Prime Minister Anthony Albanese denies delay in Woodside North West Shelf decision to appease crossbench

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has denied that his Government is delaying its decision on the lifetime extension of Woodside’s North West Shelf project in response to any crossbench demands.

The Federal environment department has pushed back its deadline by a month for a decision on allowing the project to operate until 2070, citing a delay in receiving paperwork from WA counterparts.

The WA department took some six years to consider the application before making a decision in December.

The Australian reported on Tuesday morning that Labor would face pressure from the Greens and crossbenchers including Curtin MP Kate Chaney to not approve the project, should there be a hung parliament after the election.

But asked whether the Government was delaying a decision because of crossbench concerns, Mr Albanese gave a blunt: “No.”

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

Federal bureaucrats confirmed in Senate estimates late on Monday night that they had been seeking the latest version of research relating to rock art in the area, describing the information received in early February as a highly technical report.

“It’s several hundred pages, and then we had 23 calendar days to finish all those steps ... so hence we extended the timeframe out,” head of environmental approvals Bruce Edwards told senators.

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

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.

But Mr Edwards said his approvals 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 department is yet to send a decision brief to Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek.

Department officials also revealed on Monday that the Conservation Council of WA has filed a separate application to reconsider the Woodside approvals, which is being examined alongside the proposal.