The Conservation Council of WA (CCWA) joined forces with other leading environment groups, campaigners and the WA community today at Woodside’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) to call for its Browse export gas project to be rejected.
CCWA Executive Director Matt Roberts urged the State Government to listen to the WA community and say no to Browse, which poses a significant threat to Scott Reef off Western Australian’s northern coastline.
“Woodside is seeking approval to drill 57 gas wells on and around one of the world’s last great reef systems to export Australian gas overseas,” Mr Roberts said.
“Scott Reef is an incredibly biodiverse marine ecosystem, providing a feeding ground for the endangered migratory pygmy blue whale and a home to endangered green sea turtles and the dusky sea snake.
“The proposal, which was slated to be knocked back by the WA Environment Protection Authority (EPA) in 2024 for ‘unacceptable impacts to the environment’, was resubmitted last year with revisions that made no meaningful difference to the environmental concerns.
“These include threats to endangered animals, risks of oil spills, and the potential for the subsidence of Sandy Islet, a crucial nesting area for green and hawksbill turtles.
“In addition, Browse would release 1.6 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to nearly 20-times Western Australia’s annual emissions, and nearly 3.5 times Australia’s annual emissions.
“This is a company that has bought its way into WA schools, museums and sports clubs to distract us from the fact that it is ripping us off, warming the planet and slowing down the transition to a renewable energy future.
“Meanwhile, calls from across the political spectrum for a 25% tax on gas exports are only getting louder. Woodside claims that a tax on gas exports would make the Browse project unviable — which only shows that doubling down on fossil gas never made economic sense in the first place.
“The reality is, Browse has long been considered to be a low-value project, with its isolated and sensitive nature contributing to its failure to be developed since first being discovered more than 50 years ago.
“We are witnessing the dying breaths of an industry that’s rightly on its knees and ultimately, it’s up to WA Premier Roger Cook, and Environment Minister Matthew Swinbourn, to stand strong against pressure from the gas industry lobby.
“More than 17,500 people made submissions to the revised proposal when it was opened to public comment by the EPA calling for the Browse project to be rejected. Today, we expect to see hundreds of people out protesting, demanding a cleaner, more affordable renewable future for WA.
“We hope from today’s AGM that new Woodside CEO Elizabeth Westcott uses the opportunity to reassess this low value, highly polluting and environmentally disastrous project and take it off the table.”
—ENDS—
Media contact: John Cooke – 0433 679 780 – [email protected]
Photos from the protest and file photos for editorial use will be available here after the protest: WDS AGM 2026 - Google Drive
Images and Videos of Scott Reef https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1R7MxD4ZukjdWvK9_TL1MCC7hUrUmC2pN?usp=drive_link