Kim Beazley urges Tanya Plibersek to reject Woodside LNG plant extension

Kim Beazley has co-signed a letter comparing the battle to save the Murujuga cultural landscape to that of the Hawke government’s decision to save the Franklin River in Tasmania. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

The former Labor leader Kim Beazley has joined other ALP luminaries in calling on the federal environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, to protect culturally important Indigenous rock art on Western Australia’s Burrup peninsula by refusing to extend the life of a major fossil fuel development by nearly 50 years.

Beazley, the former WA Labor premiers Carmen Lawrence and Peter Dowding, and the ex-ALP national president Barry Jones have signed a letter to Plibersek asking her to reject Woodside’s attempt to extend the life of the North West Shelf liquified natural gas processing facility until 2070.