The Western Australian government has been accused of putting a 'very rosy spin' on a summary report assessing whether emissions from Woodside's gas plant are damaging 50,000-year-old rock art at Murujuga, according to a private email from the lead scientist.
Professor Ben Mullins of Curtin University, lead scientist of the Murujuga Rock Art Monitoring Project, wrote in an email released to the ABC that the state government 'insisted' on writing the summary report, despite a contract stating Curtin should write it. He also suggested the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation likely 'hoped everyone would only read the summary and not the full report'.
The summary report was used in a lobbying effort to dismiss concerns from UN advisers that industrial emissions were damaging the ancient rock art. Rock art expert Professor Benjamin Smith of the University of Western Australia called the summary 'not worth the paper it is written on' and labelled it propaganda, while noting the full report shows damage from emissions.
The email also revealed that a chart in the summary was altered at the insistence of the state government and the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation, removing an aqua dotted line showing nitrogen dioxide breaches. The original chart remains in the companion 800-page technical report.
Raelene Cooper of Save Our Songlines called for a royal commission into what she described as a 'massive government cover-up'. A DWER spokesperson defended the summary as a simplification for public communication, stating the full report remains available and the science is sound.
