THIS IS THE GREATEST THREAT TO JAMES PRICE POINT WE WILL FACE

The federal government is set to hand over its responsibilities for environmental assessments to the states and strengthen the use of the strategic assessment process to move away from individual project assessments. These issues will be discussed and probably enacted at the COAG meeting in December.

If this transition takes place under the Barnett government and they win the state election in 

March, this will be a disaster for environmental protection in Western Australia.This may also enable Tony Burke to step away from his responsibilities to assess the JPP development.

The next Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting will be held in Canberra on 7 December 2012.

The information was extracted from the Energy white paper released this week,

http://www.ret.gov.au/energy/Documents/ewp/2012/Energy_%20White_Paper_2012_Ch12.pdf

but moves to hand over approvals from the Feds to the States has been on the drawing board for some time.  Our concerns in the first instance were raised when the Commonwealth Govt and the Barnett Govt signed a bilateral agreement for the state to proceed with the JPP environmental assessment and the issue has arisen a number of times since then and was discussed at the last CAOG meeting.  It's essential that the Commonwealth Government retain their function to assess major developments in sensitive areas around Australia as this is the only check and balance against rogue pro-development state governments.

Environmental Assessment and Approval Processes
This reform is now operational, as assessed by the COAG Reform Council in its 2009-10 report on jurisdictions’ performance against SNE NP milestones.
Environmental assessment and approval processes have been streamlined by implementing:

• bilateral assessment agreements between the Commonwealth and each of the State and Territories to provide for a single environmental assessment process of developments which would otherwise require the assessment of both the Commonwealth and the relevant State or Territory; and
• strategic assessments which allow for large-scale complex projects with multiple natures to be assessed once rather on a case by case basis.

Bilateral assessment agreements and strategic assessments are now being used by jurisdictions to speed up assessments. Strategic assessments have been used for Commonwealth-managed fisheries and State and Territory land-use planning in growth areas such as Western Sydney.
In the past Gillard has spoken about the dangers of surrendering decision- making authority over to the states

Gillard's changed stance on oversight:
It was a signature moment for the young MP. Through the fight, she became convinced of the importance of stronger Commonwealth involvement in decisions on major projects with potentially irreversible community and environmental impacts.
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In Federal Parliament, she launched an impassioned critique of politicians who wanted to surrender decision-making authority to the states, even over things like the toxic waste dump.

She criticised the Democrats in particular for doing ''a dirty deal with the Coalition to ensure that the Commonwealth government washes its hands of protecting Ramsar wetlands and hands the whole thing … back to the states''.

What is the Energy White Paper?
The Energy White Paper 2012, Australia's energy transformation, sets out a strategic policy framework to address the challenges in our energy sector and position Australia for a long term transformation in the way we produce and use energy.

http://www.ret.gov.au/energy/facts/white_paper/Pages/energy_white_paper.aspx#contents

 

Persistent social movements work.

Broome community is gathering its strength and  building up capacity, experience, skills, resources, knowledge, resilience and will continue to persist,  with all  efforts to ensure that the world's largest gas refineries are not built at James Price Point (Walmadan). EVER!

Woodside you are now being put on notice.  All the blood, sweat and tears you have caused in our community, in our families, in our social fabric since your arrival in Broome has only build up our resilience and resolve.

It  does'nt matter how much money you throw around town, we will invest this into your own demise, and  remove your corporation from our communities. Even the people who may of thought that being gassed would be good for them, have tuned against you because they have witnessed :

• outrageous dis empowerment of our local Council;
• blatant Infringements of  social justice,  human rights, our privacy and our feeling of well being
• disdain of the  Aboriginal Heritage Act and our Cultural Heritage
• drilling in Heritage listed dinosaur track sites, whilst denying it
• contempt of our sense of place, multcultural community and lifestyled
• dismissal and repudiation of major social impacts and concerns 
• avoidance of responsibilities and evading  consequences for undertaking unlawfully works 
• the misuse and abuse of the  police service for the protection of machines to undertake unlawful activities
• private security force whose role is to intimidate and aggravate local Broome people
• flawed science
• the changing of community developed planning scheme and land use plans
• altering  planning laws and legislation to fit your agenda 
•  injustice, the corruption and the manipulation antics across many government departments
• gifts to senior gov civil servants,  football tickets and secret meeting over football matches
• establishment of a committee of one
• criminalisation of senior respected community leaders and strong community members,
• the use of old women to push your propaganda  about economic gains for indigenous people
• the manipulation of the training institutions and schools
• your lies, your spin, and your daily convoys .

The Broome community is a lot wiser to  your antics and those of your government lackeys and media mates.

The Broome community clearly understands that you are not a good corporate citizen; we do not have to dig to deep or travel far to understand the total social, economic, environment and heritage carnage you created in the Burrup to really appreciate your true destructive greed driven tendencies. 

Woodside, you will never get the social license to operate in our community. If you go into the dunes at Walmadan, touch the precious water sources, or continue on your proposed destructive path of our heartland and communities, your corporation and your brand will suffer untold economic, social and political consequences.  

You have faced delaying tactics and bad publicity, even before your project has been given any approvals. If you get those approvals and you and your join venture partners make the stupid mistake of approving the project in your final investment decision, that's when you will face the biggest community driven environment and social campaign this nation has ever seen. 

Just like you (Woodside, laying down your foundations) our campaign has also been laying down the solid foundations for a national social and environment movement, with an ever growing international profile and we will eventually succeed  in seeing the back of you, as you are escorted out of Country, even if it takes a little longer than we would all like. 

The Broome community isn't going anywhere, but Woodside is, the hell away from here.

Commentary - Aidan Ricketts:
Aidan, speaks not only for his region and community, but for many communities in Australia, like Broome who are already suffering under corporation invasion.

Clearly there is something very wrong with democracy in Australia when it comes to communities challenging the dominance of the fossil fuel lobby. This lobby has spent decades sewing up its links with politicians of all major political parties in Australia and now occupies a privileged position that threatens the integrity our governance system. The industry is over subsidised, under regulated and in the case of the new unconventional gas industry under-researched.



What else could explain a government granting a production license to a mining company barely three days after an overwhelming official public vote recorded 87% opposition?

When governments and corporations combine to steamroll communities in the face of such overwhelming opposition it is inevitable that serious conflict will result. Fortunately the social movements opposed to unconventional gas are committed to peaceful protest and non-violent direct action as the only remaining democratic avenue left to these embattled communities to protect themselves, their water and their environment.

Woodside's application for a Section 18 to destroy Significant Cultural Sites at Walmadan (James Price Point)

Woodside have applied for a Section 18 permit under the Aboriginal Heritage Act to disturb sites within the sand dunes system. The Aboriginal Cultural Materials Committee are due to decide on the application on the 21st of November according to the agenda, page 2.

The Aboriginal Cultural Materials Committee  Name Membership
Hon Gavin Fielding AM	ACMC Chairperson
Mr Bill Bennell	ACMC Member
Ms Bev Byron	ACMC Member
Ms Vanessa Davies	ACMC Member
Mrs Vanessa Kickett	ACMC Member
Mr Michael Robinson	Deputy Specialist Anthropologist
Ms Louise Austen	Deputy Member
Ms Julia Burns	Deputy Member
Mr Ben Cross	Deputy Member
Mr Cliff Weeks	Ex-Officio* - Director General, Department of Indigenous Affairs
Mr Alec Coles	Ex-Officio** - Director, WA Museum
Mr Ken McCrackan	Ex-Officio - Manager, Department of Regional Development and Lands

*   Deputy - Mr Aaron Rayner, Executive Director, Operations, Department of Indigenous Affairs
** Deputy - Dr Ian MacLeod, Executive Director, Collection Management and Conservation, WA Museum

 

9. ACMC Advertisment 10 October 2012

Confusion over gas plant dinosaur footprints - The West Australian

Confusion over gas plant dinosaur footprints - The West Australian:

He said the EPA had acknowledged that construction of the port, shipping channel, breakwaters, jetties and other marine infrastructure would affect coastal processes and lead to sedimentary change, affecting beaches up to 3km north of the harbour (including the area that is meant to be protected) and potentially as far as 7km south.

Both areas contained highly significant tracksites, Dr Salisbury said, but there appeared to be no recommendations to counteract the effects.

Removing any prints from the nationally heritage listed site would also greatly diminish the heritage value of the entire area, he said.

“It is not just footprints that are preserved, but rather an entire Early Cretaceous landscape that is literally frozen in time,” he said.

BIMBLEBOX | A documentary from the front lines of Australia's battle against coal and gas expansion

BIMBLEBOX | A documentary from the front lines of Australia's battle against coal and gas expansion:

At this critical time, when so much coal and coal seam gas expansion is planned in Australia, this film aims to win the hearts and minds of the people, exposing the destructiveness of this industry to our climate, communities and environment.



It tells the stories of the people fighting for their homes and culture. Australia is the worlds largest exporter of coal, providing almost one third of the worlds supply. It is impossible to address climate change without looking at Australia’s role in the planets climate future.

James Price Point and beyond Q&A

The Broome Community No Gas Campaign has worked for years, firstly to understand what LNG processing was all about and all the environmental, social, cultural and economic ramifications that this 14 LNG trains (14 refrigerators) would bring on down the line into our community.

We have cried out of years for national and international attention to our plight in opposing Woodside's invasion. Once, upon a time, the main stream media only showed interest in our story when the WA Police force were sent in to break our resistance and bully us into submission to the corporate and state will. 

 Yes, it was passionate, there were fireworks, there were the "attack dogs" but what the main stream media and the general public did not hear about was the aftermath, how this experience impacted our community and how it also consolidated us. 

Once we wiped away the tears, brushed off the pindan, paid all the fines, this wonderful community responded with the long loved Broome creative spirit. Banners covered our town in protest, film, documentaries, art, poetry, writings, community science research and photography exhibitions abounded. Local rallies spread across the nation in solidarity, candle light vigils were held, mothers days, concerts and information sessions were undertaken, numerous work delaying blockades and lock on actions proved to be successful stalling tactics, court cases on all levels of justice have been summoned, shire meetings attendances improved, all in the hope of raising our campaign profile and understanding of our community angst. 

Social media is now saturated with our issues, quality blog sites created and massive information networks interwoven. Major national conservation groups joined forces, all wishing to work with our community, along with bold, the beautiful and the famous and suddenly our campaign was seen for what it really is a " localized transnational resistance" 

And we are succeeding; we are winning the hearts and support of thousands, nationally and internationally. And from this point this community's campaign can only get bigger and more effective. Woodside are realizing that the only way out, is to leave.

If someone told Red Hand, in 2010 that the campaign would eventually attract the attention of programs from Living Black, the Country Hour, Four Corners, Catalyst, New Scientist, Q & A and make all the national papers with many many front pages, I would have not believed them.

Barnett seemed to get away with a lot of his old lies, last night. " only 1000 hectare site", "one refrigerator" (14 !!!!) , " no Cultural Songline", "no effect for the whales", "or dinosaur track sites", blah blah blah .............. but people are far more informed than he gives them credit. There is no such thing as bad publicity. 

Congratulations, to all the Broome Community, and their supporters around this nation and planet, because we are driving one of the nation's major environmental campaigns,  we are heading in the right direction, with good speed. 

The only question I have is "Who paid for poor darling Rita's ticket to Perth?"

Check out all the other questions on the Q&A Site.

      http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s3620729.htm

AnonymousNovember 5, 2012 8:16 PM

Well,not bad I thought.Best part of 1/2 hour on Q&A tonight about JPP.Barnett told his usual porkies but they just didn't seem to carry as much weight this time.

The ground has definately shifted,and shifted in favour of the "no gas at JPP" camp.

It is still very sad to see Rita Augustine hoping that a gas plant will stop the suicides.Sad to hear Barnett use that and child abuse to justify his scheme.

If any of that was true then the first place to build a gas plant would have to be The Vatican.
How any whitefella can point a finger at the blackfellas over these issues is beyond me.
I went to an all white school and we had kids committing suicide because of abuse and no one ever suggested a gas plant was the answer.

Apart from all that Bob Brown was very good as was the Indigenous lawyer and Allanah.
The point that Broome would have as many jobs as needed from being a shore supply base was well made.

At one stage Tony Jones,who seems to get more about JPP than anything else,referred to the gas hub as "this disaster."

Video Questions | Q&A | ABC TV

Video Questions | Q&A | ABC TV

Burke will avoid making any decision on James Price Point

––– COAG reiterated its commitment to reducing duplication and double-handling of environmental assessment and approval processes while maintaining high environmental standards that are risk- and outcomes-based. In line with the timing agreed at the COAG meeting in April, consultations are underway and negotiations for bilateral agreements are about to commence.

Federal Environment minister Tony Burke listed the koala as a threatened species and gave himself the power to protect them, citing the poor performance of the states as the reason he needed to step in. Yet when COAG puts the planned reforms to our environment laws into practice by March next year, Tony Burke will hand this responsibility for protecting koalas right back to the states.

Will Tony Burke wait until these planned reforms are in place, so he will be able to completely avoid making any decisions on the Strategic Assessment Report for James Price Point? Will he just hand ball the responsibility back to this corrupted Barnett government and their corporate masters? If these reforms are implemented who and how will major state driven projects be assessed, by the proponent’s own departments? Who and how will monitoring and compliance be undertaken?

Although incredibly rare, the environment wins of the past have been when the federal environment minister stepped in to stop a project already approved by the states. The Franklin River is one example, as well as Queensland's Traveston Dam, cattle grazing in the Alpine National Park and oil drilling in the Great Barrier Reef.

If the ALP and the Coalition succeed in removing the federal environment minister from these decisions, this kind of win won't happen again.

The weakness is at the heart of the national environment laws - the Act does not set out clear levels of unacceptable environmental impacts. Rather, it operates by a series of triggers; if a development has a large impact on environmental values, then it triggers the federal environment minister's consideration for approval. Whether or not the development is allowed to go ahead, and under what conditions, is largely left to the whim of the minister, with few constraints - or soon, the whim of the states.

Tony Burke has said he will impose decision-making standards on the states, so they can't weaken environmental protection. But only recently, the Queensland Premier failed to uphold existing federal standards when approving the environmental assessment for the Alpha coal mine - so how can we trust the states to comply with new standards? And what happens when they don't?

This is why green groups and communities have hailed the reforms as the worst thing to happen to our environment in the last 30 years.

The possibility of 'approval bilateral agreements' - accrediting states to give federal approvals instead of the Federal Government - was written into the original Act. When the Howard Government passed the Act in 1999, the prospect of federal powers being handed over to the states was greeted with horror:

   

 ... In this legislation they have enabled the states and the Commonwealth to now go through a process where, through a bilateral agreement, in future the Commonwealth could say to Victoria — and states with track records of environmental vandalism like Victoria — 'Here, you have the responsibility for the Ramsar wetlands. Here, you have the responsibility for the environmental impacts of a toxic dump,' and just let it happen.

These were the words of Julia Gillard, MP. It's a bitter irony that it's now Prime Minister Gillard's own government, and her own environment minister, who will deliver the very same disastrous outcome she warned of 13 years ago. 

Our environment laws should be made stronger, not weaker. Our environment should be protected for future generations, not left to the states to be torn to pieces. And the Australian Government should remember they're being paid with our taxes to govern in the interests of all Australians, and do their damn job.

The Green are asking us to tell the ALP and the Coalition that Australia's environment is too important to leave to state governments. Join our call today: don't abandon it to the states.

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 This is happening now. This image has to reach the rest of the world. The Kayapo being expelled from their homes for the construction of the Belo Monte Dam, which will flood 400.000 acres of the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil.

Seismic exploration trucks from Queensland invade Casino

Seismic exploration trucks from Queensland invade Casino, northern NSW, on behalf of Metgasco, resisted by CSG-Free Northern Rivers, Saturday 3 November 2012

Just note the radical greenies and the relationship this company have with the police in this short clip.  This story and the images of invasion are all too familiar to the Broome community.

People across Australia are standing up against corporatism, in their local communities for the protection of their: community, water, air and health.  

Dam filled in - Deep pits dug - Country turned to dust

The clip you're about to watch portrays the extensive and continued destruction caused by woodside's exploratory works at James Price Point. The very large cleared area midway through the clip is the site of a recently filled in dam built to hold water extracted from the aquifer for tests. The large pit towards the end of the clip is one of two which were excavated recently.

Woodside has applied for permission to enter and damage the sand-dune country west of Manari Road near James Price Point (A short distance from were these images were taken). The outcome of their Section 18 Heritage clearance application will be known very soon.

This particular country has enormous cultural and environmental values. There are several heritage sites, the Song Cycle between Broome and One Arm Point passes through there and the monsoon vine thickets are a Threatened Ecological Community.

Broome community members are calling on Woodside to abandon its plans to drill and excavate sand dunes as part of its investigation for port facilities for the proposed gas refineries at James Price Point.

The sand dunes and rare Monsoon Vine Thickets have been recommended for protection by the WA Environmental Protection Authority twice in the past twenty years because of their environmental significance and their cultural heritage values.


produced by: Shane Hughes

The WA Museum also recommended they be protected in 1989 because of their outstanding archaeological and cultural significance.
"Woodside need to read these previous recommendations for the protection of this area so they get an understanding of how sensitive and important they are environmentally and culturally," said Broome Community No Gas Campaign spokesperson Nik Wevers.

"Anyone who reads the government reports that recommended there be no disturbance to the west side of Manari Road will come to the conclusion that what Woodside is proposing is not acceptable. We are calling on them to abandon their clearing and drilling work in this area," said Ms Wevers.
Such is the concern about Woodside's plans that Community members have already begun mobilising to protest any destruction.

"Many people in the community are concerned about Woodside's plans and are organising to take action to protect the sand dunes. This coast is Broome's backyard. It's where people go to recharge after a hard working week in town, it's not a place where we want to see drill rigs and excavators," Ms Wevers said.
"What we're seeing is that the community who love that coast are saying they're drawing a line in the sand and they're going to stand up and be counted for this one," Ms Wevers said.

Thank you for watching this clip and sharing to all and many ..

Seismic blast for blue whales

Seismic blast for blue whales:
 "It's astonishing on two levels," said IFAW campaign officer Matt Collis. "Firstly, because it was put forward by Woodside for this time, and secondly, because the environment department allowed it to go ahead."

Secret papers 'show how Shell targeted Nigeria oil protests' - Americas - World - The Independent

Secret papers 'show how Shell targeted Nigeria oil protests' - Americas - World - The Independent:
Serious questions over Shell Oil's alleged involvement in human rights abuses in Nigeria emerged last night after confidential internal documents and court statements revealed how the energy giant enlisted the help of the country's brutal former military government to deal with protesters.