https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152411672581553&fref=nf

Buru Energy

The shares appear to have been marked down as traders have bailed out of many stocks regardless of fundamentals, desperate to lock in any profit for fear of it evaporating.

Up 200%, but down 50% in the last year

Buru shares have trebled since early 2011, but are down a whopping 50% over the past 12 months, making the company the second worst oil and gas sector company in the S&P / ASX 200 Index (Index:^AXJO) (ASX:XJO) over the past year.

Premier Colin Barnett was quick to talk up the Canning Basin’s shale gas potential when Woodside walked away from an onshore gas plant at James Price Point, saying it was inevitable those resources would be exploited.

While he has pointed to the US shale boom, industry experts say the Canning Basin has a different geology and is unlikely to replicate the same level of success.

Western Australia is on the brink of an explosion in gas fracking activity. Fracking has already begun in some of our most beautiful, fertile, and special places – the Kimberley, our famed Wildflower region, and the Carnarvon food bowl.

If industry and the Department of Mines and Petroleum get their way, then WA will have a US-style ‘fracking frenzy’, with tens of thousands of wells over our farms and the landscapes we love.

The Government must ensure that we’re protected from this industry that threatens our air, water and land.

Scientists, farmers and communities across Australia have expressed concern about the impact of fracking on both our health and the environment – but the Government has ignored community concern and pushed fracking proposals through without proper environmental assessment.

We want the WA Government to follow New South Wales, and countries like France and Germany, and adopt a moratorium on fracking to protect our land and water.

http://cleanwaterhealthyland.org.au/node/148882

It is incumbent upon us as members of society to have honest and open conversation about what we do know and what we don't know, what the risks are or may be, and what our strategy for confronting those risks or mitigating those risks will be.

Unfortunately, the conversation is a little too shrill, and a little too cast in the context of extremes, and I think this continues to inhibit meaningful progress and meaningful discussion about what we need to do about what lies ahead.

I may be repeating myself here, but the basic physics of greenhouse warming are very straightforward. The data we have make it very clear that the earth is warming. The data and the physics make it very clear that the bulk of the warming is being caused by human activity.

As former ICAC Commissioner David Ipp told Linton Besser:

"One begins to fear that corruption might be far more widespread than was at first thought."

The now retired Commissioner is not the only one concerned. Besser interviews former top NSW bureaucrat Kerry Schott, who resisted corrupting influences only to find herself the subject of spurious corruption allegations.

We also hear from former Premier Kristina Keneally, respected Labor Senator John Faulkner, and Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan, who helped blow the whistle on corruption eating into his own party.

Warning about the dangers in the current system, he says:

"The most important qualification in public life, is not to have a price... every now and then you've got to have a cleanout, and at the present time there's a bit of a cleanout going on."

Significantly, there is no Federal commission to fight corruption. The key questions now are how far will the clean up go and is there the political will to reform the regulations that govern political donations?

DEMOCRACY FOR SALE, reported by Linton Besser and presented by Kerry O'Brien, goes to air on Monday 23rd June at 8.30pm on ABC1. It is replayed on Tuesday 24th June at 11.00am and 11.35pm. It can also be seen on ABC News 24 on Saturday at 8.00pm, ABC iview and at abc.net.au/4corners.

State governments have spent nearly $18 billion supporting mining and energy companies over the past six years, The Australia Institute says.

The research body has published a new paper called Mining the Age of Entitlement: State Government Assistance to the Minerals and Fossil Fuel Sector.

This is the first time anyone has attempted to put a dollar figure on the value of state government assistance to fossil fuel and mining companies across the country.

It shows the bulk of such assistance - via subsidies,concessions and cheap access to infrastructure - has occurred in Queensland and Western Australia.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop warned last week that Australia would lead international talks in November on reducing ''inefficient'' subsidies to the global oil industry, saying fossil fuel subsidies were distorting energy markets and encouraging ''wasteful consumption''.

The institute's paper, to be published on Tuesday, shows that since 2008-09, the Queensland government has provided more than $9.5 billion in direct support to mining and energy companies, while the Western Australia government has provided more than $6.2 billion.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/mining-energy-sectors-received-18b-assistance-over-six-years-20140623-3aowx.html#ixzz35VT1SmGf

The Abbott Government last night passed a bill through the Lower House to hand federal environmental approval powers to the states, ignoring the World Heritage Committee’s concern about this environmentally disastrous plan.

“UNESCO is currently meeting to decide whether to downgrade the Great Barrier Reef’s World Heritage status to ‘In Danger’ and has expressed concern about the Abbott Government’s hasty handover of federal approval powers to the states,” Senator Larissa Waters, Australian Greens environment spokesperson, said.

“But Tony Abbott is ignoring this international expert concern and forging ahead with his plan to give state premiers the final say over destructive projects threatening our World Heritage Areas and threatened species.

“Leaving the fate of the Great Barrier Reef in the hands of Campbell ‘we’re in the coal business’ Newman would put this already struggling World Heritage Area in grave danger.

“Federal environmental approval powers have been in place for more than 30 years and saved the Reef from being scarred with oil rigs in the Bjelke-Petersen era.

“With Tony Abbott’s bill to put the states or even local governments in charge, environmental standards would drop and the fox would be in charge of the hen house Senator Waters said.

The richest 1% of Australians now own the same wealth as the bottom 60%, according to a new report designed to bolster the case for global and domestic action to shrink the gap between rich and poor.

The Oxfam Australia report also indicated that the nation’s nine richest individuals had a net worth of US$54.8bn, which was more than the combined bottom 20% of the population, or 4.54m people.

The report, released on Monday, follows previous warnings by Oxfam International that the 85 richest people in the world now own the same as half of the world’s population, or 3.5bn people.

“Income inequality in Australia has been on the rise since the mid-1990s, despite all sections of Australian society experiencing some increase in income during the same period,” the report said.

“In 1995, Australia had an average level of inequality compared to other wealthy OECD member countries. Today, we are below average, having become less equal than our peers despite having a better-performing economy than most.”

Over the next 30 years or so, we will spend a hair-raising $24 billion on 75 F-35s, even though no Australian-badged fighter aircraft has fired a shot in anger since the Korean War.

Kimberley strategic assessment

The Australian and Western Australian governments have agreed to a strategic assessment to find a suitable site for a liquefied natural gas precinct to service the Browse Basin gas reserves off the Kimberley coast, and to ensure that this site is appropriately managed.

JUST ON ABC KIMBERLEY NEWS AT 1120

3 INDEPENDENT DELEGATES have been appointed by the WA EPA to do a Environmental Impact Assessment of James Price Point for use as a Common User Hub.

The chairman of the assessors is Jarrad Ealy.

This is a strategic assessment and they have been given no deadline to complete the assessment.

For everyone across Australia fighting invasive gasfields and the devastation of coal mining, the Northern Rivers has shown us that the community can prevail. Take heart and courage.

Dear Red,

My name is Meg, I'm a landholder from Bentley in northern NSW.

The NSW Government is threatening to send in up to 1,000 police on Monday next week to break up the peaceful community protection camp defending our valley and to provide access by force for gas company Metgasco.

Would you get on the phone TODAY and ask Premier Mike Baird to go gently at Bentley? Phone him on (02) 9228 5239



We know unconventional gas drilling is unsafe and is a serious threat to our health, our water and our livelihoods. Just last year, a gas well that Metgasco drilled caused a major safety incident where 200 metres of steel pipe exploded into the air and methane leaked out through the well casing.

That's why I'm spending today in Sydney at NSW Parliament House with my husband and neighbours, talking to every politician we can find, and asking them to call off the police action and to protect our valley from gas drilling.

Staff in Premier Mike Baird's office are taking the names of everyone that calls in about Bentley and we have no doubt that your call will affect the decision the Premier makes.

We can't miss this incredible chance to have our voices heard. Please call the office of the Premier now and ask him to go gently at Bentley - phone (02) 9228 5239. Ask him to withdraw police support for Metgasco and respect the wishes of the community at Bentley for a Gasfield Free future.

Please let him know that you would prefer to see the $8 million they plan to spend on the NSW Police operation at Bentley spent instead on hospitals and schools. Let him know that you are concerned the operation will lead to police shortages in high crime areas across the state.

If you are have some extra time, the office of the Police Minister is also well worth a call - (02) 9228 5276. You can find contact details for all the key Ministers in the NSW Government, plus some extra information on points to make when you call, here.

The generous support of the thousands of people who have joined the Bentley camp has inspired me and given me great hope. I am so incredibly grateful for all the support we've received.

That's why I have no doubt that if we all take that next step today, and call the Premier's Office directly, that we can succeed in our goal to protect our valley and our region.

If you have a minute, please listen to this beautiful song written by Luke Vassella, 'Gently Bentley.' It captures everything we love most about our community and our region, and we hope that you can pass this spirit on to Premier Baird when you call him today.

... you can't regulate the fracking industry into safety - whatever you do, you are going to have serious risks-

HAHAHA funniest thing I've ever read.

In todays Broome Advertiser the dunce Procter whinging about companies leaving town because of the "blow-in hippie rabble of well heeled greenies from Sydney's north shore" have scared them all off by stopping the JPP LNG disaster from happening.

Hahaha according to Coleman Woodside spent "almost $2 billion to get James Price Point to work. I don't know how people can expect companies to spend any more money than that trying to make a development commercially viable.

"James Price Point simply didn't work. Period. So talking about local content in the context of a project that won't get built is kind of a hollow discussion."

SO what's Proctor banging on about?

Well him and his spouse Bloom set up an "oil and gas consultancy" that promoted the LNG plant and trumpeted it to the high heavens and back.

Of course there wasn't a well informed analyst anywhere on the planet that believed the plant at JPP would proceed.

The Shire followed Proctors advice to the tune of $8 million and have zero to show for it.

SO Proctor is pissed that the "blow-in hippie rabble of well heeled greenies from Sydney's north shore" know more about building LNG plants than him or his partner Bloom.

How embarrassing!

And worse - the rabble of greenies gave the Shire all the "good oil" on exactly what would happen to the doomed plant FOR FREE !

If that wasn't embarrassing enough the Proctor/Bloom grand plan for Chinatown has come unstuck as their mate designed it all in Japanese by mistake.
This was rumoured to cost $4million.(I'm guessing this one as there seems to be a news blackout on the details and according to the Advertiser some time back that was the plan).

It was said at the time "why pay some dickhead from bloody Austria or somewhere $4 million to design Chinatown when the Chinese community would have gladly given suggestions for free?"

HOW MUCH LONGER MUST WE PUT UP WITH "DUMB AND DUMBER"?

Redhand:

Thanks for this great comment and would just like to remind Proctor/Bloom that if Woodside had gone ahead they would have sunk their corporation and Broome would have gone down with them.

Woodside chief Peter Coleman said "We invested about 4.5 million man hours and had hundreds of Woodsiders who dedicated years trying to come up with a way to make this land-based development commercially viable," Woodside vice-president Roger Martin wrote in an opinion piece in The West Australiannewspaper. "When the final number came in at more than $80 billion, it was obvious these efforts were in vain. " Martin said that modelling showed Woodside’s share of developing the project was estimated at $25 billion, almost as much as the whole market value of the company. "Effectively, we would have spent almost the entire value of our company on an uneconomic project," he wrote.

The emergence of March in March is both a hopeful story for progressive Australia and a phenomenon that the right ridicules at its peril. Abbott had reached a hundred days in office, and discontent at the rapid pace of policy change from a coalition that had promised “no surprises, no excuses” was fermenting.

When it comes to the incompatibility of effective action of averting climate disaster with their own neoliberal ideology, the deniers are absolutely right. In the words of Nicholas Stern's 2006 report, climate change is "the greatest market failure the world has ever seen".

The intervention, regulation, taxation, social ownership, redistribution and global co-operation needed to slash carbon emissions and build a sustainable economy for the future is clearly incompatible with a broken economic model based on untrammelled self-interest and the corporate free-for-all that created the crisis in the first place. Given the scale of the threat, the choice for the rest of us could not be more obvious.

Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers sent to offshore processing centers is cruel, inhuman and degrading and it violates international law, the United Nations’ human rights office said Friday.

It called for an investigation and punishment of those responsible for an outbreak of violence at a center in Papua New Guinea that houses asylum seekers sent there after trying to get to Australia.

Clashes between inmates and guards at the Manus Island processing center in Papua New Guinea this week left one person dead and 77 injured. Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for the United Nations human rights office in Geneva, noted reports that private security guards employed at the Manus Island center were involved in the violence and added that “states maintain their human rights obligations when they privatize delivery of services such as security, and must take steps to investigate, redress and punish human rights abuses by third parties.” Prime Minister Tony Abbott elected in 2013 partly on the promise of a tough policy toward migrants and asylum seekers, said the government would not succumb to “moral blackmail” and would ensure that the camps were run “fairly, if necessary, firmly.”

Oil and gas explorer Buru Energy has been pummelled on the market after releasing a drilling result from its Ungani oil field in Western Australia’s Kimberley region that casts doubt both on production targets at the Canning Basin field and on the potential of lookalike prospects nearby.

To anyone who drinks water, the rusted, leaky underground tanks storing underground fuel are the “single largest threat” to its safety. To major oil companies, they’re an opportunity to profit.

Reuters has an exclusive report on the despicable fraud being carried out by Big Oil. Call it “double-dipping”: When toxic, potentially carcinogenic leaks of gas and diesel threaten aquifers, the companies accept government funds to clean it up. Then, they apply for a second payout from the insurance companies. And all the big guys, it seems, are going for it: Chevron, Exxon, ConocoPhillips and Sunoco have agreed to settlements over the past three years totaling over $105 million.

For those who don’t know – In short - Fracking is the process of drilling then injecting fluid, much of it toxic, into the ground at high pressure, to fracture gas-bearing rocks to release natural gas.

During this process, methane gas and toxic chemicals can leak from wells and contaminate nearby groundwater. Broome draws its drinking water from the ground. Buru Energy have plans to frack the Kimberley. The US, there have been more than 1000 documented cases of water contamination near areas of gas drilling.

Some of the countries that have banned fracking are France, Bulgaria and Northern Ireland. The Australian state of Victoria currently has a moratorium on fracking.

Here in WA the state Government fully supports fracking.

This Australian Gas Conference on TUESDAY 25TH FEBRUARY will have state ministers from all across Australia.
If your fighting CSG in WA, QLD, NSW, SA, NT, VIC this is the event for you.

"What we know from other parts of the world is industry best practice means contaminated ground water, serious air pollution, health impacts on communities and serious environmental disturbance, so we don't think industry best practice is going to be acceptable here for Western Australia," he said.

Mr Verstegen said the council estimated there could be 100,000 wells drilled in the Kimberley in the north of the state when commercial shale gas production gets underway based on well density in the US.

But he said the figure may be out by "50 per cent".

"It's not an either or situation," Mr Coleman said yesterday. "It's not a situation of choosing James Price Point versus floating.

"We spent almost $2 billion to get James Price Point to work. I don't know how people can expect companies to spend any more money than that trying to make a development commercially viable.

"James Price Point simply didn't work. Period. So talking about local content in the context of a project that won't get built is kind of a hollow discussion."

What they said

With a victory confirmed for Abbott, congratulations and gentle reminders to get on with the job have been pouring in thick and fast.

“A focus on reducing the cost of doing business and increasing exploration activity need to be a priority for the Coalition government in order to enable the continued growth of the resources sector in Western Australia,” Chamber of Minerals and Energy of WA chief executive Reg Howard-Smith said.

His Queensland counterpart expressed similar sentiments, adding that Abbott should not buy into an environmental scare campaign being waged over the Great Barrier Reef.

“Now the campaign is over, the work begins to put policy rubber on the road and the Abbott government can be assured of the support and encouragement of the QRC and its members,” Queensland Resources Council CEO Michael Roche said.

The Australian Mines and Metals Association insisted that Abbott had a clear mandate to implement sweeping change, urging him to use his power for the betterment of the resources sector.

“The Abbott government has a clear mandate to restore confidence back into Australia’s resource industry and back into our country as a globally competitive and productive place to do business,” AMMA CEO Steve Knott said.

“We encourage the Coalition to hit the ground running and begin implementing a policy framework that will both attract investment into new resources exploration and also ensure Australia reaps the benefits of a strong production and export phase.”

Just had phone conversation with Nigel Grazia,
(Head Office, Woodside, Broome).
Was told that in about a month’s time contractors will be mobilised to the James Price Point area to rehabilitate the site of their previous works (‘the grid’ as it came to be known). These rehabilitation works will include removal of ‘most’ of the water bores, ripping and revegetation of existing tracks and removal of the tower, fencing and all associated structures. All up about a few weeks work. Shane Hughes.

The consequences of the James Price Point decision on other projects

This case puts a spot light on past, present and future assessment practices and raises questions about the certainty of decision-making in Western Australia.

For the Browse LNG Precinct (if this is to be further pursued by the State, given the Premier's recent statement apologising for the Precinct's failure), it's back to square one. The EPA will have to completely reassess the proposal (without the involvement of the conflicted members and arguably without the involvement of the Chairman).

For the EPA, it's back to basics. This decision may trigger a wholesale review of EPA practices (not just those in respect to conflict of interest).

As a result, proponents who have proposals in the pipeline may find the process delayed as the EPA sorts itself out. Even those proponents with a fresh approval in their hands might find that they are subject to challenge. Either way, they will need to be prepared for what might turn out to be lengthy and expensive delays in their approval process, and be more vigilant to ensure similar mistakes don't vitiate any future approvals.

Clive Hamilton, an Australian public intellectual and author of several books on climate change, wrote:

“To environment groups it’s been apparent for some years that the traditional methods of campaigning have been woefully inadequate in securing a political response anywhere nearly proportionate to the threat posed by global warming. For those open to the implications of the scientific warnings, a sense of despair can take over when they see once again the failure of governments to protect the future wellbeing of their citizens and the extraordinary power fossil fuel corporations exercise over government decisions.”

The case also demonstrates that the States cannot be trusted to protect their own natural heritage and that the Federal Government needs to maintain an environmental oversight, the Wilderness said adding that this ruling sets a bold precedent and is a stark reminder of why final environmental approval powers should not be left in the hands of the States.

Mr Barnett described the ruling as "regrettable'' - and signalled the government would fight on.

"The decision relates to the process ... he did not in any way question the environmental conditions or approvals themselves,'' Mr Barnett said.

"All the environmental evidence and surveys and research has been done over many, many years. I am confident that still stands.

"It is now simply up to the state government to resubmit the environmental evidence and the recommendations on conditions attached to the use of James Price Point. That is, in all likelihood, what we will do.''

Read more: http://www.perthnow.com.au/national-news/western-australia/court-rules-against-james-price-point-gas-project/story-fnii5thn-1226699859444#ixzz2cP2WJptH

We know that shadowy forces are always trying to undermine our efforts in the most disgusting, but ultimately futile ways. All over the world police, main stream media and corporate security agents are either trying to infiltrating or undermining opposition movements in order to protect the rich and powerful. However, we have seen in so many countries recently people power and the pursuit of truth and justice is unstoppable, even faced with the most repressive and unacceptable Stasi-like tactics

What are the different types of compulsory acquisition?

The Native Title Act makes different rules for two different types of compulsory acquisition these have a quite different impact on native title:

1. Where the Right to Negotiate applies – Compulsory Acquisition for third parties, often mining or development companies

   Under Government acquisitions for other people, like mining companies or developers the law provides that the parties have certain rights including the right to negotiate.

   The right to negotiate is when the Native Title Act requires that the parties (which will include the State and the developer) have to negotiate in good faith with the native title holders with a view to reaching an agreement.

   Under these processes the parties; the State and the Miner or Developer and the native title party (which is the Applicant in a registered native title claim) have a certain amount of time to reach an agreement on deciding how the if the act can be done, and what conditions can be imposed.

   If the parties cannot reach agreement in six months then the question of if the act can proceed, which in this case is the compulsory acquisition of the land, can then be made by the National Native Title Tribunal.

2. Where the Right to Negotiate does not apply – Compulsory Acquisition for Government purposes.

Compulsory acquisition for the Government purposes – this is generally when the Government takes land to use for Government purposes, which are often called public works. In this case the native title holders are provided with less rights and the right to negotiate will not apply to the compulsory acquisition.

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.

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)

• • Thursday, May 9, 2013
  • 6:30pm

• Broome, Western Australia 6725

• come along to the Divers Tavern from 6.30pm on Thursday May 9th, to say thanks to yourself and everyone else involved in getting the Campaign to where it is today. ntry $20 if you have a job, $10 if you don't, all proceeds to help pay outstanding legal fees associated with the Campaign. More details to be posted when they are finalised.

Seven of the world's 12 LNG projects are now under construction in Australia, and by 2018 production would approach 90 million tonnes a year.

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.

WOODSIDE, its joint-venture partners and the Barnett government are "morally obliged" to pay out a $1.5 billion social benefits package attached to the aborted plan for a gas hub north of Broome.

With this level of speculation the ASX would want a statement of some sort. Woodside have stated that Peter Coleman will be making a statement in the morning.

However will be watching the ASX tomorrow.

The link is : http://www.asx.com.au/

type in WPL and then Recent announcements.

Woodside have a Board meeting on April 22, two days before the AGM. “They are under a lot of pressure to provide definitive statements to the AGM, especially as they will be under the blowtorch from shareholders and the media scrum over what’s going to happen with the gas hub. They know they will want answers. They may well ask for an extension or they may well provide definitive statements.”

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.”

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.

State and society are distinct interactive and dynamic entities. The state focuses on governance and institution building; society’s cultures and needs are more diverse.

These are the dynamics we see at play in the Kimberley as Colin Barnett moves into his second term as Premier.

http://newmatilda.com//2013/04/03/welfare-or-gas-money

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

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.

Red Hand has heard that the Woodside people who have been out in Country this week have been setting electronic equipment in Country. All of this is in their preparations to start their destructive drilling program in a few short weeks. All trackers are ask to investigate AND IF devises are located, remove. What ever Woodside do to try and stop us from protecting community, country and culture will be to no avail. They will need to remove our hearts if they wish to stop us.

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

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” ?

Help the Broome community by printing out one of these Petitions to Minister Burke asking for a Public Inquiry Kimberley LNG James Price Point, under our federal law the EPBC Act.

Beautiful images for the Concert for the Kimberley 24/02/13

Updated on Monday · Taken at Esplanade Park

Featuring John Butler Trio, Missy Higgins and Ball Park Music // Photos by Colosoul photographer Kieran Peek (Kieran Peek Photography)

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151287638886361.451955.281832706360&type=1

PETITION Minister Burke Public Inquiry Kimberley LNG James Price Point EPBCAct 17feb2013(1) by redhanded8937

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

Shaping the Future of the Kimberley

"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.

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 TourHave 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 .

Barnett has invested serious political capital in Oakagee, only to see it fail; what was to be Australia's food bowl the Ord River has become a Chinese sugar bowl; and the James Price Point gas development has been mishandled by his Government and appears ill-fated.

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

(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.

THE SENATE
ADJOURNMENT
Roe, Mr Paddy
SPEECH
Monday, 20 August 2001
BY AUTHORITY OF THE SENATE

http://bit.ly/TZmrFW

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.

Jim Yong Kim, the new president of the World Bank, also at Davos, gave a grave warning about the risk of conflicts over natural resources should the forecast of a four-degree global increase above the historical average prove accurate.

"There will be water and food fights everywhere," Kim said as he pledged to make tackling climate change a priority of his five-year term.

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

The sinkhole in Bayou Corne. Courtesy of Assumption Parish, LA official website.

Geologists and engineers are now facing problems they’ve never had to deal with simultaneously: a sinkhole, plus a widespread leak of both oil and natural gas. No clear roadmap for recovery exists for Bayou Corne, and evacuees still do not know when they will be able to return to their homes.

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.

Jessica Ernst is a scientist who has worked in the oil and gas industry. She discovered first hand the consequences of hydraulic fracturing in her town of Rosebud, Alberta, Canada. Jessica has come to Michigan and to other places around the world to warn communities of the dangers of fracking.

For more information please visit: http://banmichiganfracking.org/

PLEASE NOTE THAT SOMETHING HAS HAPPEN TO THE BLOG AND IT IS CURRENTLY ONLY SHOWING ONE BLOG POST AT A TIME. PLEASE CLICK ON OLDER POSTS TO READ MORE. MEANWHILE, WE ARE WORKING ON FIXING THIS. A LITTLE STRANGE!!!!!!!!!!

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.

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.

Please share : TODAY 5.30 outside Woodside offices Coghlan Street, Broome. Candelight vigil to express our outrage DIA S18 approval and to support Goolarabooloo protection of country law and culture. Bring candles

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

The Woodside-operated Browse LNG joint venture underwent considerable restructuring over the course of 2012, with Japan's MIMI paying $2 billion for a 14.7% stake, Shell taking over Chevron's interest via an asset swap, and BHP Billiton selling its 10% to PetroChina for $1.63 billion. BP also holds a minority stake in the project.

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

When we put these developments against the harsh warnings of an organisation as conservative as the World Bank — that “we’re on track for a 4°C warmer world marked by extreme heat-waves, declining global food stocks, loss of ecosystems and biodiversity, and life-threatening sea level rise” — the only reasonable conclusion is that the world has gone mad.

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.”

"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds." - Samuel Adams

For the first time in history almost all of humanity is politically activated, politically conscious and politically interactive. Global activism is generating a surge in the quest for cultural respect and economic opportunity in a world scarred by memories of colonial or imperial domination.

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

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.

Floating Browse a cheaper option

Woodside?s Browse LNG project would need oil prices to average more than $US105 a barrel to make an economic return in its current format, strengthening the argument for it to be developed as a floating venture.

The EPA’s assessment failed to properly consider sites for the gas processing plant outside the Kimberley. There were failings in the assessment of whales, dolphins, sawfish, sea turtles, bilbies, dinosaur footprints, monsoon vine thicket and dredging, many of which have been criticised by independent scientists.

No assessment of the social, cultural and economic impacts – as was required by the strategic assessment agreement with the federal government.

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.

The ABC are reporting that state's Opposition Leader Mark McGowan says BHP's decision is not a good sign.

"All the feedback we get is this project won't happen," he said.

"The major cause of that is the Premier interfering and intervening and creating a business environment which is not friendly and that's the outcome, that major investors will pull out."

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

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!

At COAG on Friday, the government is scheduled to cement its plans to hand over its powers to protect the environment to state governments. This will give the state governments the power to turn James Price Point into a massive gas hub.

MACQUARIE says Woodside will struggle to maintain its BBB+ credit rating if it sticks to current project timelines.
Discussing Woodside’s entry into Israel, Macquarie said the cost of the Browse LNG development alone would see its funds from operations versus total debt ratio dip below 35% in the 2019 financial year, possibly triggering a downgrade.

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.

Broome Community No Gas Campaign

Today and tomorrow this week, 15th and 16th November, Aljazeera TV are in town!! Yes that's right - Aljazeera - the global news network. (check them out at http://www.aljazeera.com/) So the world can see how much opposition there is to the JPP project in our community, please refresh/replace/make new No Gas Hub, Pipe it, Float it, Protect our Heritage banners and signs to decorate your house with.

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.

THE SIGN ON WOODSIDE's MANARI GATE STATES:

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?

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.

Australia has more than $170 billion worth of LNG export projects under construction, and the country's gas developers have planned to add more than 80 million tonnes per annum of LNG production before the end of the decade, an increase that would make Australia the world's top LNG exporter, surpassing Qatar.

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,

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

Why would a corporation like Lockheed Martin be interested in a Blog like this?

Lockheed Martin business activity in Australia spans the Aeronautics, Maritime, Surveillance, Defence Systems, C4ISR and Civil Information Technology domains.

Broome Community No Gas Campaign

Last month in a disingenuous attempt to circumvent and appease increasing community revolt, both locally and internationally, WA Today’s Rania Spooner wrote that the Premier had announced a Bill

‘…to limit the use of the precinct to gas processing only, to rehabilitate and remediate the land after the precinct is closed and to return the land to traditional owners at the end of the precinct life.’

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.

The presence of a huge offshore well and pipeline maintenance vessel at Woodside?s Pluto gasfield off the West Australian coast has triggered concerns there may be trouble at some of its offshore wells. Where is the National Regulators????

The Don to bat on for Nexus

Wednesday, 26 September 2012

EX-WOODSIDE chief Don Voelte is back in the Australian petroleum industry, taking on the role of non-executive chairman at Nexus Energy as part of a major board shake-up.

Current non-executive chairman Michael Fowler and directors Michael Arnett, Steve Lowden and Ian Boserio will all depart Nexus next month.

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".

JPMorgan said it remained of the view that the Browse gas was most likely to be developed at the North West Shelf. This was largely due to the vehement opposition to the Kimberley plan, which was ``unwavering, increasingly organised and gathering momentum''.

Mr Barnett, talking to ABC radio in Perth on Wednesday, agreed it was "coincidental" that Environment Minister Bill Marmion had changed the law last year to allow just one member of the EPA to make decisions - which later happened in the Woodside case.

However, the premier said "there was nothing wrong with the decision".

WA Premier Barnett:

“The reason we’re pushing ahead with James Price Point is not from some political standpoint that we’re right and everyone else is wrong- there is logic in our madness. It’s an informed gut feeling that the Browse basin will be home to not one but possibly two or three projects”, Wednesday, 29 August 2012, Energy News Premium.

“It’s not a private decision – it’s a government decision”, Broome Advertiser, Aug 30, 2012.

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