Friday, February 18, 2011

All WE NEED IS THE CLEAN AIR TO BREATH

Air, water and the earth is more than just physical components of the planet: they are all the scared elements, giving life to all terrestrial organisms, linking all life into a single matrix, joining the past, present and the future in a single flowing earthly orbit.

We, humans boast that we are in possession of intelligence, but what intelligent creature, knowing the critical roles of all these elements for all life on earth, would than proceed to deliberately and continuously pour toxic poisons into it?

We are all totally connected to these scared elements, so what ever we do to these elements, we do to ourselves. We know air, water and earth are life giving but we turn them into toxic dumps.

Only when we stop and use mother nature's gifts of the wind, the tide, and the sun, to power our indulgences, only then will we be able to claim that we have intelligence.

17 comments:

Those BB'sFebruary 19, 2011 at 8:02 AM
Here we go again,more Gorgon cowboys.Even though the Chevron/Kellogg plans call for running away from storms ,it is feared the Master is under pressure not to dump the tow,placing the lives of the 11 crew in dire danger.
Yes in Oz waters,near Dirk Hartog Island.
http://www.theage.com.au/environment/weather/fears-for-sailors-caught-in-a-cyclonic-storm-20110218-1ayqj.html
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Those BB'sFebruary 19, 2011 at 8:24 AM
There is no doubt about it the message that gas,especially Browse gas,is very dirty,needs to be drummed into the Feds.
By the time it is out the ground,piped to the gas plant,refined,transported,piped again,transported again,and then burnt,it is as dirty as coal.
And the poisons released are far worse.
Here comes the carbon price bullshit.
Record profits everywhere but they can't afford a super profits tax,can't afford a carbon tax.
http://www.theage.com.au/business/battle-lines-drawn-over-carbon-price-20110218-1azs7.html
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Those BB'sFebruary 19, 2011 at 12:26 PM
Dear Redhand,you wanted a story with a happy ending,well I can't give you that ,but so you know you are not alone:
Monday night ABC 4 Corners,the Australian Fraccing disaster,multies goons and all,8.30 ABC 1.
Sunday night SBS 1,9.30,BP Profits and Disasters.
If I find any with happy endings I shall not hesitate to post!
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CuppaFebruary 21, 2011 at 6:57 AM
Have just transferred what we could afford to aid in Luke's defence. We encourage others to do the same.
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Those BB'sFebruary 21, 2011 at 9:12 AM
Ferguson again:Muckaty nuclear waste dump receives less scrutiny than a shopping centre car park.Gov trying to ram through bill before TO's(who don't want it)have their legal challenge heard.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/nuclear-dump-report-criticised/story-fn3dxiwe-1226009358683
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Those BB'sFebruary 21, 2011 at 9:24 AM
http://www.smh.com.au/business/woodside-profit-misses-growth-targets-20110221-1b1k6.html
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Those BB'sFebruary 21, 2011 at 9:28 AM
Yes Cuppa,we will be scraping up some dollars for Luke this week,and also for Joes legal fund,hopefully the god of bills will be good to us.
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Those BB'sFebruary 23, 2011 at 2:30 PM
"Baby Dolphins dying along oil soaked US coast"
Wonder what is happening around the Montara oil spill area?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/02/23/3146943.htm?section=justin
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Those BB'sFebruary 24, 2011 at 7:07 AM
"Study warns coral reefs could be gone by 2050"
Don't suppose the psycho's are listening but...
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/02/24/3147422.htm?section=justin
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Those BB'sFebruary 24, 2011 at 2:49 PM
Well let the horse trading begin.
A carbon price would add how much to this filthy project?
Hoping there will be a happy ending in here for you Redhand.
(Not to mention how it will blow any Oz reduction target)
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Those BB'sFebruary 25, 2011 at 6:49 AM
Voelte expects a quick exit.
"...partners again saying Browse could cost $50 billion..."
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/mining-energy/voelte-expects-a-quick-exit-from-woodside/story-e6frg9ef-1226011598453
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Those BB'sFebruary 25, 2011 at 8:34 AM
Carbon price likely to be between $25 to $30 a tonne.
For Browse that means around $800 million a year.
Less whatever compo the Feds give them.
There are serious engineering challenges at the site.
The Feds have pulled up WA over Ord stage 2,and it could cost them 12-18 months delay,depending on the weather.
Sloppy work and cut corners!
Browse is even worse,they will be taken to task over this.
The conditions on the site and the rigs,especially the production rig they want astride Scott Reef,will be very significant.
Then there is the Heritage listing.
Pluto $2 billion over,and the bad weather lately has cost them more than another month in delays.
Gorgon is having a bad experience.
As is Wheatstone in it's very early stage.
There is very little,besides hot air,keeping this going!
Looking at it quite calmly,I do not believe in it.
And Shell are bailing out.
As is Voelte.
Sunrise?
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pameaFebruary 25, 2011 at 1:28 PM
Exellent.. I agree.
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WotNowFebruary 25, 2011 at 5:58 PM
Wish I could have been there .. love the background song lol. U r awesome! xx
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Those BB'sFebruary 26, 2011 at 8:57 AM
"The Gulf oil spills toxic legacy".
Back when the spill was on and the BP clean up gangs were putting up a show,Redhand wrote a piece about what was going to happen to the people and creatures of the Gulf.
At the time some may have thought"more greenie nonsense".Just some beat up stuff to spoil the Woodside party.
WELL THINK AGAIN !!!
This well written piece explains that even Redhands worst nightmares pale against the awful truth coming out of the Gulf recently.
And it is well worth remembering a few things here.
1.BP is going into the Great Australian Bight to drill.
2.Just how "well oiled" their cover up machine is.
3.What is happening in the Gulf,is without a doubt happening in the areas off our north coast impacted by the Montara disaster.
4.We in Broome and the Peninsular are being fed the same bullshit they have used everywhere else to get away with murder and destruction.
5.BP are partners with Woodside.
http://www.theage.com.au/world/the-gulf-oil-spills-toxic-legacy-20110225-1b8mz.html
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Those BB'sFebruary 27, 2011 at 2:13 PM
"Regulation is Lax for water from Gas Wells".NYT,Feb 26,2011.
Once again the truth emerges to prove our worst nightmares are really quite tame when compared to what is actually happening.
If you want a real eye opener onto the world of Fraccing,this article is it!
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/27/us/27gas.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp
ReplyDelete
Those BB'sFebruary 27, 2011 at 2:40 PM
Also a horrific 7 minute video goes with the article.
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2011/02/26/us/100000000650773/natgas.html?hp

An interactive map:Contamination.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/02/27/us/natural-gas-map.html?hp

Graphic:Pulling gas from rock.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/02/27/us/fracking.html?hp

Document reader:Waste.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/02/27/us/natural-gas-documents-1-intro.html?hp

"...thousands of internal documents obtained by the NYT from the EPA,State Regulators and drillers show that the dangers to the environment and health are greater than previously understood."
ReplyDelete

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The Wilderness Society and Goolarabooloo Traditional Custodian Richard Hunter are continuing their legal challenge against the WA Environment Minister and the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) over the way the gas hub was approved.

Their initial reaction was to ‘adjourn’ (put on hold) the Supreme Court case since Woodside’s decision meant there was no chance of a development there for the foreseeable future.

However, the WA state government has insisted the case be heard NOW, in order to secure approvals and access for the JPP site so they can still use it for a potential supply base for offshore gas operations and refinery for onshore shale gas from the canning Basin.

The landmark case will therefore be heard by the Chief Justice of the WA Supreme Court from June 4-6. A month of deliberation before a decision is made is likely.

Their initial reaction was to ‘adjourn’ (put on hold) the Supreme Court case since Woodside’s decision meant there was no chance of a development there for the foreseeable future.

The landmark case will therefore be heard by the Chief Justice of the WA Supreme Court from June 4-6. A month of deliberation before a decision is made is likely.

Their initial reaction was to ‘adjourn’ (put on hold) the Supreme Court case since Woodside’s decision meant there was no chance of a development there for the foreseeable future.

The landmark case will therefore be heard by the Chief Justice of the WA Supreme Court from June 4-6. A month of deliberation before a decision is made is likely.

The carbon budget deficit

Between 60-80% of coal, oil and gas reserves of publicly listed companies are ‘unburnable’ if the world is to have a chance of not exceeding global warming of 2°C

The total coal, oil and gas reserves listed on the world’s stock exchanges equals 762GtCO₂ – approximately a quarter of the world’s total reserves;
If you apply the same proportion to the global carbon budgets to have an 80% chance of limiting global warming to 2°C, their allocation of the carbon budget is between 125GtCO₂ and 225GtCO₂, illustrating the scale of ‘unburnable carbon’;

(click image for larger version of the diagram)

Browsing the winners

energynewsbulletin

Within minutes of the formal announcement from Woodside on Friday, the value of the company soared by more than $1.1 billion, a number derived by calculating the value of the company before than announcement and the peak share price on Friday.

For the statistically alert the actual numbers were a pre-cancellation Woodside share price of $35.28 and a Friday peak price of $36.70, with the extra $1.42 being applied to the company’s 823.9 million shares on issue.

While seemingly meaningless to anyone outside the investment world that price difference represented a $1.1 billion gift to Woodside shareholders. In The Slug’s book an extra billion dollars is the definition of a winner.

What remains to be seen is whether Woodside management will take the next step and actually share some of the extra wealth generated by mothballing Browse through a share buyback or special dividend.

Brian Monk
JPP is a beacon for the world, you took on the biggest and sent them running, you exposed corruption, bias, a whole range of rotting trash. Well done, enjoy your victory and spread it accross the world. People need to protect culturally significant regions, and also protect a future. The corrupt governments both elected and public officials need to be exposed, it is up to us to throw this corruption out of the world while we have a sustainable future left. I like the mantra, waylay and delay, educate and mobilise, stop the project. Well done, I am in awe.

Taken from Finding Beauty in a Broken World by Terry Tempest Williams (2008)

“I’ve been thinking about words, individual words and the language we use when talking about nature, how lnaguage shapes perceptions. A word enters my mind: “hypography” - \hi-pah-grah-fee\ n: 1) any public lands given over to corporate interests at the public’s expense; 2) landscape once pristine, now abused by grazing, clear cuts, strip mines, toxic waste dumps, or oil and gas development; a state of extreme corruption fueled by bureaucrats.”

My name is Rodney Augustine.

I am a Jabirr Jabirr - Nyul Nyul and Ngambal Man. The songline of this country runs in my veins. My liyan is same as my elders liyan... this feeling is always with me. I can feel them walking on country.

The thought of woodside going on our old people’s graves makes me want to put my life on the line. I want to bring everyone around the world to stand on country so we can stop woodside and the only way I could think of bringing the peoples energy there was with this NO GAS event.

It might sound stupid but the people intentions and feelings put together can make us strong. Some people don’t understand that, but I believe it’s true. My Lyian tells me some of my people have been deceived in believing we have no choice but to sell out.

Woodside has brought division and trouble in our community and our families. This makes me feel very heavy inside. There is other ways to move forward without destroying our country.

If woodside and Mr Barnett are allowed to continue their illegal mining on our land. Our culture our country and our environment will be extinct. My Lyian tells me to stand up for country.

And that is what I am doing. This is too important for all us countrymen. You know it and other countrymen know it too.
We can’t run away from it. it’s in us. We are suppose to protect country!! that’s our job!! I will never sign over my culture and my existence , for no amount of money. Money can’t buy me!
Rodney Augustine
Wocky

Photo: My name is Rodney Augustine. I am a Jabirr Jabirr - Nyul Nyul and Ngambal Man. The songline of this country runs in my veins. My liyan is same as my elders liyan... this feeling is always with me. I can feel them walking on country. The thought of woodside going on our old people’s graves makes me want to put my life on the line. I want to bring everyone around the world to stand on country so we can stop woodside and the only way I could think of bringing the peoples energy there was with this NO GAS event. It might sound stupid but the people intentions and feelings put together can make us strong. Some people don’t understand that, but I believe it’s true. My Lyian tells me some of my people have been deceived in believing we have no choice but to sell out. Woodside has brought division and trouble in our community and our families. This makes me feel very heavy inside. There is other ways to move forward without destroying our country. If woodside and Mr Barnett are allowed to continue their illegal mining on our land. Our culture our country and our environment will be extinct. My Lyian tells me to stand up for country. And that is what I am doing. This is too important for all us countrymen. You know it and other countrymen know it too. We can’t run away from it. it’s in us. We are suppose to protect country!! that’s our job!! I will never sign over my culture and my existence , for no amount of money. Money can’t buy me! Rodney Augustine Wocky

Flawed Gas Hub Development Steamroller Continues to Flatten Local

Recently re-elected Greens WA Member for the Mining and Pastoral Region Robin Chapple MLC has expressed dismay at last night’s turn of events in the James Price Point saga.

“I am deeply saddened that yet again, the people of Broome have been pushed to breaking point by the heavy-handed tactics of the Barnett-Grylls government, as shown by the public disturbance reported at yesterday’s meeting of the Kimberley Joint Development Assessment Panel,” Mr Chapple said.

“It’s no wonder some people react bitterly, when they see their democratically elected Council sidelined by these unrepresentative bodies.“The Government should take heed of yesterday’s fracas, because it is surely but a precursor to what will happen around the state, as more and more vital decisions affecting people’s day-to-day lives are taken out of their hands and given to so-called “experts”, with locally elected citizens in the minority.

“In this instance, we have the laughable proposition that it is somehow OK to drop a Fly-in Fly-out (FIFO) camp for nearly 1,000 workers into the middle of an “Agricultural” zoned area adjoining small rural properties where people are pursuing organic horticultural activities.

“Unfortunately, we shouldn’t be surprised, as the whole James Price Point venture has clearly been flawed from the outset and only continues today thanks to the blinkered, fanatical determination of the Premier,” Mr Chapple concluded.

Professor Flannery said in a statement that it was critical for emergency and health services, as well as the public, to have the best information from scientists.

''Ignoring it or shooting the messenger will not reduce the threat of climate change, it will just mean that Australia is less prepared,'' he said. ''We'd be living in the past to think that Australia did not need to prepare for a changing climate.''

Professor Flannery, a palaeontologist and author who was Australian of the Year in 2007, has been seen as a polarising figure by some because of his calls to phase out large-scale use of fossil fuels.

Photo Damian Kelly

Palaeontologist, Dr Steve Salisbury from the University of Queensland, Goolarabooloo Lawman, Richard Hunter and Scientist and former Australian of the year Tim Flannery on the Goolorabooloo coast early morning over Easter examining dinosaur footprints in collaboration with Broome Dinosaur Trackers.

A Climate Commission report released on Wednesday examined links between Australia's extreme weather and human-induced climate change. It found natural events were being influenced by climate change, because greenhouse gases are accumulating and trapping extra energy in the Earth's atmosphere and oceans.

Commenting on the $1.3 billion benefits package that traditional owners were bound to receive for giving consent to Woodside and the State government’s LNG Precinct development project, Professor Pat Dodson, Broome Yawuru elder, told ABC Radio National's 360:

"Just a lot of rearrangement of public sector funding. Most of it is just a rearrangement of what governments would be required to outlay if they’re going to address the inequities that are already in existence. I have a difficulty as a citizen having to go and beg for a government to provide me with the services that I require to have an equality of life in my own Country."

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/worldservice

Stopping James Price Point proposed LNG greenfield would be a major step towards stopping large scale destruction of the environment and distortion of the Kimberley economy and the erosion of our democracy.

We are all concerned about the social and economic issues faced by indigenous communities. We all accept the need to tackle the continuing profound and shameful legacy of hundreds of years of dispossession, denial and despair but we do not accept that the best way to close the gap is by digging a deeper hole, poising the water and polluting the air.

Australia can and must forge a future that embraces indigenous cultural and ecological knowledge and heritage and takes a different approach to managing our precious country for all generations to come - and we believe this is a journey that must be taken together.

The state government is trying to block moves by Aboriginal families to lodge a claim on land earmarked for the Kimberley gas hub in a bid to hold together its land deal.
The families who signed off on the 1.5 billion dollar deal to give up land at James Price Point for an LNG precinct remain divided over whether it should proceed. They’ve applied to the Federal Court to abandon their joint native title claim so those for and against the project can lodge rival claims over the land. The state government and Woodside have lodged objections to this in a bid to hold the land deal together. In its submission the government has asked to have the court hearing adjourned past the 18th of April, which is the deadline for new native title claims to be lodged. If successful the move would block opponents like Joseph Roe from gaining negotiation rights.

TODAY, Two Police officers in unmarked vehicle visited Walmadany Tent Embassy. Past experience tells us, plans are being made by police to do the bidding of the state by providing protection for corporate interests and alienating the community. EXPECT INVASION SOON. Time to plan, pack your bags and get back into Country to protect the dunes and established support camps. Broome people if you see large equipment, dongas, drill rigs, medical centre donga, barge movements etc, either in Broome or on the Highway, pls txt 0487 604 679 or 0415 998 007. Also, establish your own gas information network on your own phone and social media networks to ensure maximum flow of information and support.

Supporters old and new : we can't stress enough how important it is to print off, get signatures and post back to us the attached petition. Okay, so it's going to cost you a 60 cent stamp but you've supported the campaign for a reason : to protect Walmadany (JPP). Please help and return signed pages as soon as they're complete - no need to wait until you have 5 sheets :) Looking forward to reams and reams of petition sheets to arrive soon! Thanks a million friends. PS please share.

http://www.broomenogas.org/pages/petitionfeb2013

Our new mapping shows that 437 million hectares of our land is covered by coal and gas licences or applications. That's more than half of Australia and an area 18 times the size of Great Britain. Even our greatest international tourist icons are not safe, with at least 11 of our 16 National Landscapes at threat. Download the high-quality pdf version of this map to view all of the detail and to print it off as poster: https://www.dropbox.com/s/08zsa9hllinrkqw/MAP_AustralianNationalLandscapes.pdf Learn more about our Call to Country campaign, and how you can get involved, here: http://www.calltocountry.org.au/ — in Australia.

Peter Coleman, a compass will surely lead you North, but it cannot tell you of the monsoonal vine thicket, dinosaur track sites, ancient living Songline, the annual journey of the whales, evenings with frolicking bilbies and the strength that is held by a determined education and empowered community. All this stands in your way. I'm paraphrasing Tony Kushner's remarkable screenplay, here, because that single sentence encapsulates one very clear message. Peter, your compass is broken, you are heading in the wrong direction, turn back now before all is lost..

51% Broome Community against Gas

This survey was conducted some time ago, so I believe the figure would be more up to 62% against, given the raised level of education on impacts and awareness of social, environment and economic ramification of this proposal.
Red Hand

Transcribed from audio of 7:30 ABC regional news: An independent survey of attitudes to the Kimberley gas hub shows more than half of Broome’s residents oppose the project and 30% are in favour. 359 residents were surveyed for a study of community attitudes commissioned by the Broome shire in late 2011. 51%of respondents described themselves as not supportive of the project and 29% were supportive or strongly supportive. A further 20% were undecided. Shire president graham campbell says the shires decided to make the results public as a result of requests from ratepayers. “Gotta bear in mind this was done some time ago but er’ people will be interested it was a independently run consultation process and survey er’ done and I think it was nearly 400 people surveyed. All the data will be on our web site and I’m sure people will be quite interested to have a look at it.

This was the 7:30 ABC regional news, which differs to the 6:30 am ABC regional news.
In the 6:30am version, audio of shire president Campbell is played ... saying “I don’t think people should read too much into this” ?

"In Australia, by law, you only own the top metre. Everything underneath, that is owned by the people of Australia," Peter Strachan, a resources analyst at Perth-based StockAnalysis, said.

"If someone puts in a request to explore on your land, you have to deal with that and make sure you're compensated for access."

Groups seeking access to private land in Western Australia must seek the approval of the Warden's Court, which deals with disputes over and applications for mining leases, and negotiate compensation with the owner.

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Gimme, Gimme Bar, Goolarri, Broome

Free event open to all.

Exciting news - Dr Bob Brown is coming to Broome next week. There's an opportunity to catch up with him and locals to talk about the future of the Kimberley. How do we create economy that protects our land, sea and provide culturally appropriate employment?.

Bring your family to listen to some music and together establish a positive vision for the future of the Kimberley.

Broome style curries available and cakes.

More details to come.

Facebook entry, name witheld.

Text's a bit hard to read, but this is what I think it says: Woodside is an amoral Australian company with a history of belligerence and insensitivity. We believe that by doing what’s right, we can never perform to our very best. This means living our values every day, which isn’t hard - we don’t have any. The Woodside's Compass provides guidance and direction as we strive to achieve the vision of becoming a global leader in upstream oil, gas and their associated ecological destruction. INTEGRITY We are open, honest and fair. We do what we say we will do. We have the courage to do the right thing. As long as it suits our immediate purposes. You can believe it anyway. RESPECTWe give everyone a fair go, unless it might threaten profitability. We listen. Then we ignore. WORKING SUSTAINABLY We are here for the long term. At least till next quarter’s profit result. We look after each other, our mates that is. Communities and the environment have to be mentioned here somewhere, whatever they are. We keep each other safe, in the board room. WORKING TOGETHER We are on the same team, the Woodside Team. Join us or f!@k off. We build long-term partnerships - we are always on top, you are bent over. DISCIPLINE We play by the rules, which we like changing as the need for profit dictates. Don’t give us government rules though - they suck! We set moving goalposts and we hold ourselves to in our own pockets. EXCELLENCE We achieve great results - just look at that profit result! We learn, especially what your name and address are, and where your kids go to school. We get better, especially at stomping on you. OUR MISSION To deliver superior shareholder returns. Yep, that’s about it really. Nothing else matters, seriously. OUR VISION Our aim is to be a global leader in upstream oil, gas and ecological and societal destruction. OUR STRATEGIC DIRECTION Maintain our leading Australian position by optimising our producing assets and commercialising our growth projects and other premium opportunities. And baffling the likes of you with business-speak. Grow our portfolio by leveraging our core capabilities for global upstream growth. And a bit more baffling. PARTNER OF CHOICE We are the premium choice for partnerships based on our distinctive capabilities, culture and track record as a great partner. As long as we’re on top and you’re bent over. ENGAGED PEOPLE We work for a highly regarded and successful company - it is always on the minds of people in high places. We are part of a team working together for great results and have opportunities to contribute and grow. Everybody wants to be on our team, predictable dummies like Colin Barnett of course, but look - we’ve even coerced the West Australian Police Force! FUNCTIONAL EXCELLENCE We leverage our core-drilling capabilities and the latest fracking technology to create new opportunities and sharpen our competitive edge, driving a wedge into communities, stripping vegetation, and leaving a lasting legacy in our wake. DECISION EFFECTIVENESS We make and execute decisions in line with our business priorities and our values. So get out of our f!!@king way you hippy granny latte-sipping shits and let us get on with rapin’ and pillagin’ like we ought to!

Gov't at odds with unions on FLNG

Peter Kerr, The West Australian February 20, 2013

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/business/a/-/national/16187223/govt-at-odds-with-unions-on-flng/

The Gillard Government has stared down union demands to force petroleum giants such as Royal Dutch Shell to process huge gas reserves onshore to boost local jobs, paving the way for the use of floating LNG on Woodside's $40 billion Browse project.

Unions have attacked the Government in recent weeks over the issue, saying FLNG would cost jobs at the expense of overseas shipbuilding yards. They wanted the Government to use its manufacturing support policy, released this week, to force the issue. But the policy did not contain any references to FLNG or other union and industry demands to force petroleum companies to provide cheap gas.

Perth: Concert for the Kimberley : John Butler, Missy Higgins, Ball Park Music, and Dr Bob Brown and more in a celebration one of the most beautiful, unique, and threatened places on Earth. Fremantle Esplanade, WA. Sunday 24th Feb. 1:30-6:30pm. We have heaps of great volunteers willing to help on the day, but we need people to help spread these beautiful posters (right), please contact Sarah or Wazza on (08) 9420 7255 at TWS. Sydney : Festival for the Kimberley; Come and indulge in the total sensory experience of visiting the Kimberley coast – enjoy live music, markets, dancers, speakers, camels, a life-size Kimberley whale and much more. Martin Place, Sydney CBD. Friday 22nd Feb, 2013. Perth: Kimberley starlight films: Hyde Park, Perth CBD. Wednesday 27th Feb, 2013. Join us for an amazing collection of short films produced of the last two years in the Kimberley. Get a snapshot of the amazing culture, Heritage and community campaign to protect the Kimberley. The night will begin with a string quartet, so lock this event in your diary!

Mitch Torres writes "You want to see resistance and people standing up for country, heritage and their burial sites - take a look at this documentary, I went to this site in Montreal with the local indigenous people and saw that their places were still standing - but they supported each other in the face of great opposition from the state and guns. We have forgotten Noonkanbah and the resistance that had people from all over Australia support the Nonkanbah people - where has that solidarity gone? Our old peoples burial sites are about to be threatened with destruction by Woodside and the WA State Government - and we need your help to support us....1st James Price Point (Walmadan) next your country in the middle of the Kimberley along the river countries, tablelands, desert.....I for one do not want to deal with people in the future saying those mob on the coast sold us out - they didn't fight hard enough because you will be looking at another global giant and government cutting your land up and damaging your waterways....let us stand together Kimberley Countrymen and women....when the time comes, when we send out the call we need your support to come and stand with us to protect our special and important places..."

http://www.nfb.ca/film/kanehsatake_270_years_of_resistance

Shale Gas Fracking Public Forum | BROOME | Clean Water, Healthy Land Speaking Tour

February 18 at 7:00pm

The Mangrove Resort Hotel in Broome, Western Australia

Have you heard about unconventional gas fracking? Don't know what it is or don't think it'll happen in the Kimberley (think again)?

"Without rigorous scientific studies, the gas drillling boom sweeping the world will remain an uncontrolled health experiment on an enormous scale" -Dr Bamberger and Dr Oswald, Cornell University

Guest speakers will include SARAH MOLES (Lock the Gate Alliance) and JAMIE HANSON (Climate and Energy Program, Conservation Council WA)
...
‘Lock the Gate’ are the most successful anti-fracking group in Australia, coordinating the activities of the many inspiring grassroots activists fighting against Coal Seam Gas in Queensland and NSW.

The Clean Water, Healthy Land Speaking Tour will be travelling up the coast of WA, visiting affected communities and offering an opportunity to hear about the gas fracking industry in WA, the risks, and what local communities are doing to keep their water clean and their land healthy.

Cheers, we hope to see you there,

Clean Water, Healthy Land

Social licence is a real and important phenomenon that mining companies must consider in their planning and operational activities. The power of communities, although ultimately limited in regulation is real and impactful in shaping the way mining takes place in Australia. Woodside clearly do not have a social licence.

The difference between the No Gas at James Price Point and other famous campaigns is the fact that most campaigns start when the project is starting. The Broome community campaign has been opposing Woodside long before the project has actually started, meaning that the movement has already great regional, national and international momentum support, spiked with experience and founded in solid determination. No other campaign has ever achieved this type of premeditated community opposition strike. Woodside and the joint venture partners need to make these final investment decision public. We all know the decision has already been made, behind the closed doors. They are all keeping their shareholders on the hook but it would be really wonderful if they could have some compassionate humanity and take the anxiety, uncertainly and distress out of the Broome community by making this announcement public now .

WE NEED YOUR HELP. The court case between The Wilderness Society, Richard Hunter, Goolarabooloo lawman and the EPA was heard in court this morning with Woodside waiting to join the action, which would definitely raise the stakes and costs of the case to challenge the state gas hub approvals.

There were also thousands of pages of legal documents delivered to our Perth office this morning (pictured), which will do doubt provide some light reading for our legal team over the next few weeks.

If you have any ability to help us fight this challenge please donate online here: https://secure.wilderness.org.au/appeal/12-03-kimberley.php

By: The Wilderness Society WA

(Menafn - The Australian Financial Review - ABIX via COMTEX) --Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke says he will not be rushed into making a decision on the approval of Woodside Petroleum's A40bn Browse LNG project. Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett had urged Burke to make a decision before the state election on 9 March 2013. The State Government has approved the project. Burke refused to comment on the specifics of the onshore Browse project, but noted that there are environmental advantages of building offshore LNG plants.

Goolarabooloo Jabirr Jabirr Native Title Claim (WAD6002 of 1998)

The Native Title Claim Group Authorisation Meeting that was held over the last few days decided yesterday to split the Native Title Claim(WAD6002/98). An overwhelming 195-1 voted for Goolarabooloo and Jabirr Jabirr to go their separate ways. The legal ramifications of all the agreements that have been signed to date calls into question their validity. For an agreement to be legally binding it needs to be signed off by the appropriate and true people. Until this is clarified in the Native Title Tribunal neither group has the right to sign anything. What is apparent about this unanimous victory is that the Department of State Development’s outrageous false claims that they have obtained free, prior and informed consent from the rightful Indigenous owners can finally be put to rest. Getting free, prior and informed consent was a major component of the SAR with the Federal Government and also our obligation to the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights.

Research by The Australia Institute suggests that slowing down the pace of coal exports would actually result in enormous benefits to the Australian economy. It would allow our other key export industries – including manufacturing, tourism, education and agriculture – to expand, employing more people and paying more tax.

Because these industries are all far more labour intensive than mining, less subsidised and mostly better taxpayers than mining, it would lead to more jobs and increasing state and federal revenue in the long run.

Communities affected by extractive operations can learn to articulate their development needs in a way that invites sustainable social investments rather than be bewitched by the prospect of a windfall of cash compensation and philanthropy. The cowboy companies like Woodside can likewise learn that the short-term tactical gains of these money drops come at the much higher cost of long-term strategic value.
Windfalls and misdirected philanthropy should not be confused with investing in real long-term human or community development.

La'o Hamutuk has published Cowboys, Ogres and Donors: A Decade of Corporate Social Responsibility in Practice by Mandy White, who represented Woodside in Timor-Leste in 2007-2008. The paper sharply criticizes Woodside's "ogres at the helm" and "sycophantic senior staff" taking a Public Relations approach, "not making even tokenistic efforts" to develop Timor-Leste. Whyte characterizes the company's "blundering arrogance:" "Woodside steadfastly refused to regard the Timor-Leste Government as a partner in the development of the Sunrise fields, seemingly characterising them not only as a 'thorn in the side,' but also as devious and untrustworthy. ... [D]riving forward to a final investment decision without the Timor-Leste Government demonstrates an arrogant lack of regard for the relationship."

http://www.laohamutuk.org/Oil/Sunrise/2011/WhyteCSRMay2011.pdf

http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/radio/onairhighlights/woodside-responds-to-timor-critic

Jeffrey Sachs, Director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University and Special Advisor to the United Nations Secretary‐General on the Millennium Development

...natural gas is clean, it is cleaner than coal, but it is absolutely not clean enough to divert us from a trajectory of grave damage on the environment — let’s be clear about that. We use rhetoric, which lulls us to complacency, to say that natural gas is a clean energy source. It is not a low-carbon energy source. It’s low-carbon only in comparison to coal. But it is high-carbon in comparison to what our climate can take.”

“Using gas is like smoking a ‘light’ cigarette. It may contain slightly less harmful substances, but it will still kill you.

“Woodside's Section 18 approval of grave disturbing works flies in the face of previous recommendations and Court decisions not to allow mining in the area due to its cultural and environmental significance,” said Mr Chapple.

“I am appalled at the ACMC’s recommendations to permit the works to go ahead. In 1991, the ACMC recommended that no exploration activity should occur in the areas defined at the song cycle path and nothing has occurred to diminish this significance.”

“The ACMC is a toothless tiger that consistently fails to protect sites, and the Aboriginal Affairs Minister (Peter Collier) should be ashamed.” He said the Aboriginal Heritage Act is only “a thin veneer of protection” further weakened since a review last year.

The Law Bosses Mr Roe and Mr Hunter have separate legal fights in the Courts to protect their Country. Mr Hunter is arguing inadequate environmental approvals which if upheld would mean the whole Environmental Protection Authority approval process would have to start from scratch.

If Mr Roe’s court battle is won by him then there may well arise the cause for the Native Title claim to the site to be heard before any works commence.

We think it worth a fuller account — especially as another recent study shows that Australia’s media has largely failed to connect the January heatwave to climate change. Simon Divecha is the business manager at the Environment Institute of the University of Adelaide. A week ago the website The Conversation published his study which showed that fewer than 10 of the 800 articles published in the previous five days about the heatwave had mentioned climate change, global warning or greenhouse gas.

http://climatecommission.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/CC_Jan_2013_Heatwave4.pdf

The most recent Jan 2013 Climate Commission’s report lists what it says are four key messages for Australians arising from the heatwave. They are:

1. The length, extent and severity of the current Australian heatwave is unprecedented.

2. Although Australia has always had heatwaves, hot days and bushfires, climate change is increasing the risk of more frequent and longer heatwaves and more extreme hot days, as well as exacerbating bushfire conditions.

3. Climate change has contributed to making the current extreme heat conditions and bushfires worse.

4. Good community understanding of climate change risks is critical to ensuring appropriate action is taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to put measures in place to prepare for, and to respond to, extreme weather.

Broome No Gas Campaign were invited to meet with Brendan Grylls ,Minister for Lands and Leader of the National Party, last night and Lotteries house. Here is what some people are saying on Facebook this morning.

Kel Mydas
I hope he's in a better mood than he was last night. An appallingly ignorant and arrogant display that simply reinforced the fact that our elected representatives do not want to listen to us. He won't have lost any votes from that group, who would be unlikely to vote Nationals anyway, but I would think local candidate Michelle Pucci might be having a few second thoughts after being so thoroughly embarrassed by her party leader.

ABC Kimberley

Nationals Leader Brendon Grylls on Breakfast this morning defending James Price Point as the best place to process Browse gas, the State election and the seat of the Kimberley and if Royalties for Regions will live if the Lib's win with a majority.

Another letter of response
Dear Michelle and Minister Grylls,

I want to thank you both for agreeing to meet us at Lotteries House yesterday.

To be honest this was one of the worst encounters I have experienced with a politician. And there has been lots in the last two years and lots of them were with politicians who were representing the ‘other’ side. I certainly did not go to that meeting hoping we would change your mind Minister Grylls, I was hoping to hear what your party was going to do if was to go ahead and what your ideas were on how to manage the issues arising. Outside of talking about land release to keep the rental prices down I did not hear anything. Instead I witnessed you not answering questions and concerns again and again – just because they didn’t fit into the criteria that you laid down when you first walked in ‘I’m only going to talk about what your concern would be if the gas goes ahead’. Well life doesn’t work that way. You can’t tell people who have lived in this beautiful town for a long time or were born here that they can’t talk about the hurt and trauma they have gone through in the last few years. You may as well rip people hearts out when you tell them ‘You are entitled to leave this town’ after hearing that their very essence is tied to this place, their families, their life, their love.

When I got home I couldn’t sleep for a looooong time. I am suffering from a bad headache this morning. I couldn’t just shrug off the encounter as ‘ah well another politician that wants the gas’. What concerns me more than your position on the gas (and yes you are entitled to that) is that you as a person who is supposed to be representing THE PEOPLE doesn’t know how to listen anymore, doesn’t seem to feel the worry and angst of the people in the room, doesn’t seem to have any compassion, doesn’t even look at people when you talk to them. Is there still a human being in there behind that concrete wall that you have erected around yourself? I worry about where we are going as a nation if the members we have elected as our leaders have lost or buried essential human qualities? I couldn’t help but reflect if you have just reduced yourself to a puppet of the party.

Michelle: I felt sorry for you to be in the presence of Minister Grylls. If you would have been there by yourself a constructive dialogue could have taken place. I felt you know how to connect to people and listen to our concerns. In your political career – wherever it may take you, I really really hope you will never lose that.

In the upcoming elections I won’t vote for you though – sorry Michelle. Obviously the Greens candidate represents my beliefs a lot more here in the Kimberley.

My name is Rodney Augustine. My countrymen know me as Wocky. I am a Jabirr Jabirr, Nyul Nyul and Ngambal Man.

The songline of the Kimberly runs in my veins.
It’s the very life force that keeps me alive.
I don’t expect you Mr Barnet or Woodside to understand this spiritual and sacred connection to my dreaming.
but I’m pleading with you to try to find it in your heart to give us the respect we deserve as human beings.
I have always opposed mining on country. I have seen what has happened in the Pilbura.
I don't want the same destiny for Walmadany.
Why do you Mr Barnet continue to push forward with wanting to kill us countrymen???
Why don’t you understand that as you desecrate our country you are killing our dreaming, our Songline our culture.
You are killing me! That’s murder in any law!
My Lyian tells me that Woodside has brought only division and trouble in our community and families.
This does not feel like a happy future to me.

The Minister for Indigenous Affairs has granted Section 18 approval to Woodside to disrupt Aboriginal Heritage sites in the Cultural and spiritual significant sanddunes of James Price Point (Walmandy) According to the Minister the Songline is NOT A SITE.
Thats right, the Songline is not a Site it is made up made up of numerous sites: ceremonial, skeletal material/burial, artifacts and middens.

Woodside have actually applied for two Section 18. The first application that was approved was heard at the November Aboriginal Cultural Material Committee meeting. Another Section 18 application was advertised on the 19 of December and is scheduled to be heard at the ACMC meeting on the 13 of February 2013

The Minister for Indigenous Affairs has granted Section 18 approval to Woodside to disrupt Aboriginal Heritage sites in the Cultural and spiritual significant sanddunes of James Price Point (Walmandy) According to the Minister the Songline is NOT A SITE. That right, the Songline is not a Site it is made up made up of numerous sites: ceremonial, skeletal material/burial, artifacts and middens.

Woodside have actually applied for two Section 18. The first application that was approved was heard at the November Aboriginal Cultural Material Committee meeting. Another Section 18 application was advertised on the 19 of December and is scheduled to be heard at the ACMC meeting on the 13 of February 2013

Not every summer will be hotter than the one before. In fact this year is markedly hotter than the last couple of years when we had relatively milder and wetter conditions.
But what we are going to find on average is more of the hot extremes and faster increases in the future, over the next 10 and 30 years, that we have seen over the last 30 years - more hot extremes, more heatwaves and more extreme fire conditions.
Climate scientists have been talking about these increases for more than 20 years in Australia. We are now seeing exactly what was predicted more than 20 years ago.

Professor David Karoly

Miranda Devine’s columns defending violence against environmentalists set a new low for the editorial standards on the opinion pages of the Daily Telegraph and the Sydney Morning Herald. While media publishers such as Rupert Murdoch’s News Limited and Fairfax Media rightfully complain against the victimisation of journalists by vindicative governments or vigilantes, their willingness to defend or potentially incite harassment of environmentalists exposes how shallow their commitment is to ensuring debate over issues is kept within acceptable bounds.

It is, for example, hard to believe that a column defending or advocating violence against journalists would get a run in either the Daily Telegraph or the Sydney Morning Herald. Imagine the outcry if Devine had written that, after a bashing of a journalist, that “violence has its place”. Or the fury of the journalists union if she had written that “it is not arsonists who should be hanging from lamp-posts but journalists”.

But it seems that for the sake of creating controversy to sell newspapers, Devine’s toxic views defending and potentially inciting violence against environmentalists are tolerated.

http://www.tasmaniantimes.com/index.php/article/miranda-devine-and-thuggery

Australia emits 19 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year for each person who lives here. If the world wants to avoid more than 2C of warming the global average must be below three tonnes a year per person. Our addiction to economic growth is now a clear and serious threat to our long-term future.

Pitt & Sherry economist Phil Harrington, a Hobart-based specialist in climate mitigation and adaptation, discovered how serious when he looked into emissions from the proposed new "clean, green" liquefied natural gas hub at James Price Point, Western Australia.

The WA Government says the gigantic plant will release somewhere between 12 and 39 million tonnes of greenhouse gas a year. Calculations of negative impacts by proponents and their supporters usually prove conservative in practice. The upper limit is probably close to the mark.

Based on this supposition, Harrington did his own sums and came up with the number of rooftop solar systems needed to offset emissions from this single industrial undertaking.

The answer is wait for it 20 million. As Harrington says, it's a pity there are only around eight million households in Australia.

pb@climatetasmania.com.au

Suncorp Group said in its Risky Business report on risk management.

“More frequent extreme weather events, economic growth, urbanisation and population shifts towards high-risk areas have all combined to dramatically increase Australia's risk exposure,” Suncorp said in the report. “The chance that natural hazard will become natural disaster is greater than ever.”

The internal strife of a nation is not predicated on the transitory moods of its people but the attitude of its government. Revolutions are not waged by happy people in an honorable land. True revolutions are a product of generations of discontent stemming from dishonest and vicious bureaucracy. An establishment government facing a wave of discord from the masses has, in most cases, done something to deserve it. I, like many, do not relish the idea of a national revolt, but if I am to be honest in the face of the facts about fracking, I have to acknowledge that the potential for one within my lifetime is significant. I also can’t say that it is not necessary. Unless tomorrow brings a miraculous shift in current totalitarian govrnement trends, revolution may be all we have left…

Despite today's news of the Wilderness Society and Goolarabooloo traditional custodian Richard Hunter launching legal proceedings against the EPA and Envrionment Minister Bill Marmion over the approval of the controversial James Price Point gas processing complex, Mr Barnett did not seem concerned.

"James Price Point has gone through an exhaustive process and has received environmental approval," he said. "Nothing more to say."

http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/live-chat-with-premier-colin-barnett/story-e6frg12c-1226460108161

before The Hon. The Chief Justice

Mediation Room 1, 17th Floor 111 St Georges Tce Perth

14:15, 18 Dec 2012

Roe v. The State of Western Australia & Ors (CIV 2765/2012)

Strategic Conference

According to the Supreme Court of Western Australia Annual Review of 2011, Strategic Conferences were established as a strategic conference procedure. Commercial and Managed Case list judges hold strategic conferences in almost all cases soon after the defence is filed to provide the parties and the court an opportunity to assess the nature of the case to identify a targeted approach to resolve the case in a less costly and more timely manner.

Although the benefits of the new procedure is yet to be formally assessed, anecdotal evidence suggests it is working. The requirement to have trial counsel involved in the case early has generated sufficient consideration of the case so as to result in settlements in some cases, or streamlined preparation for trial in others.

The WA Supreme Court has been asked to overturn the state government's second attempt at compulsory acquisition of the site and rule the $1.5bn compensation deal negotiated with the Kimberley Land Council invalid.

The action alleges the government facilitated an abuse of the federal court process in its dealings over James Price Point.

The Supreme Court action, on behalf of traditional law boss, Phillip Roe, claims the KLC had been placed under "improper pressure" by the WA government when it threatened the KLC and the applicant of the native title claim over the area if the group proceeded with a court action to split the claim.

The KLC was acting following a vote of Goolarabooloo and Jabirr Jabirr people that the native title claim be split.

The new action alleges the state government's actions had been an abuse of the acquisition processes as well as the Federal Court's claim process.

A summons has been lodged in the WA Supreme court against the State of Western Australia, WA Minister for Land, WA Land Corporation, Broome Port Authority, the Kimberley Land Council and others.

In a statement, Mr Barnett said: "The agreement reached by a vote of traditional owners was in accordance with the Commonwealth Native Title process under the supervision of the Federal Court. The state government is confident it has acted in accordance with this process and that the second Notice of Intention to Take was valid," Mr Barnett said.

LNG Watchdog

Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

LNG WATCH PNG has been launched to raise awareness of the illegalities associated with the signing of the multi-billion dollar PNG LNG project. It was bulldozed through by the PNG Government and the developers. The minority in the signing room were forced to sign, but most of the landowners missed out on signing the agreement. The people of Hela (Landowners) do not understand the PNG LNG project, and what effect it will have on their land and environment. Nobody has properly informed the local landowners about the development's full impact. Hidden, corrupt practices have facilitated the project’s development thus far, the landowners and Papua New Guinea more generally have been overlooked. Some of these secret deals are known, some are not yet known. Therefore, the LNG WATCH PNG is set up to monitor and stop the culprits who claim the PNG LNG project as their sole property. LNG WATCH PNG will also dig deep into the past and watch the future of the PNG LNG Project so that the developers and the PNG government pay proper homage to the PNG LNG owners.

OFF COUNTRY WOULD LIKE TO HIGHLY RECOMMEND THAT THIS IS A BLOG TO FOLLOW IN SUPPORT OF OTHER COUNTRIES, COMMUNITIES, PEOPLE WHO ARE SUFFERING AT THE HANDS OF THESE PARASITIC OIL & GAS CORPORATIONS.

Broome to be Inpex supply hub

TOLL Mermaid Logistics Broome, a 50%-owned subsidiary of Mermaid Marine, has won a five-year, $20 million contract to provide supply base services to Inpex in Broome, Western Australia.

Under the contract TMLB will develop dedicated infrastructure and provide various services at its Broome supply base to support Inpex’s Ichthys LNG project development drilling works.

The contract has two five-year extension options.

TMLB, an incorporated joint venture between Mermaid and Toll Holdings, was created in 2006 to provide supply base services in Broome to support offshore activities in the Browse Basin.

The Ichthys gas field is in the Browse Basin off the WA coast.

Macquarie said Australia's five most advanced LNG developments - Pluto (completed) PNG LNG, Gorgon, Queensland Curtis LNG and Gladstone LNG - were already 32 per cent over-budget and six months late despite being only 60 per cent complete.

With construction peaking in 2013, the analysts warned, "the worst may lie ahead".

The analysts said the growing suggestion was that Woodside's Browse LNG development, Australia's largest remaining undeveloped resource, would struggle to yield acceptable returns going to James Price Point, 60 kilometres north of Broome.

Pilbara a basket case: Grylls

Gareth Parker, The West Australian

Nationals Leader Brendon Grylls has described the Pilbara as a “basket case” because of government failures to plan for its growth, leaving its 50,000 residents to live with a raw deal.

"It wasn’t planned and then the community has had to put up with what they’ve got and struggle with it,” Mr Grylls said.

I’ve had more people cry in meetings with me in the Pilbara in the past 12 months than I’ve ever had in my full political career. And they’re crying because of the failure of government.

“They’re crying because having rents of $2000 a week when you’re a small business owner means you’re probably going to lose your business because you can’t afford employees.

Labor MLA for Pilbara Tom Stephens, who will retire at the election, said the speech was an admission of failure and instead of contesting the seat Mr Grylls should resign.

“He’s been in the driving seat for four-plus years, with a policy commitment to fix it,” Mr Stephens said.

“He’s blaming everyone for their failures, but he’s a senior Government minister with direct responsibility for land release and regional development.

“He’s become part of the problem, not part of the solution.”

I was push-polled on the topic of the gas hub this evening. It was clearly aimed at Green/conservationist people, advertising itself as being about "social issues" to draw you in. The actual poll was entirely about the gas hub. They went through a long series of questions such as "do you agree/disagree that the hub will revitalise the Broome economy by bringing in new business opportunities", and "do you like/dislike Bob Brown" then at the end finally asked "has this changed your views about the project?"

It was kinda funny actually - by refreshing my memory of many of the issues it actually INCREASED my feelings of opposition to the project by the end!

The rise in CO₂ concentration and global temperature has continued to closely match the projections over the past five years, while sea level continues to rise faster than anticipated. The latter suggests that the 21st Century sea-level projections of the last two IPCC reports may be systematically biased low. Further support for this concern is provided by the fact that the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are increasingly losing mass (Rignot et al 2011, Van den Broeke et al 2011), while those IPCC projections assumed that Antarctica will gain enough mass in future to largely compensate mass losses from Greenland. For this reason, an additional contribution ('scaled-up ice sheet discharge') was suggested in the IPCC fourth assessment.

Nov 28, 2012 (The Australian - ABIX via COMTEX News Network) --

The CEO of Woodside Petroleum is reluctant to take sides in a dispute between joint venture partner Shell and the Western Australian Government. Peter Coleman says Woodside is still pricing the development of an LNG facility at James Price Point. Shell believes that an offshore floating LNG plant is the most viable financial option, but these plans have been rejected by the State Government, which is keen to keep the jobs in Australia. The debate is likely to become a highly contentious political issue.

Barnett ups ante on Browse

Kim Christian, AAP

The West Australian Premier has upped the ante on the controversial Browse gas project, indicating that joint venture leader Woodside Petroleum might not receive state government approval for a floating option.

Colin Barnett said he doubted that the cost of constructing his favoured onshore gas processing plant at James Price Point, near Broome, could blow out to between $60 billion and $70 billion, causing Woodside to deem the project uneconomic.

The proposed liquid natural gas (LNG) development at James Price Point goes ahead will be the single largest carbon polluter in Australia, and it will have no requirements to operate efficiently or reduce carbon pollution at all.

At the stroke of a pen Minister for the Environment, Marmion has allowed a staggering 5.5 million tonnes of additional carbon pollution every year for the life of this project – roughly equal to the pollution from an extra 400,000 Australian households.

The EPA recommended a number of requirements for the gas hub to reduce carbon pollution in order to meet Premier Barnett’s commitment to world’s best practice; however Minister Marmion has overturned the advice of the EPA as well as the Appeals Convener in order to reduce costs for Woodside.

http://ccwa.org.au/media/wa-minister-allows-lng-pollution-blowout-equal-400000-homes

Given the rapid growth of reliance on non-resident workers in the resources sector carries significant impacts for individual workers and their families and host communities, as evidenced by the many submissions to the Australian Parliament House inquiry into FIFO/DIDO work practices, chaired by the Independent MP Tony Windsor. Some of the significant impacts include:

A sudden influx in high risk populations (young single males with large disposable incomes) exacerbating crime and alcohol-related social disorder problems.
The creation of new lucrative unregulated drug markets and markets in commercial sex work.
Rises in traffic congestion and road accidents.
Stretch on infrastructure.
The erosion of community wellbeing.
Heightened risk of protracted social protest over coal-seam gas extraction.
Ongoing widespread social protest against the erection of camps in close proximity to established rural communities.
Increasing burden on local services.
Soaring housing costs and other local costs of living
“Fly over effects” on the local economy, and an ever-decreasing permanent resident workforce
Increasing rates of staff turnover,
Reversal of the trend of women entering the mining industry (down from 15.7 to 12.6% according to the most recent ABS statistics)
Increases in the average hours worked each week exacerbating fatigue related car accidents and work injury as they commute either end of work cycles than in the workplace (an average of hours 45 hours as at August 2011, with 1 in 3 working over 60 hours per week).

These impacts undermine the long-term sustainable community development of Australia. It is troubling therefore that dramatic socio-demographic processes have been unleashed by this boom without concerted attempts to accurately research, measure or account for the numbers of non-resident workers involved and their nation-changing impact on the Australian society and economy.

Within days of the latest court action being lodged, Woodside stopped work at James Price Point, removed all of its machinery and buildings and placed "revegetation site" signs around the area. The company said the site had been prepared for the coming cyclone season but there was still work to do this year.

The Supreme Court current action, on behalf of traditional law boss, Phillip Roe, claims the KLC had been placed under "improper pressure" by the WA government when it threatened the KLC and the applicant of the native title claim over the area if the group proceeded with a court action to split the claim.

The KLC was acting following a vote of Goolarabooloo and Jabirr Jabirr people that the native title claim be split.

Keeping the joint Goolarabooloo Jabirr Jabirr native title claim intact allowed the government to complete a second attempt at compulsory acquisition of the site without having to deal with opponents of the hub.

A first attempt at compulsory acquisition was overturned when the court ruled the state had not adequately identified the area to be acquired.

Oil and gas company Woodside has formally lodged an application to carry out exploration drilling near the Rowley Shoals in the state's North West.

As part of a joint venture with Shell, the company wants to drill eight wells in the search for reserves of oil and gas.

Some of those wells would be 30 kilometres from the marine park.Rowley Shoals lies 300 kilometres west of Broome and is made up of three coral atolls.

Nothing is sacred to this corporation, take what you can regardless of the fact that we are all responsible to look after the planet we were born on. Corporation do not have human rights to just help themselves to our shared planet's natural resources.

The days, that corporate greed fosters the destruction of the planet and their insistence that they have the rights of human but none of the responsibility, are numbered.

Woodside Packing Up & Leaving Country
11th November 11.30am

The current word from the Walmadan Protectors is that Woodside are currently pulling down their compound at James Price Point. Fencing and equipment was removed last night and currently the fence posts that surrounded the compound are being plucked out by an excavator. All equipment out the back of the proposed precinct has all been removed.

A sign has been erected on the (ex) Woodside compound gate, on Manari Road at James Price Point state that the area is now under regeneration.

Fencing materials apparently has all been donated the the local Pony Club. Is the Tower coming down as well?

Woodside are leaving Country.What this all means is anyone guess, but Woodside are packing up and leaving Country. YAYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
Images will be provided in due course.

Hey, nice that they fixed up the road before pulling the pin!!!!!!!

The Intertidal zone on the west side of the Damiper Peninsula is National Heritage Listed because of the dinosaur track sites embedded in the Broome sand-stone.

However, the National Heritage Council has done nothing to uphold their oblations under the National Heritage management principles (Schedule 5B, EPBC Regulations) for the protection of these important Australian heritage treasures.

Basically, the National Heritage Council has really only drawn a red line on a map and to this day no independently produced map indicating the true boundaries of the intertidal zone, and or the heritage protection areas.

· The objective in managing National Heritage places is to identify, protect, conserve, present and transmit, to all generations, their National Heritage values.

· The management of National Heritage places should:

- Use the best available knowledge, skills and standards for those places, and including ongoing technical and community input to decisions and actions that may have a significant impact on their National Heritage values;

- Respect all heritage values of the place and seek to integrate, where appropriate, any Commonwealth, State, Territory and local government responsibilities for those places;

- Ensure that their use and presentation is consistent with the conservation of their National Heritage values;

- Make timely and appropriate provision for community involvement, especially by people who have a particular interest in, or association with, the place and may be affected by the management of the place;

- Provide for regular monitoring, review and reporting on the conservation of National Heritage values

NONE OF THIS HAS, IS OR EVER WILL BE

UNDERTAKEN, WHY?

Lurujarri Dreaming Community Screening : 19th November 7pm, at Goolari Media Enterprises 7-9 Blackman st..... 4 years in the making, Lurujarri Dreaming is a 27 minute animated documentary about the Lurujarri Heritage Trail, the Goolarabooloo's connection to country and the legacy of Paddy Roe OAM (Lulu). Featuring a film score by Steven and Alan Pigram, and archival recordings of Paddy Roe. The community screening is an outdoor event at Goolari Media Enterprises, refreshments provided, bring blankets/seats. Entry by gold coin donation.

Woodside Petroleum (ASX: WPL) has confirmed that is bidding on the oil and gas rights to an enormous undersea gas field off Israel’s coast.

Woodside Petroleum (ASX: WPL) is taking a 40% stake in a deep water oil and gas exploration block offshore Myanmar from South Korea’s Daewoo international Corporation.

Woodside has joined with partners keen on an exploration licence offshore Cyprus.

You would think that Woodside has enough on its plate already, with its Pluto LNG plant stuck in first gear, after the company was unable to find enough gas to support an expansion.

Woodside also has plans to develop two additional – and controversial – LNG plants, namely Browse and Sunrise. Browse is facing opposition from all levels of main stream society. An LNG processing facilities will do untold damage to the environment and national Cultural heritage values at James Price Point and the Broome community, the Austrlian people are becoming more aware of the issue and the campaign.

Its partners in Browse, including BHP Billiton (ASX: BHP), Shell, MIMI and BP, are clearly all in favor for the gas piped to existing processing plant, or on to a floating one, rather than building a greenfield site at James Price Point.

Sunrise has its own issues. East Timor wants an LNG processing plant built in East Timor, with gas piped to it from the Sunrise gas field, while Woodside has said it prefers a floating processing plant.

A final investment decision by the Woodside-led joint venture on a controversial $40bn development of the Browse LNG project south of James Price Point is due next year.

Tender bids for infrastructure were received in the June quarter and Woodside said a "disciplined assurance process is progressing to determine project costs and economics".

A go-ahead decision has already been delayed from this year and analysts suspect the new date of mid-2013 could also be missed.

Environmental assessment/approval regulation should be considered a hand-brake on the breadth and intensity of impacts, at best. The listing of a species or a heritage site/value doesn't accord protection, it merely brings it within scope of assessment.

The EBPC Act only requires assessment and approval of projects likely to have significant impacts, leaving the cumulative effect of insignificant impacts, the broader effects of environmental impacts outside scope (not matters of national environmental significance), projects not submitted for assessment, and the impacts that are approved (whether mitigated/offset or not) within the discretion of the decision-maker - usually on the basis of poorly defined economic or social benefits - to continue reducing the resilience of our biodiversity, heritage and the environment more generally.

All the platitudes about 'maintaining and enhancing the environment' and 'striking the right balance' contained within the EPBC Act are meaningless if the actual restorative functions provided for in the Act (e.g. recovery planning) are under-resourced and poorly or partially implemented.

As much as it is disturbing to anticipate the States gaining greater autonomy and reduced oversight from the Commonwealth, they'll be inheriting a system that lacks any substantive evidence of its efficacy in protecting the environment.

Answered on 8 September 2011

JAMES PRICE POINT — REGISTERED ABORIGINAL SITES — TERREX REPORT

757. Hon ROBIN CHAPPLE to the Minister for Indigenous Affairs:

I refer to Aboriginal sites at James Price Point.

(1) Is the minister aware of the 1991 WA Museum report prepared by Mr Nicholas Green, then a senior heritage officer with the Western Australian Register of Aboriginal Sites, for the Broome Mining Wardens Court in relation to exploration licences E04/645, EO4/646 and EO4/647, which generally is referred to as the Terrex report?

(2) Is the minister aware of the decision of the Aboriginal Cultural Material Committee communicated to the Mining Wardens Court in the above case by letter dated 18 July 1991?

(3) Is the “song cycle path” as recorded and mapped in the above report and as referred to in the ACMC decision, an area to which section 5 of the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 applies?

(4) Is approval under section 18 of the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 required in relation to any disturbance of the “song cycle path”?

Hon PETER COLLIER replied:

I thank the honourable member for some notice of the question.

(1) Yes.

(2) Yes; I am aware that the Aboriginal Cultural Material Committee provided advice to the Mining Wardens Court in 1991.

(3) Not at this time; however, the ACMC will be considering heritage information for the area at a meeting in the near feature, and will make a decision about whether a site exists.

(4) No.

Extract from Hansard [ASSEMBLY— Thursday, 25 October 2012
Mr C.J. BARNETT: There will be only one site from which offshore gas reserves can be processed, and that is James Price Point. There will not be one at the top of the Kimberley or somewhere else. The issue, and it has really developed rapidly over the past couple of years, is the process of proving up the Canning Basin gas reserves, which are looking very, very extensive. If there were to be a domestic gas component of the Canning Basin and at some stage an export component also, then this does not preclude a site for export. I think what would happen is that the Canning Basin would negotiate to have an LNG facility within James Price Point. That would be the government’s policy intent. We would still see this as the single site. Indeed, it is basically adjacent to Canning Basin. Canning Basin gas could go out through James Price Point,

The Rats Will Desert The Sinking Ship

Department Indigenous Affairs (DIA) prepared a document for Department State Development (DSD) in January 2009 which stated that:- “The following information has been prepared in response to a request from the Department of State Development for Aboriginal heritage sites registered with the Department of indigenous Affairs along a 10km investigation corridor in the vicinity of James Price Point'. An answer received today now states that DIA has no record of a formal request being received by DIA.

Yet the document exists and is available at http://www.robinchapple.com/sites/default/files/2009-01-12%20DIA%20File%20Note%20to%20DSD.pdf of which the attached email states that this is the brief that was sent some time ago.

This document requested by DSD of which the department has no record of the request was requested in 2009 and would have provided to DSD the advice that the area of James Price Point had significant heritage areas before DSD or the EPA made any assessment of the area as part of the Strategic Assessment Report that was released as Report 1444 in July 2012.

Hi Hands Off Country.
Have you listened to this TED speech of Polly Higgings, lawyer, who is proposing a World Law on Ecocide? She has already lobbied many government bodies about this, including the UN. Now Australia has won a seat on the UN I think we need to lobby massively to push for this. As Bolivia has already done, NOW is the time to protect the Rights of the Earth by Law. Please watch this, if you haven't done so already. It will give you a huge uplift!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8EuxYzQ65H4

Broome Community No Gas Campaign

Website: www.broomenogas.org :
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BroomeNoGas

Who we are:

We are a coalition of concerned community members dedicated to stopping the proposed industrial development at James Price Point (Walmadany), north of Broome. We love Broome, its heritage, its culture, its environment and its unique and historically successful multicultural community. We are campaigning against industrialisation because we believe it threatens to destroy all the things we love about our town, our region and our community. There are alternatives to building an LNG plant at James Price Point. We support development of our region that is socially, culturally and environmentally sustainable, and that provides real long-term economic and environmental solutions for current and future generations.

Bank Account for Campaign Donations:

ANZ Broome BSB 016554; Account Number 2492 71156; Account NGOTKC

If you want your donation to go to a specific element of the campaign (eg camps, fines, equipment) please indicate your choice in the reference line.

Bank Account for Communications Support:

ANZ Broome BSB 016554; Account Number 1850 93222; Account Broome No Gas

Two totally different responses to last nights actions. Firstly, Parliament House. We were approached by the Security Guard who was really friendly and very impressed with the new look of Parliament House. He said it was one of the most creative ways he has seen to protest in all his time at the House. We were invited to come back whenever we wanted :) Secondly, woodside's approach lead to t he following conversation.... Security Guard "What are you doing?" Red Broome "What do you think I'm doing?" Security Guard "No, what are you doing?" Red Broome "Can't you see what I'm doing? Security Guard "I want you to pack up your gear and move on" Red Broome "Excuse me, what authority do you have to ask us to move on?" Security Guard "Well move your table and equipment off the property" We then moved our gear 1 metre to the left and continued with Project X. Red Broome "All good now?" The Security Guard walked away without answering. Five minutes later the Police arrived. The Officer walked up and said "What are you doing?" There was that question again! Here is me thinking it was really obvious what we were doing. I explained that we were conducting Non Violent Direct Action against woodside and the State Government because of their plans to build a Gas Factory on the Kimberley coast. The Officer looked around then walked off, spoke with woodside security, then left. Great to see that woodside can call and the Police respond so quickly. These Police Officers had been diverted from keeping law and order at the very busy night clubbing area of Northbridge. As the Security Guard shuffled away I thought I heard her say something like "would rather work for Parliament House" Looking forward to doing more NVDA's at the big end of town.

MEDIA RELEASE

Poll: 85% want Federal Government to make the final decisions on environmentally risky development proposals

Polling released today shows 85 per cent of Australians agree the Federal Government should be able to block or make changes to major projects that could damage the environment.

The Federal Government could give up much of its power to do so under proposed changes to the national Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act, currently being pushed by state governments.

“This is a clear message that Australians want our Federal Government to retain the right to stop potentially damaging developments,” said WWF Conservation Director, Gilly Llewellyn, speaking on behalf of an alliance of more than 30 Australian environment groups.

“It’s obvious that Australians want our unique wildlife and places to have robust protection, that’s why these changes to our national environmental law will not be widely supported,” Dr. Llewellyn said.

Monday night on 4 Corners.

http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2012/09/27/3599022.htm

Taxing Time in Timor.

"Timor-Leste's first task is to cut a deal with energy giant Woodside that would see a pipeline and a gas processing plant built on the country's southern shore. If that happens it would mean development, investment, construction and processing jobs, plus more money in taxes. There is a catch though. The company is playing hardball while the government claims the negotiations have involved bullying and double dealing."

Bullying and double dealing? Woodside? Really?

Post-Pluto, Woodside's future remains greatly influenced by the high-cost construction environment. By the second quarter of next year, (rumors have it end of this year) Woodside and its partners in the Browse LNG project have to be in a position to make a final investment decision on the contentious development, in line with permit retention conditions imposed by the Federal and WA governments.

Right now Woodside is digesting tenders for the on and offshore components of a project analysts expect to cost at least $40 billion.

MP makes conflict of interest claim

Kim Kirkman

Broome Advertiser

A DEPARTMENT of Indigenous Affairs deputy director who was involved in giving advice to Woodside in relation to possible Aboriginal heritage sites at James Price Point was a former director of the Department of State Development's Browse LNG project and received gifts from the oil and gas producer, State Parliament has been told.

In a parliamentary motion last week, Greens MLC Robin Chapple claimed Duncan Ord was one of three Department of Indigenous Affairs employees who had a significant role to play in the development of the (Browse LNG) proposal while working for the DSD.

The motion condemned the Government's "failure to ensure that environmental, indigenous and cultural interests were protected".

Greens challenge Woodside project process

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8530514

The approval process for a $34 billion gas hub earmarked for Western Australia carries the "stench of corruption", the Senate has been told.

Woodside Petroleum is seeking environmental approval to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) processing hub at James Price Point near Broome, amid strong opposition from local indigenous and environmental groups.

During Senate question time on Monday, Australian Greens senator Christine Milne asked the government if it had confidence in the WA assessment process.

She cited weekend media reports, which said Woodside had pressured the state government to withdraw advice about breaches of Aboriginal heritage laws.

Labor frontbencher Stephen Conroy, representing Environment Minister Tony Burke, said Mr Burke would not be making any decision at the federal level until all the state issues were appropriately investigated.

He said he would seek further information from the minister.

When, how and who will investigate this stench of corruption?

Mr Barnett said he would not stand in the way "but I will as premier do all that I can to make sure it happens at James Price Point". "They cannot by themselves make a decision to send it to the North West Shelf - that can only happen if the state government agrees." He also rejected suggestions the plant would open the floodgates to industrialisat Barnett said "There will only be simply the liquefaction process - there won't be an industrial complex developed there." If this is the liquefaction process that is happening currently at Barrow Island, and if this is not an industrial complex than WTF!

THE LAND USE HISTORY OF JAMES PRICE POINT

• In 1965, over 300,000 acres, including James Price Point, was recommended for protection as a Class A National Park by the Australian Academy of Science.

• In 1991, the Dept. of Conservation and Land Management upheld this recommendation.

• In 1990 The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA)
recommended to the Broome Warden’s Court that no ‘ground-disturbing works’ take place in the JPP and Quondong Point area, due to the high cultural and environmental significance of these areas.

• In 1993, the EPA recommended the establishment of a National Park at JPP to the WA State Government.

• In 1996 the WA State Government purchased Waterbank Station, directly north of Broome. A key objective was the protection of significant environmental and cultural areas in the Broome Shire. The Waterbank Structure Plan designated the area of James Price Point as a 93,000 hectare Reserve for Conservation and Aboriginal Heritage.

• This long-term vision for our future was formally adopted by Broome Shire Council under the Waterbank Structure Plan and endorsed by the WA State Cabinet in 2000. This is still our current Regional Plan.

• The Kimberley Land Council supported the protection and management of cultural and environmental values in this area through the establishment of an Indigenous Protected Area, under International Union for the Conservation of Nature guidelines. In 2002, this concept was supported by the Dept. of Land Administration.

• The WA State Government is attempting to wipe out decades of work by Traditional Owners, conservationists and the community to protect this priceless area.

• Premier Barnett has thrown out the rule book. A ‘Heads of Agreement’ has been signed without the resolution of Native Title in this area and without negotiating an Indigenous Land Use Agreement with all parties, i.e. Native Title claimants, the Broome Shire, and State and Federal Government bodies.

• In 2011, the WA Minister of Planning created the Development Assessment Panel which removed the planning process from the Broome Shire Council; DAP retrospectively approved work by Woodside, and approved further works.

• The Premier’s newly created Land Improvement Scheme will allow the State to excise this area from the Broome Shire.
The Woodside gas refinery at JPP still needs to be approved by the WA Minister of the Environment and the Federal Minister for the Environment.

IT IS NOT A DONE DEAL!
Information: Australian Academy of Science and National Parks Board of WA, National Parks and Nature Reserve Report, 1965.;
Burbidge A. A., McKenzie, N.L., Kenneally K.F., Nature Conservation Reserves in the Kimberley, Western Australia, 1991.Department of Conservation and Land Management.; Environmental Protection Authority, (1993). Red Book Status Report (1993) on the implementation of Conservation Reserves for Western Australia as recommended by the Environmental Protection Authority (1976-1984). Department of Conservation and Environment.; Waterbank Proposed Indigenous Protected Area Management Plan (Draft 2002). Kimberley Land Council.; Waterbank Structure Plan, Department of Land Administration 2000.; Application for exploration licence 04/646 and 04/647, between Coulomb Point and Willie Creek, Broome. Report and Recommendations of the Environmental Authority, Bulletin 434, June 1990 www.broomenogas.org

Authorised by R Wells on behalf of the Broome No Gas Campaign

Friday, February 18, 2011

All WE NEED IS THE CLEAN AIR TO BREATH

17 comments:

The carbon budget deficit

Browsing the winners

Blog Archive

FIX THE GATE, LOCK THE KEY BUT YOU WILL NEVER TAKE MY COUNTRY

http://www.broomenogas.org/pages/petitionfeb2013

51% Broome Community against Gas

Please print out and gather signatures. Returning as soon as possible. Thankyou

Please be aware of the change in day for this event from Wednesday to Thursday, all other details remain the same.

Facebook entry, name witheld.

Gov't at odds with unions on FLNG

http://www.nfb.ca/film/kanehsatake_270_years_of_resistance

Goolarabooloo Jabirr Jabirr Native Title Claim (WAD6002 of 1998)

TODAY
In Chambers before The Hon. The Chief Justice Court 1, 08:30 Roe v. The State of Western Australia & Ors (CIV 2765/2012) Directions

Floating Browse a cheaper option

Latest pro gas bullshit : seen today in Boome is a new black on white sticker “PUT A HUB ON IT”. After some research we found out a whole batch were made in Bali for a local Broome business person.

Pilbara a basket case: Grylls

Barnett ups ante on Browse

The Rats Will Desert The Sinking Ship

BROOME'S WATER TANK

Greens challenge Woodside project process

LINKS

Followers

HTML

Friday, February 18, 2011

All WE NEED IS THE CLEAN AIR TO BREATH

17 comments:

The carbon budget deficit

Browsing the winners

Blog Archive

FIX THE GATE, LOCK THE KEY BUT YOU WILL NEVER TAKE MY COUNTRY

http://www.broomenogas.org/pages/petitionfeb2013

51% Broome Community against Gas

Please print out and gather signatures. Returning as soon as possible. Thankyou

Please be aware of the change in day for this event from Wednesday to Thursday, all other details remain the same.

Facebook entry, name witheld.

Gov't at odds with unions on FLNG

http://www.nfb.ca/film/kanehsatake_270_years_of_resistance

Goolarabooloo Jabirr Jabirr Native Title Claim (WAD6002 of 1998)

TODAYIn Chambers before The Hon. The Chief Justice Court 1, 08:30 Roe v. The State of Western Australia & Ors (CIV 2765/2012) Directions

Floating Browse a cheaper option

Latest pro gas bullshit : seen today in Boome is a new black on white sticker “PUT A HUB ON IT”. After some research we found out a whole batch were made in Bali for a local Broome business person.

Pilbara a basket case: Grylls

Barnett ups ante on Browse

The Rats Will Desert The Sinking Ship

BROOME'S WATER TANK

Greens challenge Woodside project process

LINKS

Subscribe To

Followers

HTML

TODAY
In Chambers before The Hon. The Chief Justice Court 1, 08:30 Roe v. The State of Western Australia & Ors (CIV 2765/2012) Directions