The Australian Conservation Foundation has added a new ground to its court case challenging Minister Murray Watt's North West Shelf approval.
The new ground points out that the Minister made his final approval decision before there was a real opportunity to review or challenge the Minister's earlier decision about the environmental matters that require assessment.
That's because the Minister didn't publish his reasons for the first decision until after he had granted final approval, despite those reasons having been requested months earlier. This could be seen as an attempt to minimise legal challenges to the project.
ACF will say in court that important decisions like these need to be seen to be made impartially, and that the Minister's conduct might indicate that he was biased in favour of approving the project.
The North West Shelf extension would allow a staggering 4 billion tonnes of climate pollution, harming the places, plants and animals we love.
The matter is scheduled to go to court in July.
Amended originating application for North West Shelf court case
