‘Being lied to’: John Butler slams Woodside’s ‘out of touch’ Scott Reef gas proposal

American-Australian musician John Butler has slammed an “out of touch and ludicrous” proposal he claimed could set Australia’s net zero targets back by up to two decades.

Woodside has planned to drill up to 50 gas wells around Scott Reef in Western Australia — the country’s largest offshore coral reef — as part of a Browse gas proposal.

More than 1500 species — including the endangered pygmy blue whale — are found in the reef, with Butler condemning the proposal.

He claimed more gas wells are the “exact opposite direction that we need to be going in”.

“It’s a little bit out of touch with where we are on the planet, and a bit out of touch with the federal government on the mandate of being climate active,” Butler told NewsWire.

The singer-songwriter, who was born in the US but moved to WA when he was young, said the irony of the situation struck him while looking at postcards at the Perth museum recently.

“There’s all these ads for ‘WA gem’, ‘WA heart place’, and it’s all about the Kimberley, yet it seems like our state government is hell bent on approving 50 gas and oil rigs around Scott Reef … it’s just absolutely out of touch and ludicrous,” he said.

Having spent his formative years camping along southwest WA and Pilbara, Butler said “beautiful, pristine environments” are “the stamp of what it means to be Australian in a lot of ways”.

“If you open your passport, those will be the pictures … Kimberley, Uluru, Great Barrier Reef,” he said.

“We don’t put in gas precincts and gas hubs in a passport and send postcards, because we’re not really proud of them, and it’s not really where our hearts are at.”

He warned an oil spill in areas like Scott Reef would “completely alter and devastate those regions for years to come”.

“Once they’re in, you can’t stop them”

Butler has been fighting to protect Australia’s environment for more than a decade, having organised a protest performance in an attempt to block another of Woodside’s gas proposals in Kimberley back in 2011.

The musician, known for his political lyrics, told NewsWire that protesting 13 years on was becoming “boring”.

“There’s better things to be doing, like building a future that can be sustained rather than fighting against a power source that’s baking the planet and really harming culture and community,” he said.

“But its not surprising because I think the resource sector in the country — in the state, really — have the ear of our government in a way that we can see with the revolving door between … next appointments into resource companies in a lot of ways.”

However he said stopping Woodside’s latest proposal “right now” is “the easiest it’s going to get”.

“The most important thing is same reason why we stopped the gas pipe 13 years ago (in Kimberley),” Butler said.

“Once they’re in, you can’t stop them.

“‘Another one’s not going to make a difference, we’ve already spoiled the place’ — that’s always the excuse.”

People of WA ‘being lied to’

He said evidence of the “absolute devastation of industrialisation” is already around us, and claimed resource companies are greenwashing by “saying they want to help (the country) transition” to net zero by 2050.

“But it seems to me their only real goal is profit … whilst paying very minimal tax and somehow blaming the green movement,” Butler said.

“There’s a complete scam that’s happening and the WA people are being had.

“They’re being lied to, they’re having their heart strings pulled by these companies saying they care about … their jobs.”

Butler was given the opportunity to swim and snorkel through Scott Reef recently as part of a campaign to block Woodside’s proposal.

“It’s so isolated, so pristine, so gorgeous — then standing on the sandy islet and just imagining … there’ll be a ring of 50 wells around this reef,” he said.

He warned it would be a “hidden environmental disaster happening in slow motion” that could push Australia 20 years past the net zero agreement by 2050.

“It absolutely … If you don’t laugh, you cry. It’s pretty strange behaviour,” Butler said.

Project “aligns” with government policy statements: Woodside

A Woodside spokesperson said the project “aligns with key policy statements of both the Western Australia and Australian governments which recognise the pivotal role of natural gas in Australia to 2050 and beyond, to firm renewables and support the economy as Australia makes the transition to net zero emissions”.

“This includes an important role for gas to underpin the development of a world-leading and value-adding critical minerals sector in WA,” the spokesperson said.

“Browse domestic gas could help address the shortfall of domestic gas in Western Australia forecast from the early 2030s, which is largely driven by planned retirements of coal-fired power stations.”

 

The spokesperson also said no drilling would occur on Scott Reef.

“The floating production storage and offloading vessels would be located almost 8 km from the reef and nearly 30 km from the Sandy Islet Turtle Nesting Habitat. The nearest drilling would occur approximately 3 km from the reef,” the spokesperson said.

“No physical contact from project activities is predicted to Scott Reef (above the 75m contour). All proposed activities would occur in waters more than 300m deep.”

The spokesperson said Woodside would continue to work with state and federal regulators to “finalise the assessment of the Browse to NWS Project proposal which was referred in 2018”.

“While we are confident that initial referral documents, submitted more than five years ago, demonstrated our intent to manage environmental impacts and risks to an acceptable level, we have continued to collect scientific data relevant to the development area and monitor advances in global best practice environmental mitigations,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said the company provided further information on “additional best practice mitigations to further demonstrate our commitment to avoid and minimise any potential environmental impacts from the proposed development”.

“Trying to save the planet, not just save Western Australia”

WA Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Action Reece Whitby said the government wanted to “make sure that we protect our pristine and unique environment” while speaking at a press conference on Thursday.

“That’s the reason why projects such as Browse have to go through such a rigorous environmental assessment process.

“That process is ongoing at the moment, I won’t pre-empt it, I won’t second guess it.

“It’s important that the companies involved and obviously those who are interested in the stewardship of the environment can make their applications to that process and the EPA make an assessment.”

He also said the government is “trying to save the planet, not just save Western Australia”, and called it a “complex process”.

“We know that gas is going to play an important role in helping other countries to get out of coal and to move around on their clean energy transition process as well,” he said.

“We know that gas will continue to be an important part of our fuel needs as well as we continue to retire all our coal-fire powered stations by 2030.”