Last week, when Federal Government Environment Minister Murray Watt signed off on a 40-year extension to Woodside Energy’s Pilbara-based Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) processing plant – granting it a licence to operate the site until at least 2070 – it was news the global corporate energy company felt it had waited a very long time to hear.
But after the six-year approval process, which some say has been plagued by uncertainty and delays, many in the environmental and cultural heritage sector are now expressing an opposing view, claiming that the approval decision has been dangerously premature in its disregard of scientific advice pointing to the gas plant emissions’ damaging effects on 50,000-year-old Aboriginal rock art located on Murujuga Country near the industrial site.
