Plibersek strikes again, page-9

AUST today (extract):
Plibersek de-fangs sea snake claim
PAUL GARVEY
Tanya Plibersek has defied her own department and swiftly ruled out any new review of oil and gas projects in the Timor Sea, after the detection of a rare sea snake near Woodside’s $US20bn ($29.74bn) Browse gas project sparked a call for urgent intervention from her team of expert scientific advisers.
The dusky sea snake, which is almost exclusively found in the waters of Scott Reef, above the Browse project’s Torosa gas field, was formally declared endangered after scientific advisers to the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water made the declaration this week.
The conservation advice from the advisers calls for action to address the impacts from the local fossil fuel industry, saying there needs to be an urgent review of all oil and gas activities across the Browse Basin and the Timor Sea to determine whether the known and potential impact on the snake were being adequately considered and avoided.
“It is critical a precautionary and nature-positive context is applied to addressing known, likely, and potential impacts to the dusky sea snake, particularly in relation to regulation of the local fossil fuel industry and other activities that are driving climate change,” the conservation advice says.
The Environment Minister in a statement to The Australian made it clear that the findings would not prompt a fresh review of oil and gas projects in the region. “This is simply advice from a committee established by John Howard. “It doesn’t dictate government action or decision-making in any way,” she said.
The declaration and advice comes amid an ongoing assessment of the Browse project by Ms Plibersek under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.
The sea snake, however, will not factor into the minister’s EPBC assessment of the project, with the relevant legislation requiring the minister only to consider the status of species as they were at the point the application was lodged.…..