Breaking: Woodside fails in court to force activists to hand over stink-bomb plans

Energy giant Woodside has failed in its Supreme Court bid to force climate activists to hand over documents about the planning of a stink-bomb protest which prompted the evacuation of its Perth headquarters.The stink bomb was let off inside the lobby of Woodside's 29-storey building in the city's CBD in 2023.Three activists who were sentenced over the incident last year were named in a civil suit brought by the company which asked the court to order they produce any documents they held that would reveal who was involved in the "planning, preparation and/or execution" of the protest.The company also sought orders for the activists to be examined in court about those documents.Supreme Court Justice Matthew Howard today dismissed that application, saying despite Woodside having "clearly devoted very considerable resources to their application", it had not convinced the court that an order was needed to show who else was involved."I find that [Woodside's] evidence and submissions do not rise above mere conjecture or speculation," he wrote.Justice Howard said it was clear WA Police had conducted a "significant investigation" into the incident, and that the identities of the two other activists who were not charged were already publicly known.