Monday, March 19, 2012

Woodside Genocide at Walmandan (James Price Point)

Look, lets just be done with it! Really, why doesn’t the state government just declare that Woodside can make its own sovereign state? Woodside would delight in flying high their own flag, would love the concept of their very own anthem and the prospect of having people with a passport to access a visa to enter into Country.

Given the amount of amendments to Legislation; variations to Standing Orders; the modifications to the Regulations; the introduction of brand new planning procedures and just how far the current state government is willing to bend over backwards to accommodate Woodside, surely granting them their own sovereign state would be far easier, much more efficient and considerably cheaper.

Woodside’s ability to sidestep the law, their capacity to avoid any kind of financial consequence and their proficiency in making up their own rules, and laws as they go, clearly demonstrates that they have all the attributes necessary to govern, licence and approve their own permits.

It would save heaps of work for the public servants and would be a welcome relief for the Broome Shire. Woodside already have their own police force at their beck and call and a mercenary security thug force, who act like an army, so they are already half way there. They could even issue themselves a social licence to operate, they would not be forced to try and buy one and would save themselves a pretty penny.



The Barnett’s government who are the proponent for this project has spared no expense or provisions to ensure that this corporation (who acts as their little go between, and by doing so) gets what this corporation wants, without hindrance or question. They have been allowed to operate above the law, in fact all the state government department’s compliance and integrity units and even the law enforcers have all turned a blind eye ,to their statutory duties in order to work without fear of losing their favor.

The proof is in the pudding and just because it is quiet and comparatively peaceful in Country at the moment, be assured that the wheels of the underhanded are busy at work, planning their next strategies in their desperate attempts to create some form of legal and ethical legitimacy for the stealing of Indigenous lands, the locking up of Country and destroying our Cultural Heritage.

So if you thought the DAP documentation was worth throwing and the process highly dubious, then you will not be too surprised to see what Woodside and their government lackeys have cooked up now. To avoid at all costs transparency, consequence and monitoring they are basically seeking to excise out the land earmarked for the natural gas refineries, between James Price Point and Barred Creek and override the local Shire’s control with 4 new state controlled planning arrangements.

'In achieving a statutory plan for the Precinct, Woodside has requested the Minister for Planning to authorise the preparation of an improvement plan (Improvement Plan). The Improvement Plan will authorise the creation of a subsequent Improvement Scheme (Improvement Scheme) which is the statutory mechanism by which a structure plan (Structure Plan) will be prepared for the Precinct.'

The Tender to develop the improvement plan has been advertised and apparently already granted. The Tender documents are mainly a rewrite of same vomitus jargon:
'The location of the proposed Precinct in the vicinity of James Price Point was chosen via an extensive site selection process involving consultation with a broad spectrum of stakeholders and a collaborative review of a comprehensive set of technical, environmental, heritage, economic and social criteria.' Blah blah blah.

So let’s get this straight: first we are told that the Broome Shire has limited development planning powers and the Interim Development Order No. 4 (IDO) is inadequate. Then we are gagged and dragged through the Development Assessment Panel fiasco so the State (proponent) could grant a temporary site access to Woodside, for last year’s entire illegal front end engineering destruction. Now we have to endure an Improvement Plan which in turn creates an Improvement Scheme which leads the way to a Structure Plan.

If this parallel planning processing and enforced escalation policy is supposed to increase efficiencies by reducing approval timelines and clearances, then someone needs to tell them “they’re dreaming”. The only thing these four separate processes will accomplish are procedural nightmares that will eventually tie them up in knots, drown them in paper work, swallow them whole in meetings and it will all end in tears, if not the Courts.

There is certainly no procedural fairness, no transparency procedures and certainly no natural justice ingrained within any of these four state driven planning strategies.
Outwardly, the State and Woodside are trying to treat the new NOITTs as a mere formality. So, why it is taking them months and months to: finalise the configuration that defines clearly the footprint of the proposed precinct and reissue the Notices of Intention to Take (NOITTs)? There is a broomer that the NOITTs will be issued within days.

The Contractor who won the Tender must assess 'the constraints on the land area of the Precinct and the limits to its use as defined within the Native Title Agreements. Good luck!

KLC is a member of the 'working group' however, given the decision made on 22/02/2012 to legally separate the two Native Title Claimant, it not only calls into question KLC’s position on the 'working group' but also all the Browse LNG Precinct Native Title Agreements ever signed. All is highly questionable whether the state or Woodside wish to acknowledge it or not.

The status the SAR is really not mentioned in great detail within the Tender documents. But it does go on to state that: 'It is expected that Woodside will be in a position to make a final investment decision (FID) by mid-2013, and process first gas from 2017. This is interesting because Minister Ferguson's office has still not mentioned if the milestone extension has in actual fact been granted.

Woodside is dressing up their refineries, so bring on the marching band, play up the anthem, hoist up their flag and get your visa application ready. Woodside is invading our community , country and culture , in a vain attempt to make it their own.

5 comments:

  1. Has Barnett and Marmion taken anything like this into account in their mad reckless rush to develope everything with no thought to peoples lives or the environment?

    "Drilling for gas has become more common using a technique known as hydraulic fracturing, which breaks up rock deep underground using water and chemicals under high pressure. The drilling has been an economic boon — creating jobs and reducing dependence on foreign energy. But it has raised concerns about contamination of water wells, air pollution and above-ground spills.

    Over the last year, some banks and federal agencies have started revisiting their lending policies to account for the potential impact of drilling on property values.

    “We will no longer be financing homes with gas leases,” Jennifer Jackson, program director for rural loans in the Agriculture Department’s New York office, wrote in an internal e-mail this month, citing several factors, including the costs of conducting such reviews."

    "Agriculture officials said the notice was in response to an article in The Times in October that described how leases often allowed certain activities, like storing hazardous waste on a property, that were expressly forbidden by mortgages because they could harm resale values.

    “There is substantial controversy over the extent, range, and issues associated with hydraulic fracturing (fracking) for gas,” Mr. Bailey wrote in a March 8 e-mail to members of Congress, adding that “for a number of years” the loan program typically had considered its mortgages exempt from environmental review. But the agency notice will clarify that this is not the case for properties with drilling leases."

    "The overall environmental effects of such development have not been addressed in any NEPA document by any federal agency,” he said, adding that allowing people with drilling leases on their properties to qualify automatically for mortgages from the Agriculture Department “places the Agency at risk of NEPA related litigation.”

    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/19/us/drilling-property-mortgages-may-get-closer-look-from-agriculture-dept.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&src=rechp

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  2. Barney finds new swamp to get bogged in.

    WESTERN Australian Premier Colin Barnett says his state is likely to intervene in an upcoming High Court challenge to the federal government's mining tax to protect the WA's revenue base.
    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/andrew-forrest-threatens-legal-battle-against-mining-tax/story-fn59niix-1226305546417

    Constitutional law experts are warning the states run the risk of losing their ownership of mineral rights to the Commonwealth in any legal challenge to the mining tax.

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-20/states-could-lose-rights-to-mineral-profits/3902164

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  3. Disher’s complaint alleges that Shell has known about the dangers of benzene causing cancer for decades but, despite its knowledge, publicly minimized and hid the dangers. The complaint also alleges Shell has known about the dangers posed by airborne benzene because of a high incidence of cancer at its Wood River Refinery in the 1970s and benzene vapors entering homes and other property since it performed studies concerning vapor intrusion in the 1980s.

    Dysart and other lawyers have filed a class action lawsuit against Shell and other area refiners, claiming the environmental problems in the area have lowered property values.


    http://royaldutchshellplc.com/2012/03/20/plaintiff-in-suit-against-shell-dies/

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  4. BROOMER CORRECT.

    http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/newshome/13225972/new-moves-to-acquire-james-price-point/

    Lawyers representing Goolarabooloo man Phillip Roe and Jabbir Jabbir descendent Neil McKenzie have said the decision nullified the $1.5 billion agreement the State Government, traditional owners and Woodside signed in May, 2011.

    However, Mr Barnett and Woodside have said the agreement was still valid and allowed for changes to the notices to be made.

    Mr Barnett said the reissued notices took into account further consultation on Aboriginal heritage and detailed technical work undertaken by Woodside but the area of the proposed precinct had not changed.

    The area includes about 2500ha for the precinct, port, related accommodation and light industrial areas as well as reservations for pipelines and roads

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  5. SHELL AND CONOCO AND BENZENE.
    (Note : a million pounds is just over 450 tonnes)

    By Associated Press 10:48 a.m. CDT, March 21, 2012

    EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. (AP) — A village in southern Illinois is suing Shell, ConocoPhillips and a local refinery, alleging they released millions of pounds of cancer-causing pollutants.The (Alton) Telegraph reports (http://bit.ly/GD7iDv ) the lawsuit was filed in Madison County on Tuesday on behalf of the village of Roxana, northeast of St. Louis.The lawsuit cites 18 incidents over several years in which the village claims benzene and other pollutants were spilled into the air, water and soil. It seeks damages to recover the costs of removing pollutants from water and limiting damage to public health.Shell Oil Co. spokeswoman Kayla Macke says the company hasn’t been given a copy of the lawsuit and can’t comment. WRB Refining LP referred calls to parent company ConocoPhillips, where a spokesman didn’t immediately return a message Wednesday.___Information from: The Telegraph, http://www.thetelegraph.com

    JPP GAS HUB BENZENE EMMISSIONS : 1,700 TONNES PER ANNUM.

    OR NEARLY 4,000,000 POUNDS A YEAR.

    ReplyDelete