Friday, June 29, 2012

Traditional Owner Challenges Planning Law Amendments on James Price Point

Richard Hunter
Media Release 29 June 2012

Traditional Owner Richard Hunter has launched a second legal challenge this week against changes made to Broome’s local planning laws by Minister John Day.

Just a week before the WA Court of Appeal was due to hear Richard Hunter’s challenge to
Woodside’s works on James Price Point, the Minister for Planning amended the local planning
instrument to authorise Woodside to carry on works even if its planning approval is invalid.

Mr Hunter has hit back with another Supreme Court challenge alleging that the changes to the local
planning law are invalid because the Minister for Planning acted for the improper purpose of altering
the outcome of his existing court case which was commenced on 28 May 2012, and is due to be
heard in the Court of Appeal on 3 July.

If Mr Hunter is successful in both cases, Woodside may be forced to stop all works on James Price
Point.

Media ReleaseHunter v Woodside 29 June

2 comments:

  1. James Price Point: Call to sack environment minister

    Shadow environment minister Sally Talbot has called on the premier to sack his environment minister.

    She said Environment Minister Bill Marmion refused to answer her question about the legality of the EPA producing a report on the gas hub when it could not reach a quorum to hold a meeting.

    Ms Talbot said the quorum for Environmental Protection Authority meetings was three, yet four of the group’s five members were unable to participate in the report due to conflicts of interest.

    You can read her statement here:


    Shadow environment minister Sally Talbot has called on the premier to sack his environment minister.

    She said Environment Minister Bill Marmion refused to answer her question about the legality of the EPA producing a report on the gas hub when it could not reach a quorum to hold a meeting.

    Ms Talbot said the quorum for Environmental Protection Authority meetings was three, yet four of the group’s five members were unable to participate in the report due to conflicts of interest.

    You can read her statement here:

    Friday, 29 June 2012

    Marmion refuses to answer questions on Browse LNG gas hub

    Environment Minister Bill Marmion must be stood aside immediately following the collapse of the environmental assessment of the Browse LNG gas hub, Shadow Environment Minister Dr Sally Talbot said today.

    Dr Talbot said Mr Marmion’s announcement that he had delayed indefinitely the release of the EPA report on the James Price Point development came minutes after he had refused to answer Parliamentary questions about the legality of EPA meetings after 4 out of 5 board members were excluded from participating because of conflicts of interest.

    “This is potentially a disaster for the State because it puts in doubt the validity of every EPA assessment done under this Minister’s watch,” Dr Talbot said.

    “I asked the Minister how the EPA could meet with only one member in attendance when the Act says the EOA quorum is a minimum of three.

    “I also asked whether those meetings, which the Minister had already admitted were attended only by the Chair, were minuted and why three EPA members who had previously reported a conflict of interest were allowed to continue discussing and making decisions on the gas hub right up to 16 February this year when the Chair suddenly changed his previous ruling.

    “Mr Marmion refused point blank to answer my questions, saying they were too complex and detailed and that he would write to me.

    “This is an outrageous perversion of Parliamentary question time.

    “Mr Marmion has run away from questioning, and minutes later put out a media statement saying he would not be releasing the report as planned tomorrow.”

    Dr Talbot said Mr Marmion had spent all week defending his handling of the conflict of interest issues dogging the EPA, only to run for cover at the 11th hour when it was too late for further parliamentary scrutiny.

    “The Minister has fobbed off all the issues we have raised since we found out nearly a week ago that there was effectively no EPA left to rule on what is one of the largest industrial projects ever to come to WA,” she said.

    “He assured us all the legal advice was that everything was ok.

    “Now it seems he was not giving us the full story.

    “He has scurried away now to seek further legal advice, presumably because having looked at all the outstanding issues we have raised he is not confident he has got it right.

    “This Minister is playing Russian roulette with the future of the State.

    “Trust in his judgement has now completely evaporated.

    “He must stand aside until this mess is sorted out, and if he refuses to step aside the Premier must insist.”

    shareshare


    Tags: James Price Point ,

    Categories: Environment, Government, Oil and gas

    ReplyDelete
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