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The Albanese government has approved an extension to 2070 of one of the world’s biggest gas export projects, saying it has agreed on conditions to protect more than 1 million pieces of ancient world heritage-listed Indigenous rock art that sit nearby.
The extension allows Woodside to keep operating its Karratha plant that processes and liquefies gas for export beyond 2030 and to 2070.
The federal environment minister, Murray Watt, said he had imposed 48 conditions on Woodside that related to monitoring and restricting industrial air emissions, including nitrous oxide, that could damage the rock art.
The Karratha plant neighbours the Murujuga Indigenous rock art complex – a landscape of petroglyphs dating back 50,000 years, including the oldest known image of a human face. “We are confident the conditions we have set are the right ones to protect jobs and economic opportunities and to protect the rock art,” Watt said.
Climate campaigners have described Woodside’s North West Shelf extension as a “carbon bomb” and the most polluting project in the southern hemisphere, incompatible with global climate goals.
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In video
A five-member panel of Brazil’s supreme court formed a majority to convict the former president Jair Bolsonaro of plotting a coup to remain in power after losing the 2022 election. The presumptive ruling makes Bolsonaro the first former president in the country’s history to be convicted of attacking democracy.
What they said …
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“We are building an industry in which we want to be a world leader.”
If everything falls into place, Australia’s first offshore wind project could have turbines in the water before 2032. The government has talked up its prospects of playing a huge role in the country’s energy transition.
“We aren’t just building an industry from scratch,” the energy minister, Chris Bowen, said in 2023. But does offshore wind still have a future?
Full Story
Newsroom edition: is Coalition chaos making life easier for Albanese?
After a week of infighting, Sussan Ley was left with no other choice but to sack Jacinta Nampijinpa Price. As Price and her supporters push for a more Trumpian turn, Ley is fighting to bring the opposition back to the centre. But as the Coalition continues to tear itself apart, should the media’s attention be more focused on the party in power?
Bridie Jabour talks to the Guardian Australia editor, Lenore Taylor, deputy editor Patrick Keneally and the head of newsroom, Mike Ticher, about who is holding Labor to account when the Coalition is constantly in chaos.
Before bed read
Like most of us, Guardian Australia’s Eleanor Burnard wanted to be seen as someone who is undoubtedly, undeniably, unquestionably “cool”, egged on by the Tumblr-scrolling days of yore. Now Eleanor has come to realise that there is no freer feeling than just embracing your own unique lameness.
Daily word game
Today’s starter word is: SPAT. You have five goes to get the longest word including the starter word. Play Wordiply.
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