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Opposition leader Peter Dutton has just announced that, if elected, a Coalition government would assess Woodside’s North West Shelf extension proposal “within 30 days”, and claimed current Environment Minister, Tanya Plibersek was delaying federal approval to appease Green voters in Melbourne and Sydney.

The joint venture, which would extend the life of the gas project until 2070, was recently approved by the state government after six years of review. Plibersek has since postponed her final sign-off decision until the end of March.

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Dutton said Premier Roger Cook’s approval indicated the project should proceed, and that he wanted to see a mining boom again here in WA.

“The Labor government under Anthony Albanese and Tanya Plibersek and Chris Bowen have taken the decision to abandon WA, to put in place all sorts of processes and roadblocks to stop projects from taking place,” he said.

“Why would they destroy jobs and economic activity in WA? Because they want to chase green votes in inner-city Sydney and Melbourne and I think WA are smart enough to realise they are being duped by a Prime Minister who is no Mark McGowan no Roger Cook, and frankly, he’s a Prime Minister that is against mining.”

At a press conference in Brisbane this morning, Albanese said the decision had been with the federal government for “just a matter of weeks” and that it was going through the approval process.