released under freedom of information laws<\/a> warned that if the extension was granted, emissions from the Karratha plant could affect the ancient rock art and heritage values of the Dampier Archipelago, including Murujuga.<\/p>\nTraditional Custodian Raelene Cooper applied to the government for a cultural heritage assessment of Murujuga under section 10 of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act. The Federal Court in August ruled the federal government had unreasonably delayed its response to her application.<\/p>\n
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Traditional custodian Raelene Cooper in May with the Woodside facility behind her.<\/p>\n
Section 10 of the act allows the environment minister to preserve culturally significant sites and to stop any works that could \u201cdesecrate\u201d those sites, and Cooper claimed Woodside\u2019s emissions were accelerating the degradation of the rock art.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis decision is a slap in the face. It allows Woodside to continue operations and pollution to 2070. It is a crime against Murujuga and a crime against humanity,\u201d Cooper said.<\/p>\n
Watt said he had made a partial declaration to protect Murujuga\u2019s heritage value, but that the declaration would not prevent industry from operating in the area.<\/p>\n
This, he said, would protect \u201ca significant Aboriginal heritage area and\/or objects that are under threat of injury or desecration\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u2018It beggars belief that the Albanese government would choose to detonate this carbon bomb.\u2019<\/p>\n
Gavan McFadzean, Australian Conservation Foundation<\/p>\n
\u201cThe declaration will mean additional legal protections placed over part of the area, to ensure Murujuga\u2019s ancient rock art is appropriately protected into the future,\u201d Watt said.<\/p>\n
\u201cImportantly, this decision does not stop industry from operating at Murujuga.\u201d<\/p>\n
Energy industry leaders on Friday said the announcement would drive investment and ensure Australia had enough gas to back up the accelerating role of renewable energy.<\/p>\n
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Anita Logiudice, the policy and advocacy director at the Chamber of Minerals and Energy WA, said the long-awaited resolution significantly boosted the state\u2019s energy security and would benefit West Australian industry and households.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe importance of the North West Shelf to WA cannot be overstated,\u201d Logiudice said.<\/p>\n
Watt gave preliminary approval in May to the 40-year expansion of Woodside Energy\u2019s operations in the north-west of WA, comprising a vast network of offshore oil and gas infrastructure and the onshore gas-processing hub in Karratha.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIf Australia truly wants to partner with the Pacific for COP31, it must prove it with a genuine and strong climate plan,\u201d Varea said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat plan must align with keeping warming to 1.5 [degrees] and stop new fossil fuel expansion.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would show that \u2018hosting with the Pacific\u2019 is a slogan, rather than a commitment.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Climate Council previously described Woodside\u2019s original bid as a \u201ccarbon bomb\u201d that would lock in more than 4 billion tonnes of climate pollution \u2013 equivalent to a decade of Australia\u2019s annual emissions.<\/p>\n
Watt said on Friday the new conditions imposed on the project demonstrated the government was committed to protecting First Nations culture and protecting jobs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not one or the other,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Get alerts on breaking news as it happens. Sign up for our Breaking News Alert<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Watt\u2019s approval ends years of uncertainty over the future of the North West Shelf, which has been supplying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,75,128],"class_list":["post-137434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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