Newly minted Environment Minister Murray Watt is expected to decide in the coming days whether to approve Woodside's bid to extend the life of the North West Shelf gas facility out to 2070.
If approved, it would be the most polluting fossil fuel project greenlit by the Albanese Government, and its 27th fossil fuel approval since taking office.
The project would release 4.4 billion tonnes of climate pollution over its lifetime, twice as much as the Coalition's now-abandoned nuclear scheme, and equivalent to more than a decade of Australia's annual emissions.
Climate Council CEO Amanda McKenzie said: "Labor's landslide victory opens the opportunity for the Government to do what's right to protect our kids' future: to reject this massively polluting project that would spew 4.4 billion tonnes of climate pollution into our air.
"Peter Dutton promised to approve this project before the last election. Voters rejected Dutton and the Government must now reject this project too.
"Approving the North West Shelf extension would be a polluting stain on the Albanese Government's climate and energy legacy - undermining all the strong progress made on renewable power."
Climate Councillor Joel Gilmore said: "This project is about more gas for foreign interests, not Australian energy needs. With the International Energy Agency projecting a huge uptake of renewables, nearly a quarter of all liquefied gas won't be needed by 2030. We don't need to make this problem worse by producing even more polluting gas.
Five reasons why an extension of the North West Shelf would be rotten for our climate:
It's a climate bomb that will harm more Aussies.
The North West Shelf extension is a climate bomb that would unleash 4.4 billion tonnes of climate pollution, making it Australia's second worst polluting fossil fuel facility. That's 10 years' worth of Australia's emissions, and twice as polluting as the Coalition's nuclear scheme would have been. (Thankfully, that bombed at the ballot box.)
Digging up and burning coal, oil and gas is overheating our planet and endangering the Aussie way of life. More climate pollution would cause more intense and frequent unnatural disasters that put even more Australians in harm's way.
It would undermine all our efforts to cut climate pollution elsewhere.
Australia is making progress on climate solutions, with the Albanese Government introducing major policy reforms in the last Parliament that are expected to cut Australia's 2030 climate pollution by 39 million tonnes – across electricity, transport, buildings and industry.
In contrast, the North West Shelf extension is expected to produce 88 million tonnes of climate pollution each year, more than twice that cut by the Albanese Government in 2030. Unleashing a massive climate bomb like this would completely undermine the Government's efforts to cut climate pollution elsewhere.
It threatens Australia's climate credibility and regional security.
Pacific nations are on the frontlines of climate impacts and tackling climate change is central to safeguarding our regional security. Approving new fossil fuel developments threatens our crucial relationships with our Pacific allies who have long called for Australia to stop approving coal and gas projects. This has implications for Australia's security relationships and our bid to host the next United Nations climate conference (COP31) in partnership with the Pacific.
No one wants, or needs, this polluting and expensive gas.
The vast majority of the gas from the North West Shelf would be exported. Any gas reserved for domestic use could only be used in Western Australia, which already has a huge gas supply far exceeding its own needs. The rest of the world is heading in the same direction, with global supply of liquified gas (LNG) expected to outstrip demand by 27% by 2030. The benefit from this project will largely be for Woodside and other multinational companies. If we don't need this gas, and the rest of the world is oversupplied too, what's the point?
Australians voted for a renewable-powered future – not climate destruction.
At the 2025 Federal Election, Australians gave Labor its strongest mandate since World War II to go further and faster on cutting climate pollution and ramping up renewables. Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton put nuclear and expanding gas (including fast tracking this North West Shelf approval) at the heart of his election campaign. He not only lost the election, but also his own seat.
Approving the North West Shelf extension would be climate vandalism. It would stain any legacy the Albanese Government hopes to build around protecting Australians from climate change and powering our future with renewable energy.
With our kids' future at stake, we're closely watching how this unfolds.
