The Conservation Council of WA wants Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan to clarify comments suggesting his government might intervene to assist Woodside if it runs into legal trouble over its $16b Scarborough gas development.

Despite the company’s decision to push ahead with the controversial project on Monday, it faces risks - including an ongoing legal challenge from the CCWA that argues the environmental approvals process was not followed.

On Tuesday McGoward said that if the Supreme Court were to find the approvals invalid, his government would “step in”.

“Well, if the choices were going to close down all the industry in the state, turn off the lights and not have any jobs, obviously,” he said.

“I’m not going to second-guess what the courts do, but obviously government will do what it has to do to keep the state functioning.”

A spokesperson for the CCWA described the Premiers comments as “extraordinary” and called on the Premier to commit to “upholding Western Australia’s environmental protection laws”.

All we are asking is that the environmental impacts of this development are assessed according to the requirements of the law, like any other major project in WA,” they said.

If Woodside and the EPA can simply ignore our environmental laws, knowing that the premier will step in to facilitate climate wrecking projects like Scarborough then what is the purpose of those laws?”

Victoria has hit back at a call from Linda Reynolds for the states and territories to take more responsibility for funding the NDIS.

The Australian this morning reported Reynolds as saying the states and territories would need to do more to fund the scheme, which she said was “not sustainable” on its current trajectory.

The scheme is supposed to be jointly funded 50-50 between the states and territories, but the states’ contribution is capped at a 4% annual increase, and the commonwealth says the scheme is currently growing faster than that.

However, Victoria’s disability minister, James Merlino, claimed the commonwealth had previously relied on an underspend to prop up its budget.

Victoria claims that in 2018-19 and 2019-20, the state contributed 70% and 58% respectively to the NDIS due to the “commonwealth’s NDIS underspend”.

Merlino said in a statement:

Throughout the pandemic we have seen the Morrison Government avoid taking responsibility for the wellbeing of Australians - by failing to order enough vaccines and refusing to lead on protecting vulnerable aged care residents.

Now they are again refusing to take responsibility on the NDIS - after years of using underspending on the NDIS to prop up their budget, the Commonwealth are again walking away from their responsibility to support Australians with disability.

People with disability deserve the NDIS they were promised, and the federal government need to step up and deliver that.

Reynolds told the Australian today that states had withdrawn disability funding outside of the NDIS, which was placing pressure on the scheme.

“Unfortunately, over time that funding has been withdrawn and so there is more pressure on the NDIS because participants themselves or their families see the NDIS increasingly as what’s been described as an ‘oasis in the desert’,” she said.

Reynolds has repeatedly claimed the scheme is becoming unsustainable. The states and territories vetoed an unpopular push to introduce so-called independent eligibility assessments for the scheme earlier this year.