Anthony Albanese defends major gas project, says net-zero needs more than ‘warm thoughts’

Anthony Albanese has defended the North West Shelf gas project, saying Australia’s renewable energy transition cannot happen with “warm thoughts” alone.

Environment Minister Murray Watt is expected to make a call on the project this week after delays under his predecessor, Tanya Plibersek.

Mr Watt has stressed he was still working through the details since taking on the portfolio.

But the Prime Minister on Monday seemed to already know the answer.

“You can’t have renewables unless you have firming capacity, simple as that,” Mr Albanese told reporters in Canberra.

“You don’t change a transition through warm thoughts, you do it through a concrete proposal, which is the expansion of renewables, up to 82 per cent of the grid.

“But the way that occurs is it needs firming capacity to occur.”

Extending the 41-year-old gas project is Senator Watt’s first big-ticket item in his new portfolio.

It is one of the world’s largest liquid natural gas (LNG) and the biggest in Australia.

Woodside Energy can operate the gas plant in Karratha until 2030 but wants to extend that until 2070.

With the Western Australian government having already given the green light, the ball is in Senator Watt’s court.

He has pledged to make a final call on it by the May 31 deadline.

Mr Albanese insisted the extension would be “considered according to the environmental law” and said his government had a “concrete plan” to reach net-zero.

“You cannot have a shift to renewables without having a confidence because you will lose community support if people walk into this room here and flick on the switch and the lights don’t go on,” he said.

“We have a concrete real plan … and it is the one we took to an election in 2022.

“It is the one we legislated after the election. It is the one we’re implementing.

“You can go down that road or you can go down the road of 23 different plans, none of them implemented, which is what the former government had, or just pretending that you can have investment changes and a change in the energy mix overnight.

“That can’t occur. If it did, that would be great. But what you need is a real plan with real solutions, that is what my government has.”