Chief Justice Wayne Martin ruled that three of the Environmental Protection Authority's (EPA) decisions to grant approval to the project were unlawful and invalid.
He also said EPA chairman Paul Vogel should not have made a decision on the project alone.
Dr Vogel made the sole decision to allow the project to go ahead at James Price Point, north of Broome, after four out of five EPA members declared conflicts of interest.
The Wilderness Society and traditional owner Richard Hunter last year launched legal action against the EPA and the Environment Minister over the approvals for the gas hub, set up with Woodside the first to sign on.
Woodside subsequently scrapped its onshore processing plans due to escalating costs, however, the court proceedings continued.
The Wilderness Society's Peter Robertson has called for Dr Vogel and former environment minister Bill Marmion to stand down.
"As soon as we discovered the extent of the conflicts of interest on the EPA board, before they made their decision, we wrote to the EPA and we wrote to the Minister and said they cannot proceed with this decision," he said.
"[Marmion] was told at that time that he should not proceed with that decision because it was likely to be unlawful and he ignored that.
"They ignored us and I believe [Vogel] has made a fatal error in judgement and his position as chairman of the EPA now very much needs to be brought into question."
Previously, Mr Robertson said once the EPA members declared their conflict, a separate group of people should have been appointed to assess the project.
"Instead of having a minimum of three EPA board members, they reduced it to just one member of the five member EPA board making the final decision," he said.
"That is just a gross misuse of decision making processes of the EPA."
No comments:
Post a Comment