Energy Minister Megan Woods Completes Convoluted Scheme to Shutdown Onshore Fossil Fuel Exploration
November 23, 2022
PHOTO: JERICHO ROCK-ARCHER
High Court Justice Francis Cooke concluded that Woods has a legal right to issue the permits – but went further. If the minister “had substantively taken [climate change] into account, she would have been acting unlawfully”, he said.
“The argument that not enough is being done to address climate change, and that no more mining for fossil fuels should take place, is an argument that the Crown Minerals Act requires further amendment by Parliament.” That amendment is what the Government has now done.
The Act’s requirement for the Government to actively promote fossil fuel exploration is “out of date”, Woods said in a statement.
“It’s time we changed our laws so that they are consistent with our climate change commitments to phase out polluting fossil fuels and transition to net zero by 2050.”