Protesters highlighted the significant risks posed to Scott Reef and marine ecosystems, as Woodside comes under pressure over the Browse project’s emissions and costs, as well as its appearance at a Senate inquiry into gas taxation.
Fri 24 Apr 2026 12.00
Photo: AAP Image/Aaron Bunch
A protester was wrestled to the ground by security at Woodside Energy’s annual general meeting (AGM) in Perth after rushing the stage and making a beeline for its executive team.
Video from the event showed the man shouting as he jumped onto the stage, with security rushing up to detain him.
The Australian reported that WA Greens MP Sophie McNeill was escorted out, along with around 30 protesters, who were playing whale noises and whistle blasts from a speaker and bursting into song.
Greens Senator Steph Hodgins-May, however, managed to put a question to Woodside CEO Liz Westcott about the company’s proposed Browse project which is seeking approval amid growing uncertainty over its high costs and emissions reduction requirements.
“If giving Australians a fair return for their own gas makes your project unviable, doesn’t that show that the model is broken?” Senator Steph Hodgins-May asked.
As chair of the Senate inquiry into gas taxation, she also asked why Ms Westcott would not appear at the public hearing on Friday.
The newly appointed CEO said the company would be present and that the current tax system is “giving Australians a fair return”.
“In 2025, Woodside paid $2 billion in taxes. We have an effective tax rate of 44% – we are giving back to Australians,” she said.
Representatives from Woodside, Chevron and INPEX will all give evidence at the inquiry, but their CEOs are not listed to attend.
“It says everything that the CEO of one of Australia’s biggest gas exporters has time to address shareholders, but not to front a public inquiry into whether other Australians are getting a fair return on their resources,” Senator Hodgins-May said later in a statement.
Earlier, protesters had gathered outside the meeting to voice fears that the Browse development would spell the end of the remote Scott Reef system that sits adjacent to the proposed site.
Wendy Mitchell from Environs Kimberley said she’d spent a month living out at the reef, documenting the marine life and “endless coral slopes”.
“The risk to the surrounding reef and marine life like the blue whales is too great – if an oil spill disaster happened, it would be catastrophic for Scott Reef, kill all the corals including 900 different fish species that rely on them. It would be the end of a 15-million-year-old reef,” the Environs Kimberley community organiser said.
The global energy giant wants to extract gas from offshore fields and transport it more than 900 kilometres via an undersea pipeline to its North West Shelf (NWS) processing facility in Karratha.
The decision by Environment Minister Murray Watt to extend the life of that project to 2070 is at the centre of several legal challenges.
According to The Australian, a UN special rapporteur formally applied to join three Federal Court cases in November last year – a move it said is believed to be the first of its kind in Australia.
Kaylene Daniel, Ngarluma Yindjibarndi Murujuga Traditional Custodian, said it was necessary to attend the AGM “because it is important to speak up about what Woodside are doing to Murujuga”.
“If no one says anything, it won’t be protected,” she said.
David Ritter from Greenpeace Australia Pacific said, “More than half a million Australians have signed a petition urging the Federal Environment Minister to reject the project, and opposition grows every day.
“We are also calling on WA Environment Minister Matthew Swinbourn to reject the project.”
The proposed development would be located about 425 km northwest of Broome and would require Woodside to build a drilling platform, two floating production storage and offloading facilities, and the pipeline.
It would also need to drill about 50 gas wells.
“Browse failed the EPA’s initial assessment because of the threat to the environment,” said Matt Roberts, executive director of the Conservation Council of WA.
“Ultimately, it’s up to WA Premier Roger Cook, and Environment Minister Matthew Swinbourn to save Scott Reef and not cave to the pressure of the gas industry lobby.”
Conservationists are worried about the impact it will have on endangered marine animals such as the migratory pygmy blue whale, green sea turtles, and dusty sea snakes.
“Australian Conservation Foundation research shows the climate pollution from the Browse project would kill 29.35 million coral colonies on the Great Barrier Reef in every mass bleaching event,” said campaigner Piper Rollins.
Others used the protest to broaden their criticism of the gas industry and its influence on government policy.
Hannah Ferguson, co-founder and CEO of Cheek Media Co, urged the government to back a proposed 25 per cent tax on gas exports.
“The reality is, the major parties are beholden to the fossil fuel industry – Australians know it,” she said.
“Our government is not only approving fossil fuel expansions, they’re also failing to appropriately tax this exploitation of our resources.
“This protest sends a clear message to the new Woodside CEO: despite the influence they buy, the community still demands change.”
The Senate inquiry’s third and final public hearing will be in Perth on Friday.
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