Woodside sold the project to an insubstantial company to avoid a few hundred million in decommissioning costs: now it and its competitors will pay the price.
WA Premier Mark McGowan warned Alcoa to lift its game or face curtailed mining, but his successor Roger Cook slashed water supply protections after a possibly empty threat from the US miner.
Gina Rinehart, heir to her father Lang Hancock's iron ore royalty stream, owns Hancock Prospecting, which has significant mining and agricultural interests, particularly in iron ore. She is a major supporter of the Australian right-wing political groups.
