Despite all the science, all the suffering, and all the promises, the Albanese Government has just approved Woodside’s monstrous plan to extend its North West Shelf gas project out to 2070. That’s a whopping 4.3 billion tonnes of extra CO₂ - equivalent to the annual emissions of every household in Australia for almost 30 years. What the Freak!
That’s not a typo. 2070 is forty-five years from now. Long after the science shows and the world has agreed that we need to be at net zero. Long after entire ecosystems, island nations, and communities will have been decimated.
The decision was quietly signed off by the newly minted Environment Minister Murray Watt. During Reconciliation Week! That tells you all you need to know about this new Labor government and it’s commitment to transparency, climate actions and Aboriginal peoples .
A Climate Government in Name Only
When Labor won back in 2022, many of us - myself included - held onto hope. Hope that after years of Liberal Party denial, delay, and destruction, Australia would finally show leadership on climate. I was holding onto naive expectations that they might finally prioritise courage over coal and gas, especially after their latest election win. But this decision shows clearly what and who Labor plans to prioritise for the next three years. It’s not climate action!
This is not a climate government. It’s a fossil fuelled government with a fresh media team. And a commitment to Woodside and the dirty fossil fuel industry.
Woodside’s project will keep spewing methane and carbon dioxide - supercharging climate change - for nearly half a century. That’s totally incompatible with a safe climate. Incompatible with the safeguard mechanism. And incompatible with any claim to climate leadership.
In 2023 I held a climate hunger strike outside Parliament House and last year I cycled 4,500 km across Australia for a future where our kids and Country could thrive. But every time this government gives the green light to another fossil fuel project, it breaks my heart and torches that future a little more.
It’s not just the emissions. It’s the betrayal. The betrayal of young Australians who want action and who deserve a safe and prosperous future. Betrayal of First Nations peoples who have cared for this land for millennia. Betrayal of our Pacific neighbours whose homes are already being swallowed by rising seas.
If this makes you angry too - please don’t just scroll past. Act.
1. Call Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s electorate office:
2. Call Minister Murray Watt’s electorate office:
Tell them you oppose this project. Tell them you want no more coal or gas. Tell them shame! Tell them you expect better - for our kids, for our Country, for our future.
And please, share this blog. Speak up on social media, in your community, and with your local MP. The more noise we make, the harder it becomes for them to hide from their shame.
