CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA—Greenpeace Australia Pacific has just delivered an informal petition, signed by a staggering 440,000 people opposed to fossil fuel giant Woodside’s Burrup Hub project, to Parliament.

A delegation from Greenpeace Australia Pacific has delivered the petition to Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek. WA Independent MP, the Hon Kate Chaney will speak to the petition in the House of Representatives on Tuesday at approximately 7:30 p.m., and Independent Senator David Pocock will speak to the petition in Senate most likely at 4:00 p.m.

The informal petition was delivered as a giant scroll bearing 440,000 signatures and spanning over 40 metres when unfurled. Minister Plibersek was presented with a miniature replica encased in a hand-blown glass bottle made by artists at the Canberra Glass works.

For context, the record for a Parliamentary e-petition is 370,004 signatures on a 2019 petition for the Government to declare a climate emergency.

Comments below attributable to Joe Rafalowicz, Head of Climate and Energy, Greenpeace Australia Pacific:

“Nearly half a million people from every corner of Australia and around the world have spoken out against Woodside’s Burrup Hub, the country’s biggest climate threat and a catastrophic risk to Western Australia’s beautiful oceans and coral reefs.

“Hundreds of thousands of people say no to Woodside’s proposed plans to drill near Western Australia’s pristine Scott Reef, one of Australia’s most unique and ecologically significant marine environments and home to hundreds of species including endangered pygmy blue whales and green sea turtles.

“Woodside plans to extract gas out from underneath Scott Reef, likely causing it to sink. Combined with sea level rise from climate change, this could cause critical turtle nesting habitat to be washed away.

“Woodside itself says that a blow-out from one of its gas wells could cause an oil spill at Scott Reef so severe it would have ‘severe and potentially irreversible‘ impacts on the marine ecosystem. Australians won’t stand by and let Woodside plunder our oceans to line their pockets.

“Woodside’s Burrup Hub is the most climate-polluting fossil fuel project proposed in Australia today, and will keep belching out methane until 2070—long past the world’s deadline for phasing out of fossil fuels in order to reach net zero emissions by mid-century.

“Australia is one of the sunniest, windiest places in the world. We’re perfectly placed to become a renewable energy superpower. A future made in Australia means using clean energy to generate green exports, not locking our region into a toxic, gas-fuelled future.

“Greenpeace Australia Pacific and the hundreds of thousands of Australians who have signed our petition urge the Federal Government to protect our precious environment from Woodside’s monstrous Burrup Hub, and to instead invest in the clean energy sources that will allow us to build a Future Made in Australia.

-ENDS-

NOTES TO EDITOR

Photographs available:

• Greenpeace Australia Pacific hands over petition to Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek
• Scott Reef (underwater and aerial shots)
• Footage of Hon Kate Chaney and Senator David Pocock speaking to the petition will be on Parlview

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact Vai Shah at 0452 290 082 or vaidehi.shah@greenpeace.org

Greenpeace Australia Pacific is a global independent campaigning organisation that uses peaceful protest and creative confrontation to expose environmental problems and promote solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future.

Greenpeace AP brings 440,000 signatures against Woodside’s Burrup Hub to Parliament