Murray Watt accuses Greens of ‘grandstanding’ on Murujuga World Heritage bid
Graham Readfearn
Environment minister Murray Watt has responded to calls for him to rescind a provisional approval for Woodside’s massive North West Shelf project from the Greens’ leader, Larissa Waters.
Waters said earlier that rescinding the approval would improve the chances of the Murujuga rock art complex being added to the World Heritage list during a meeting in Paris later this week. Watts has responded, saying:
For over 20 years, the traditional owners of Murujuga have been fighting for its World Heritage listing. The Albanese government is proud to support this First Nations-led nomination. It’s disappointing to see the Greens party choosing to grandstand on this issue, instead of supporting the wishes of Murujuga’s traditional owners.
Unesco’s advisers have recommended the World Heritage committee refer the Murujuga nomination back to Australia, after raising concerns about “acidic emissions” from nearby industry, including Woodside’s Karratha gas plant.
The government has been lobbying Unesco and members of the 21-country World Heritage committee to ignore that recommendation – saying it was based on “factual inaccuracies” – and instead vote to inscribe Murujuga on the World Heritage list.
Key events
German backpacker missing in WA
Significant land and air resources have been deployed in the search for a missing German backpacker in Western Australia.
Police have reiterated their concern for the welfare of 26-year-old Carolina Wilga, who has not been heard from for more than a week. She was in the Beacon area of the Wheatbelt region at the time of her last contact with friends on Sunday 29 June, police said.
Police believe she visited a convenience store on Stirling Terrace, near the intersection of Goomalling-Toodyay Road in Toodyay on 28 June.
Wilga had been backpacking in Australia for the last two years and lived mainly in hostels, police said.
Police described Wilga as having a slim build, frizzy or curly long dark blond hair and brown eyes. She has several tattoos, including one which depicts symbols on her left arm. She may have been travelling in a black and silver 1995 Mitsubishi Station sedan, with WA registration 1HDS 330.
On Wednesday, WA police urged anyone with any information or footage in the area of Beacon and the north-east Wheatbelt area between 29 June 2025 and 4 July to contact Crime Stoppers.
Man dies after explosion in NSW retirement unit
A man has died after being badly burned in an that explosion tore through a retirement unit in Kingscliff, northern New South Wales.
The 85-year-old suffered severe injuries in the suspected gas explosion on Monday morning and had been taken to Royal Brisbane hospital in a critical condition.
Police said on Wednesday the man had died and that a report would be prepared for the coroner.
On Monday, Fire and Rescue NSW said it was investigating whether a fire, which destroyed the demountable home, was caused by a leaking LPG system. At the time, the fire service said an 83-year-old woman sustained minor burns to her face and body and was in a stable condition at Tweed Valley hospital.
Murray Watt accuses Greens of ‘grandstanding’ on Murujuga World Heritage bid
Graham Readfearn
Environment minister Murray Watt has responded to calls for him to rescind a provisional approval for Woodside’s massive North West Shelf project from the Greens’ leader, Larissa Waters.
Waters said earlier that rescinding the approval would improve the chances of the Murujuga rock art complex being added to the World Heritage list during a meeting in Paris later this week. Watts has responded, saying:
For over 20 years, the traditional owners of Murujuga have been fighting for its World Heritage listing. The Albanese government is proud to support this First Nations-led nomination. It’s disappointing to see the Greens party choosing to grandstand on this issue, instead of supporting the wishes of Murujuga’s traditional owners.
Unesco’s advisers have recommended the World Heritage committee refer the Murujuga nomination back to Australia, after raising concerns about “acidic emissions” from nearby industry, including Woodside’s Karratha gas plant.
The government has been lobbying Unesco and members of the 21-country World Heritage committee to ignore that recommendation – saying it was based on “factual inaccuracies” – and instead vote to inscribe Murujuga on the World Heritage list.
Daisy Dumas
Thank you, as ever, Rafqa Touma. Let’s get straight on with the rest of the day’s news.
Rafqa Touma
Thanks for following along the live blog with me today. Handing over now to the great Daisy Dumas, who will keep you posted on the afternoon’s news.
Australia has ‘business and trade opportunity of a lifetime’, Smart Energy Council CEO says – video
John Grimes advocated for an acceleration of a renewables energy strategy during a speech at the National Press Club today, pointing to the “staggering national advantage” Australia has compared to the rest of the world.
“If you put a solar panel in Australia and the exact same solar panel in Germany, get this, the one in Australia will produce up to four times more energy than the one in Germany,” he says.
Rain, winds, hail and snow forecast to lash south-east Australia
A cold front is bringing wind, rain, hail and snow to south-east Australia in the next 24 hours.
Adelaide can expect moderate to heavy rainfall – “welcome rainfall for much of southern South Australia, after what’s been a very dry few months,” the Bureau of Meteorology’s senior meteorologist, Dean Narramore, said in a severe weather update.
Warnings are current for the Flinders and Mount Lofty ranges and through the western parts of SA, where winds of 90km/h or more are forecast. “That’s strong enough to bring down trees and power lines and cause possible power outages and some minor property damage,” Narramore said.
Those impacts are going to continue into eastern parts, and then into southeastern parts, of the country as we move through tonight and into tomorrow.
The cold front will move into western parts of Victoria this afternoon, bringing widespread showers with local hail and thunders. It will sweep across Victoria, southern NSW and northern parts of Tasmania into the night.
Rain showers and snow will also develop through alpine areas, with possible blizzard conditions, Narramore said.
Widespread snow is also expected to develop through eastern Victoria and south-east NSW tonight and into early tomorrow morning. Snow will also fall in Tasmania, the NSW central tablelands and potentially towards the Barrington tops.
As the cold front weakens tomorrow, eastern NSW can expect strong winds, particularly in elevated areas.
Large swells are forecast for the South Australia coastline, on the high tide from Kangaroo Island down to the WA border. “For those that live on the coast there, the high tide, we could exceed the highest astronomical tide of the year,” Narramore said.
Ella Archibald-Binge
Kumanjayi Walker inquest findings will bring ‘lasting reform’ to NT police, says anti-racism officer
The woman in charge of eliminating racism within the Northern Territory police says the findings of an inquest into the death of Kumanjayi Walker will mark the beginning of “lasting reform” towards “a police force that all Territorians can trust”.
Leanne Liddle, an Arrernte woman and former police officer, fronted the media in Alice Springs alongside the acting NT police commissioner, Martin Dole, on Tuesday, a day after the coroner found the officer who fatally shot the 19-year-old was “racist” and “worked in and benefited from an organisation with the hallmarks of institutional racism”.
“The coroner’s findings are deeply confronting, but they’re not new to many Aboriginal people,” Liddle said. “What matters now is how we respond.”
Read the full story:
Katter calls for Trump-esque protectionism bill in response to Chinese manufacturing
Bob Katter says Trump’s tariffs underscore “America’s bid to protect its industries” and “Australia’s dangerous failure to do the same”.
The independent member for Kennedy said “Trump’s protecting his industries from the uncontestable, government-backed mega-production coming out of China” in a statement:
[China] builds factories that produce things, freeways and tunnels that create wealth and economic generation. That money, in turn, produces value. It’s deflationary, not inflationary.
The Chinese government doesn’t throw money away on ego monuments and feelgood ‘net zero’ whims. It builds factories that produce things, freeways and tunnels that create wealth and economic generation. That money, in turn, produces value. It’s deflationary, not inflationary.
The Australian government, on the other hand, have obliterated our production sector in favour of ideology and self-indulgence.
His statement said Katter’s party and other regional cross-benchers will pitch an “omnibus” bill “to reshape Australia’s economy and re-establish essential industries”. Katter said:
This delusion must stop. Australia must follow America’s lead and start protecting our own industries, primary producers and manufacturers.
Look at this tiny dog that helped save a hiker trapped in a glacier
A small pet dog has been hailed a “four-legged hero” after his owner fell down an icy crevasse in the Swiss Alps. The helicopter air rescue company Air Zermatt said:
While the man was stuck in the glacier ice, his faithful companion … was left at the edge of the crevasse.
They credited the pup for drawing their attention to the location of the hiker, who was then extracted and taken to hospital.
Read the full story from Deborah Cole here:
Australian shares dip as Trump’s tariffs target copper
The Australia share market has lost ground as Donald Trump expands his trade war with steep new tariffs on copper and pharmaceuticals.
At midday on Wednesday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 27.2 points, or 0.32%, to 8,565.3, while the broader All Ordinaries lost 25.5 points, or 0.29%, to 8,803.2.
Overnight, the US president said drug manufacturers would be given a year or so to move manufacturing to the US, otherwise they would “tariffed at a very, very high rate, like 200％”.
Trump also flagged the White House would be imposing 50% tariffs on copper, which the US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, said could begin at the end of July or start of August.
Copper prices surged after the comments, ending the trading day up 13.1% for their strongest one-day gain since 1989.
Australia is a major copper producer but exports very little to the United States, with most going to China and other Asian-Pacific countries. The US gets most of its copper from Chile.
– Australian Associated Press
NZ Reserve Bank follows Australia and holds rate steady
New Zealand’s central bank has ended a run of six consecutive cuts, holding the official cash rate at 3.25%.
In a decision announced on Wednesday, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) followed Australia’s lead from a day earlier, opting to take stock given the uncertain economic outlook.
The decision is seen as not a rate cut denied – just a rate cut delayed.
“If medium-term inflation pressures continue to ease as projected, the (RBNZ) expects to lower the official cash rate further,” the RBNZ’s governor, Christian Hawkesby, said.
Like Australia, headline inflation in New Zealand is back inside the RBNZ’s target band, last measured at 2.5% in April. But NZ has taken a decidedly different economic path in the post-pandemic tumult, falling into a deep recession in 2024.
The RBNZ cut from a high of 5.5% to current levels in the past six meetings.
– Australian Associated Press
More on the Murujuga rock art world heritage bid
An ancient First Nations rock art collection could become a World Heritage-listed site as the federal government ramps up lobbying efforts.
Environment Minister Murray Watt will travel to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) headquarters in France to try get the Murujuga rock art landscape in Western Australia listed as a World Heritage site.
Unesco advisers recommended in May that the nomination be blocked and referred back to Australia until nearby “degrading acidic emissions”, including those from a Woodside gas plant, were stopped.
But Watt, who said Australia had consistently shown international leadership in promoting First Nations people and combating climate change, wants to update the committee on conservation at Murujuga.
– with Australian Associated Press
Graham Readfearn
Greens leader says gas project approval should be rescinded to help Murujuga rock art world heritage bid
The Greens leader, Larissa Waters, says the environment minister, Murray Watt, should rescind his provisional approval of Woodside’s North West Shelf extension to give the nearby ancient Murujuga rock art a better chance of gaining world heritage status.
Watt is en route to Paris to lobby Unesco and members of the 21-country world heritage committee, who will decide sometime late Friday or early Saturday whether to put the Murujuga Cultural Landscape in the Pilbara region on the coveted world heritage list. Waters said:
We want to see this global treasure listed as world heritage. What we don’t want is to see it destroyed by acidic emissions from Woodside.
To give Murujuga’s ancient rock art the best chance of world heritage listing, Minister Watt should cancel the draft approval for Woodside’s 45-year extension on operating its gas proposal.
Unesco’s advisers have recommended the nomination of Murujuga be referred back to Australia for it to “ensure the total removal of degrading acidic emissions, currently impacting upon the petroglyphs”.
Watt has provisionally approved Woodside’s 45-year extension, but told the Guardian yesterday his department was still in discussion with Woodside over the conditions placed on the approval. The details of the conditions are not public, but they relate to the emissions from Woodside’s Karratha gas plant.
Watt and the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation all argue Unesco’s advisers have relied on “factual inaccuracies” and say a monitoring program shows there’s no ongoing acidic emissions at the site.
Waters said the Greens were standing beside the Save Our Songlines group, which is also in Paris to ask the committee to hold to the recommendations.
Here’s everything you need to know on the issue just days ahead of the decisive meeting:
