Editorial: Murray Watt must end the dithering and get Woodside’s North West Shelf gas extension approved

Election: won. New Cabinet: sworn in. The next thing on Anthony Albanese’s to-do list must be to finally get Woodside’s North West Shelf gas extension approved. The project, which would extend the life of the gas export plant in Karratha until 2070, spent six years undergoing environmental assessment before it was approved by the WA Government late last year. From there, it should have been a quick turnaround for the Federal Government to check the Ts were crossed and Is dotted before giving final approval. Instead, the Federal Environment Department gave itself an extension to its original February deadline to the end of March. Then that was again pushed back when the Government went into caretaker mode ahead of the election. Before Tanya Plibersek was shafted as environment minister and banished to the social services portfolio, a decision was expected by the end of this month. Whether the Government will stick to that timeline now Queenslander Murray Watt has been moved in to clean up his predecessor’s messes is unclear. This Labor Government needs to quit the dithering and get on with it. When asked during a stop-over in Perth en route to Jakarta on Wednesday about the project’s approval timeline, the Prime Minister was evasive, skirting around the question of when Woodside could expect an answer. It was an answer that while frustrating, would have made sense if he had given it prior to Labor’s election win earlier this month. During the campaign, Mr Albanese was trying to play both sides of the fence. He didn’t want to appear anti-energy but he didn’t want to risk raising the ire of city dwellers for whom gas was a dirty word, lest they give their votes to the Greens. At least, so it was thought. The Federal election landslide wasn’t just an endorsement of the Labor Government. It was also a rejection by voters of the gas-hating Greens and their mission to stand in the way of the sensible development that Australia needs to keep the economy ticking and the lights on. The Greens numbers in the Lower House have fallen from four to one. That should give Mr Albanese the courage and confidence to push ahead with this crucial project and others like it. The time for tricky political games is over. Mr Albanese needs to do what is in the national interest. The good news is that Mr Watt is a competent minister, with a reputation as a pragmatist and a fixer. He’s also from a resources State, which means he understands the industry’s importance to maintaining Australians’ living standards, making him well placed to balance that against environmental concerns. That should hold him in good stead as environment minister, particularly as he turns his attention to cleaning up another of Ms Plibersek’s messes by coming up with a workable model for an environmental protection authority.