor form minority government.

“Anyone that puts a price, a political price, on stopping important economic projects like the North West shelf are guilty of economic vandalism,” he said.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek is being urged to approve the extension amid revelations the decision could be made during an election period.

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA’s head Peter Cock said any decision must be “grounded in facts” and made swiftly, or risk billions of dollars in economic activity.

“We encourage the Government to do what’s best for WA and the nation and approve this vital project, and to expedite the process,” he said.

The Federal environment department pushed back its decision deadline by a month until the end of March — widely expected to be during the election campaign — citing a delay in receiving paperwork from WA counterparts.

The WA department took around six years to consider the application before granting the approval in December. When that decision was announced Ms Chaney said allowing 50 more years of gas processing was “terrible news” and urged Ms Plibersek to “consider our long-term future and knock it back”.

With polls pointing to a hung parliament where crossbenchers will become kingmakers, Ms Chaney said on Tuesday she could work with either side of politics.

“Going into the next election, I don’t have a list of demands or non-negotiables – about the North West Shelf or anything else,” she told The West Australian.

“I have consistently said that if I am re-elected, I will retain my ability to vote on each piece of legislation on its merits, based on the values of my community and the long-term interests of the country. Neither party seems to be able to grasp the concept of independence.”

Ms Chaney said she had met Opposition Leader Peter Dutton “to discuss working together” and made it clear to both sides she was willing to work constructively on the issues Curtin constituents cared about, including climate.

The Greens are more likely to include the project on their bargaining list, with senator David Shoebridge describing it as a “climate bomb” and saying the party “absolutely” wanted to stop the plant processing gas for decades longer.

Mr Albanese denied his Government was stalling in response to any crossbench demands.

Pushed further on what he would do if it got tied up in the demands of a minority parliament, he said the matters were before the Environment Minister, adding “the Environment Minister responds in accordance with the law.”

He went further during an appearance on ABC’s Q&A o Monday night, saying the legal process wasn’t a matter of whether the minister liked or disliked a project but what the law said about whether it met environmental conditions.

The department is yet to send a decision brief to Ms Plibersek.

Officials told Senate estimates late on Monday night that once they do, the decision could be made even if the government was in caretaker mode.

It was up to Ms Plibersek to decide whether she personally would decide the approval rather than a departmental delegate.

“In that caretaker context, I think it’s really the minister’s call about whether something is sensitive, if she does choose to do that, whether she would like to consult with yourself and others before making that decision, or whether she believes that she shouldn’t proceed with that decision,” head of environmental approvals Bruce Edwards told shadow minister Jonno Duniam.

Federal bureaucrats confirmed they had been seeking the latest version of research relating to rock art on the Burrup Peninsula, describing the information received in early February from WA counterparts as a highly technical report.

The Commonwealth is an observer on the rock art monitoring project being run by the WA Government and Curtin University.

Mardudhunera woman Raelene Cooper and rock art experts called for WA minister Reece Whitby to resign his portfolio after it emerged he had not read the latest version of this report before approving the North West Shelf extension.

Mr Cook said his Government’s assessment of the project had been “timely, efficient and rigorous”.

Woodside has previously said the “unexpectedly protracted duration of the approvals process” was now affecting the investment decisions needed to back in near-term gas supply for WA.

Mr Edwards told senators on Monday his team had sought “general advice” from the department’s gas strategy experts to help the minister understand “any potential consequences” of a delay or non-approval.

“Our advice from our own internal gas colleagues is that this is not a substantive impact to the overall supply and demand of gas,” he said.

The Conservation Council WA lodged an application asking Federal officials to consider the impacts if the plant was used to process fracked gas, alongside the existing examination of its effect on the nearby Murujuga rock art.

The Karratha plant has never been used to process fracking gas and there was no proposal for it to do so.

CCWA acting executive director Mia Pepper said Ms Plibersek was poised to make a “highly significant decision”.

“We will continue to provide common sense input to ensure the government acts with all available evidence before it,” she said.