Media Statements - Statements - Search for WA heritage champions

Media Statements - Statements - Search for WA heritage champions:
Heritage Minister John Castrilli today announced the opening of nominations for the prestigious Western Australian Heritage Awards. The awards encourage the community to celebrate outstanding achievements that elevate the value of heritage in Western Australia. Mr Castrilli said each finalist in the awards would be an active champion in ensuring the State’s most important heritage places have visibility within the community.

“Now in its 21st year, the awards showcase excellence in revitalising heritage places, setting standards for interpretation, conservation and adaptive reuse of places entered in the State Register of Heritage Places,” he said. The Minister said the awards also reached out to the State’s regional communities, as a number of winners had been individuals or organisations based in rural WA or working with regional West Australians.


“There are many volunteers and professionals who have been instrumental in elevating the value of heritage and securing its place in our State’s future,” he said. “These awards allow us to recognise the best of them and I encourage people to nominate.”

Lawsuit Targets US $3 Billion Spending on Fracking and LNG Projects in Great Barrier Reef

For Immediate Release: December 12th, 2012 Contact:  Sarah Uhlemann, Center for Biological Diversity, + 1 (206) 327-2344 Teri Shore, Turtle Island Restoration Network, + 1 (707) 934-7081 Doug Norlen, Pacific Environment, +1 (202) 465-1650

Dirty Fossil Fuel Facilities Threaten Endangered Sea Turtles and Dugong                                                                             SAN FRANCISCO— Conservation groups filed a lawsuit today challenging the U.S. Export-Import Bank’s nearly $3 billion in financing for a massive Australian fossil fuel facility in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.  Construction and operation of the liquefied natural gas facility will threaten sea turtles, dugongs and other protected marine species, as well as the Great Barrier Reef itself. The lawsuit seeks strong environmental protections for the projects as required under U.S. law. Download the complaint below. “Dirty fossil fuel facilities don’t belong in a world-famous marine sanctuary like the Great Barrier Reef,” said Sarah Uhlemann, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “This liquefied natural gas project doesn’t meet U.S. standards, and we shouldn’t be subsidizing the world’s fossil fuel dependence or the destruction of a natural wonder like the Great Barrier Reef.” The Export-Import Bank, a federal agency that funds international projects to promote U.S. exports, provided a $3 billion loan in May 2012 for the project, which will be located in Queensland, northeast Australia. The Australia Pacific LNG project will include drilling 10,000 coal-seam gas wells in interior Queensland using controversial “fracking” techniques, digging nearly 300 miles of gas pipelines and constructing a massive natural-gas processing facility and export terminal. To provide access to the new terminal, the project requires dredging the adjacent harbor and its seagrass beds. Increased tanker traffic will eventually ship the fuel across the Great Barrier Reef to ports in Asia and around the world. “Sea turtles and dugongs are already imperiled due to the fossil fuel frenzy now underway across Australia,” said Teri Shore, program director of Turtle Island Restoration Network. “To allow oil companies to industrialize this critical nesting and feeding haven in the Great Barrier Reef will push these vulnerable marine animals ever closer to the brink.” “The Export-Import Bank has a sad history of funding environmental damage, but a fossil fuel project inside one of the world's most important marine reserves is a new low.  Ex-Im Bank should focus on renewable energy and stop worsening the world’s addiction to fossil fuels,” said Doug Norlen, policy director with Pacific Environment. The Great Barrier Reef was given World Heritage status to preserve its remarkable natural beauty, coral reefs and rare dugong and sea turtle habitat; the new liquid natural gas plant will be located within the boundaries of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area. UNESCO, the international body charged with overseeing implementation of the World Heritage Convention, issued a report in June expressing “extreme concern” over the project’s impacts on the reef. UNESCO has threatened to add the reef to the “In Danger” list, a designation made when activities of a host country or outside entities threaten a world heritage area. The natural gas project will also harm several species protected by the U.S. Endangered Species Act, including dugongs and green and loggerhead sea turtles; it will degrade seagrass and other habitats, diminish water clarity and quality, and increase the risk of ship strikes. The lawsuit, filed in the Northern District of California, asserts violations of the U.S. Endangered Species Act and the National Historic Preservation Act, which implements U.S. obligations under the World Heritage Convention. The case raises the unresolved legal issue of whether the Endangered Species Act applies to U.S. agency actions taken outside of U.S. borders. Turtle Island Restoration Network is a non-profit environmental organization committed to the study, protection, enhancement, conservation, and preservation of the marine environment and wildlife.  TIRN has approximately 60,000 members and supporters around the world including Australia and has offices in the United States and Costa Rica. For more information, visit www.SeaTurtles.org. The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 350,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places. For more information, visit www.biologicaldiversity.org  Pacific Environment protects the living environment of the Pacific Rim. We have partnered with local and indigenous communities in Russia, China, California, and the Alaskan Arctic for more than two decades. We believe that long term environmental and social progress originates from strengthening local communities and grassroots movements, complemented with sophisticated policy advocacy at international finance and governance institutions. See pacificenvironment.org ExIm Complaint Final 12 13 12.pdf

Share sale assures future of Browse: businessman - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Former Howard adviser slams gas hub plans in the Kimberley

Share sale assures future of Browse: businessman - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation):

Mr Cousins says now BHP has withdrawn from the project it is more likely a processing plant will be built off shore.

"I think it's very positive and I've said previously and I say again if floating technology is used here it will be a wonderful example of technology helping to solve an environmental issue instead of creating one," he said.

NOITT - James Price Point - Ad in today's West

West Australian 121212-1

2012 6364 Referral Decision

This is up for public comment - A Quarantine Wash down facility

012/6364 Broome Port Authority/Agriculture and forestry/Broome/WA/Eastablishment of AQIS washdown facility,logistics support base and ancillary businesses Decision whether action needs approval/Approval Not Required - particular manner 07 Dec 2012

Browse never a good fit for BHP

Browse never a good fit for BHP:

Then there is the sensitive matter of public perceptions: the Browse project hits just about every controversy button, from the dinosaur footprints, to indigenous rights issues, to whales to the industrialisation of a region strongly reliant on tourism.

Preventing development at James Price Point has become one of those rare environmental causes - like Tasmania's Pulp Mill - to be adopted by people across the nation.

If Mr Kloppers needed any reminder of that, seeing John Butler sing songs of protest outside his office in Melbourne would have been a stark reminder.

Public perceptions in Australia matter more to BHP than they do to PetroChina.

And so the operator of the project, Woodside Petroleum, ploughs on through evaluation work with an increasingly international set of joint venture partners.

SBS On Demand | TV and Online Video - James Price Point project in jeopardy

SBS On Demand | TV and Online Video - James Price Point project in jeopardy:
Published - 11 December 2012 Expires in 6 Days

West Australian government has admitted that it has failed for a second time to compulsorily acquire land for Woodside's planned gas hub at James Price Point in the Kimberley.

'Call to Action - the Time is Now!' - YouTube

'Call to Action - the Time is Now!' - YouTube:

People all over Australian are standing up against the corporates and their government lackeys, in protection of their water, their air, health, communities and their children's future. Together we can and together we will.

People of the Northern Rivers, NSW, Australia, stand up to invasive gas fields which threaten our land, water, and air. Join your fellow Australians to fight for a safe, sustainable future! Sydney's water supply is also threatened NOW.

Woodside boss laments high taxes, over-regulation - The West Australian

Woodside boss laments high taxes, over-regulation - The West Australian:

Peter Coleman. Picture: Astrid Volzke/The West Australian.

The Woodside boss, who is trying to work out whether a land-based development of the Browse LNG project is viable in WA's high cost construction environment, also highlighted Australia's low ranking on several global productivity measures.

They included a 50th rank out of 51 in terms of total factor productivity growth in a survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit, and the World Economic Forum's ranking of Australia this year of 42nd in terms of labour market flexibility and 96th in terms of burdens caused by government regulation.

Woodside shares closed down three cents at $33.90 in a broadly firmer market.

Woodside issues warning about blowouts

Woodside Petroleum has warned further cost blowouts in the oil and gas industry could harm investment.

http://www.wabusinessnews.com.au/article/Woodside-issues-warning-about-blowouts

PROTECT YOUR KIMBERLEY

On Saturday 8 December 2012, the local community in Broome, Western Australia, held a rally and concert to oppose the construction of a giant gas hub on their doorstep.

On the same day, we organised events around the country in solidarity with Broome, and to celebrate a fantastic year's work protecting our precious environment!

Thanks to those all over the country and around the world who joined us in this fantastic global show of support! 
 



PROTECT YOUR KIMBERLEY Flash Mob Cottesloe - YouTube:
Thankyou Wyldeclan


On the 8th December 2012 the National Day of Solidarity for the Kimberley, protests where held around the country and the world to protest the proposed worlds largest gas hub at Walmadan (James Price Point) just north of Broome in the Kimberley region of North Western Australia. This area is a pristine coastline untouched by industry for 40,000years with the culture still intact. The people of these lands along with their many many supporters including John Butler and Missy Higgins staged a protest at Cottesloe Beach, Perth an iconic part of South Western Australia and also the Australian Premier Colin Barnet's backyard. They erected a artificial Gas Plant on the Beach then he sang his Kimberley song to a pumped crowd full of High Vis wearing supporters who chanted 'Shame Barnet". I wonder how he liked having his town over run by Hi Vis wearing workers and a stinking smoking Gas Plant?

How the Franklin was saved Environmental Flows | Bob Brown | The Monthly

How the Franklin was saved Environmental Flows | Bob Brown | The Monthly:

Tens of thousands of tourists now flock to Tasmania’s wild-river areas each year, providing investment, jobs and pride of place for the locals. This year Outside, the US travel magazine, declared the Franklin the world’s best whitewater-rafting destination. So the Franklin has retained its global significance. But remove from the story Hawke, Lowe, Wran, Fraser, Morrison or Hamill, or Peter Dombrovskis, whose iconic photo of the Franklin’s Rock Island Bend lit up the campaign, let alone the thousands of Australians who protested, and the river and its surrounding rainforest would instead be a methane-emitting impoundment.

Thirty years after the blockade, Julia Gillard’s Labor government, backed by Tony Abbott’s Liberals, is responding to calls from the Business Council of Australia to reduce ‘green tape’, by moving to hand back to the states a parcel of federal powers held under the 1999 Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. These powers include those that flowed from the Whitlam government’s ratification of the World Heritage Convention in 1975, and which were so boldly used by Hawke and upheld by the High Court. Unlike Whitlam or Hawke, it seems Gillard would have let Robin Gray dam the Franklin.

No torment for port plan

 HOPES remain high that a clever plan to sidestep the controversy over James Price Point and give a win to an indigenous community will still go ahead.

Azure Capital director and indigenous leader Clinton Wolf said negotiations were progressing with the indigenous owners and the company hoped to have a positive outcome in the New Year.

The Azure plan is to build a supply base at Point Torment, about 30km north of Derby, to supply the Browse project plus any other nearby LNG projects that may be developed.

Inpex’s Icthys, for example, falls into this frame.

Even if Browse was to be developed with a floating LNG plant, there would still be a need for a supply base and Point Torment would fill that need.
“Regardless of whether James Price Point goes ahead, our reading of the play is that a supply base in that area would be advantageous to oil and gas companies,” Wolf said.

“There will still be a need for that supply base.”

One of Port Torment’s biggest strengths is that it is not Broome.

The other alternatives such as Wyndham and Darwin are really too far away.

Linking the project to the Warrawa people, which Wolf wants to do, could prove to be a masterstroke.

It offers the Warrawa an opportunity to also cash in from the resources boom that will be running around their region.

Energy News understands Derby Shire Council is also keen to have Point Torment developed.

Mistake in land acquisition for gas hub site - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Mistake in land acquisition for gas hub site - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation):

The Lands Minister, Brendon Grylls, has confirmed his department failed to notify all the required parties and the process, which takes months, will now have to start from scratch for a third time.

"It's my job to get it right and certainly we've identified here a failure in the process," he said.

"I understand Woodside has been advised of this.

"It is starting to push up against the timeframe for their final investment decision but the Government moving to provide certainty around the land acquisition and that's what we're doing."

Mr Grylls concedes the mistake is embarrassing for him.

"I'm the Minister for Land so I'm the person who signs off finally and I take advice from my department," he said.

AHR 53 (November 2012): Kathie Muir: Politics, Protest and Performativity

AHR 53 (November 2012): Kathie Muir: Politics, Protest and Performativity:

During my three visits to Broome in 2011, I attended key events and meetings, held interviews with participants and engaged in critical readings of both print and social media. This paper aims to convey a sense of the passion felt by the opponents of the gas hub and their growing sense of themselves as a distinctive community. It explores, firstly, the claims of Broome’s having a unique character and spirit of place worth preserving. The paper proceeds to a more detailed background description of this development and the political contentions surrounding it. Then it examines some of the modes of campaigning adopted by the ‘No Gas’ group and other opponents, including online activities, and offers a preliminary assessment of the significance of the campaign.

The Broome experience may offer lessons for other small communities who are facing dramatic changes to their way of life and their values from mining and related developments, in particular those for whom strong cultural and environmental assets form the basis of an important tourism industry.

Music icons in beach gas hub protest - The West Australian

2012 No Gas Rally

Updated 7 hours ago · Taken in Broome, Western Australia

Young people protecting their future.At 41 degrees a great mob of dedicated people gathered at Male Oval in Broome this afternoon for the 2012 No Gas Rally that made its way to Town Beach! Lots of fantastic music, speeches, videos and stalls at Town Beach :-) Thank you to everyone who made this great event a success. Nowhere else but here xxx

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152324492245103.957080.653885102&type=1

Music icons in beach gas hub protest - The West Australian:

Protesters gather at Cottesloe beach. Picture: Iain Gillespie/The West Australian

Despite approval from the State’s environmental watchdog last month, opposition to the development has been fierce.

Protesters have raised concerns about damage to the coastline, dinosaur footprints and marine life.

Today’s event was part of a national day of action against the development, which included a rally in Broome, a picnic in Melbourne and gatherings in Hobart and NSW.

Higgins said the huge crowd gathered at the Cottesloe Beach highlighted how many people were against the gas hub.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/breaking/15586159/music-icons-in-beach-gas-hub-protest/

http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/stars-tune-into-gas-rally/story-e6frg13u-1226532861006

COAG letting foxes guard the hen house

The world has an interest in pollution, species preservation, the preservation of environmentally unique areas and so on. As the world becomes a global village, everyone has an interest in who defecates in the local stream.

In short, as population pressure makes human impact on the natural environment more severe, it is precisely the wrong time to divest decisions about the environment to more local authorities.

Yet this is precisely where Australia is headed.

At the behest of that well-known guardian of the environment, the Australian Business Council, the Australian government is about to surrender a great deal of its environmental decision-making to those other environmentally sensitive creatures, the state governments. And it is being done through the processes of the Council of Australian Governments - a secretive body far too remote from voters.

Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/opinion/coag-letting-foxes-guard-the-hen-house-20121207-2b16z.html#ixzz2ENY0DclJ

More recently, should Premier Colin Barnett's WA Environmental Protection Agency decide whether James Price Point, 60 kilometres north of Broome, be pegged out for the world's biggest liquefied natural gas plant?

Why would it matter that four out of five members of the EPA board were ruled out because of conflicts of interest with the mining industry? As Barnett has put it: ''There is nothing untoward in this … Western Australia's a relatively small community. You will find people that have connections in history with various companies and projects.'' Not a glimmer of shame or embarrassment.

And Barnett unwittingly highlighted the central flaw in allowing the states to have the final say on development - the state's ''relatively small community''. Precisely. Local interests will always trump more important national and international concerns.

Break the grip of corporate power to secure our future | George Monbiot | Comment is free | The Guardian

George Monbiot| The Guardian:

 Neoliberal dogma forbids the intervention required to stop climate change. To save the planet we must articulate a new politics

Illustration by Daniel Pudles

Neoliberalism is not the root of the problem: it is the ideology used, often retrospectively, to justify a global grab of power, public assets and natural resources by an unrestrained elite. But the problem cannot be addressed until the doctrine is challenged by effective political alternatives.

In other words, the struggle against climate change – and all the crises that now beset both human beings and the natural world – cannot be won without a wider political fight: a democratic mobilisation against plutocracy. This should start with an effort to reform campaign finance – the means by which corporations and the very rich buy policies and politicians. Some of us will be launching a petition in the UK in the next few weeks, and I hope you will sign it.

But this is scarcely a beginning. We must start to articulate a new politics, one that sees intervention as legitimate, that contains a higher purpose than corporate emancipation disguised as market freedom, that puts the survival of people and the living world above the survival of a few favoured industries. In other words, a politics that belongs to us, not just the super-rich.

BROOME COMMUNITY RALLIES TO CELEBRATE KIMBERLEY COAST

MEDIA RELEASE

Rally: Saturday 8 December 2012

The Broome community is again rallying to celebrate the priceless environment and heritage of Walmadany (James Price Point), the controversial site of a proposed LNG processing hub by Woodside Energy, 50 kms north of Broome.

The rally, which is expected to be attended by large numbers of Broome residents will begin in Chinatown at 3.30 pm and culminate at Town Beach with music, food and speakers. Other rallies will be held in Perth, Hobart, Adelaide, Melbourne and Newcastle, an indication of growing national support for the protection of this part of the Kimberley coastline, an area which has heritage-listed dinosaur trackways, Indigenous cultural sites and is part of the renowned Lurujarri Heritage Trail. 

Despite intense pressure from WA Premier Colin Barnett to fast-track the project and ongoing exploratory works by Woodside, including a recent attempt to disturb registered heritage sites in the coastal dunes, the Broome Community remains adamant that the processing plant should not be built on the Kimberley coast.

Spokesperson Robyn Wells stated, “This community is determined to ensure that this invaluable part of the coastline is protected. Walmadany is part of the living culture of this region, for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people; it has been a proposed Reserve for Conservation and Aboriginal Heritage for decades; we will continue to celebrate it and protect it. There are alternatives to onshore gas processing in the Kimberley.”