You can’t always get what you want

Newly-appointed federal Environment Minister Murray Watt sounded a bit like the Buddha preaching the first Noble Truth — that life inherently contains suffering — as he spoke to the media last week.

On the looming approval decision for Woodside’s North West Shelf gas export extension, the biggest fossil fuel proposal in Australian history: “The environmental law is a contested space. This won’t be the only decision I make that will make some people happy and some people unhappy, but that’s the role.

“I know that there are very strong views about this proposal on all sides of the debate, but my job is to make the decision in accordance with the law.”

(These “strong views”, by the way, are, on the one side, the gas industry’s view that it needs to maximise its profits, and, on the other side, the climate movement’s views that we should have a functioning society to pass on to our children, as well as First Nations’ peoples views that 40,000 year old rock art engraved by their ancestors shouldn’t be destroyed.)

On his plans to finally introduce Labor’s long-promised environmental law reforms, a previous version of which were tanked by WA Premier Roger Cook: “In politics, you can’t please everyone all the time but you have an obligation to listen to them, to work with them, but then to make decisions and implement them.”

I’ve got a feeling it’s not Woodside execs who Watt plans to make unhappy with his decision on the North West Shelf (though I’d love to be proven wrong). Even if Watt upsets environmentalists by approving the proposal, which would have Woodside exporting Australian gas until 2070, it’s possible he could make the approval with some conditions that’ll spread the dissatisfaction around a little. I’m not holding my breath for that outcome either. 

Watt seems in a hurry to move on both the North West Shelf and nature law fronts. I wonder if his eagerness to talk up environmental reforms is partly because he thinks it's a way to throw the greenies a bone and temper disappointment (and criticism) that’ll arise when he approves the North West Shelf. Knowing the greenies, they’ll probably fall for it, even if it seems unlikely Labor’s Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act reforms will have much heft.

Again, I’d love to be proven wrong. The North West Shelf and nature laws are key tests for the second term of Albanese government. It sounds like we’ll know fairly soon how they’ll fare.

Last week on the Last Place on Earth podcast, we speculated that after the recent election campaign, in which Seven West and Murdoch hit-jobs on Labor and Teals barely registered with the constituency, establishment politicians might finally have realised the mainstream media doesn’t actually have that much power. We were perhaps naive. Watt, at least, appears to still be trying to appease Seven West, having given in to their pressure to make a call by the end of the month and therefore adopting Peter Dutton’s position of making a decision within 30 days following the election.

One of the key concerns with the North West Shelf is its impacts on the ancient Murujuga rock art, which has already been degraded by Woodside’s pollution. If Watt were committed to making the right decision, rather than a quick one, you’d think he’d wait for the release of a buried government report on the impacts of industrial pollution on the rock art before making a call. You’d also think he’d wait for the outcomes of an application for protection of heritage values under the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act, and the Australian government’s nomination of the Murujuga cultural landscape for UNESCO World Heritage listing.

Perhaps I expect too much, life being inherently painful etc. If you’re the Minister for Women, it appears to be your job to make women happy. If you’re the Minister for Small Business, it appears to be your job to make small business owners happy. But if you’re the Minister for the Environment, it appears your job is to not piss off industry too badly, for fear they’ll turn their propaganda organs on you. If you can’t make everyone happy all the time, why not prioritise the big companies that donate to your political party and threaten you with negative PR campaigns? The only reason not to would be a powerful social movement that could make you suffer more than the gas companies can, but we’re not there yet.