The North West Shelf Extension is the textbook example of everything wrong with Australia’s gas policy. Its approval comes off the back of a dangerous myth that more gas means cheaper prices for Australians.

The first act of a re-elected Albanese Government has been to betray future generations.

David Pocock

Before the final votes are counted, before ministers have even had time to get their feet under their desks, the government has approved one of the biggest fossil fuel projects in our history: the North West Shelf Extension.

The North West Shelf isn’t just another gas project. It’s the expansion of a decades-old gas hub off the Pilbara coast in WA, near one of the world’s oldest cultural sites, Murujuga. It threatens endangered marine life at Scott Reef. It will pump 4.4 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere – 10 times Australia’s annual domestic emissions. And nearly all of the gas will be shipped overseas.

All this, approved under broken environmental laws a government-appointed review found unfit for purpose back in 2020. Laws Labor promised to fix, but hasn’t yet, after the prime minister intervened to stop an agreement that was reached with the Greens and the crossbench late last year.

Right now, communities on the mid-north coast of NSW are assessing the damage from yet another flood – the second in four years that authorities are calling a once in 500-year event. The climate crisis is not theoretical. It’s here, it’s now, and it’s devastating our communities.

This project is the textbook example of everything wrong with Australia’s gas policy. Its approval comes off the back of a dangerous myth that more gas means cheaper prices for Australians. Over the past decade, east coast gas production has doubled. Prices have tripled. Domestic demand is falling, yet households and manufacturers are paying through the nose because more than three-quarters of our gas is exported or used in export processing. Earlier this week, households were told to brace for power bill hikes of up to 10% – the cost of gas, coupled with ageing coal, are major factors as to why.

Our approach is in stark contrast to other resource-rich nations. Norway, also a substantial gas exporter, now has a sovereign wealth fund worth US$2.8 trillion. Meanwhile, we have nearly $1 trillion of debt.

The government’s spin about needing to support the energy security of our partners has also been shot down, with reports showing Japan made more than US$1 billion last year by re-exporting our gas.

The government and the gas industry say we need more supply. That’s nonsense. What we need is a government willing to prioritise domestic use and put a fair price on exports. That means fixing the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax, strengthening export controls, and legislating a duty of care to protect young Australians from climate harm.

Last term, I introduced a bill to enshrine that duty of care in law. It had support from across the political spectrum and 402 of 403 public submissions. But Labor and the Coalition blocked it. Because deep down, they knew it would stop projects like this one.

The Albanese Government has taken some steps in the right direction. It legislated emissions targets, invested in renewables and began backing household electrification. But it also rebranded Scott Morrison’s “gas-led recovery” as the “Future Gas Strategy”, a document that flies in the face of advice from the IPCC, the IEA, and our own Office of National Intelligence.

While I appreciate the confidential briefing the government gave to community-backed independents on this report, I will continue to push for its public release. Australians deserve to know its contents, especially in the context of their government continuing to approve projects like this one.

Australians didn’t vote for more gas exports. They voted for climate action, cost-of-living relief, and a future our kids can look forward to. Approving the North West Shelf Extension would deliver the opposite.

It locks in decades of climate damage, deepens our energy crisis, and pours fuel on the fires of inequality. All, so multinational gas giants can make a buck. That’s not a strategy, it’s a sellout.

It doesn’t have to be this way. With its new mandate, the government had a once-in-a-generation opportunity to get this right. To reject this project. To fix our tax and environmental laws. To prioritise Australian families and businesses over fossil fuel profits. And to show the leadership this moment demands.

This week, the Cabinet is sitting in Perth. Maybe the prime minister would consider holding cabinet in Taree instead, so ministers can see firsthand what happens to communities when projects like the North West Shelf Extension get approved.

This article first appeared in The Canberra Times.

https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/06/the-north-west-shelf-isnt-just-another-gas-project/

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