All the liberal elephants were all lined up, straight
after the state election to stampede over our strong defiant community of
Broome. Plans are afoot to undertake another invasion into Country to destroy
Indigenous and National Heritage.
In a recent survey undertaken by the Broome Shire is
appears that all that we as a community value and what we as a community wish
to maintain and nurture is under severe threat.
Just this week the Broome community was faced with three
major agenda items at the shire council meeting.
9.2.3 Browse LNG Development Marine Facilities and Impact
Zone Plan (wait to you see this shoddy mendacious report)
9.2.7 Responsible Authority Report to Kimberley Joint Development
Assessment
9.2.9 Consideration of Improvement Plan and Proposed
Improvement Scheme
All three issues have a direct association with the proposed
world’s largest LNG refinery being landed in our cultural heritage heartlands.
All
three issues have their own set of direct and devastating impacts that will
have a permanent distressing effect on
our community and the values we have cultivated as a community.
All these issues are complex and difficult for most of
the community to understand or participate in. The process involved, the
technical and bureaucratic clap trap, the ever changing legislations and the dis-empowerment of our local
government in planning decisions.
These complexities and the evasive answers to public question
time at council meetings ensure that the community is placated but restrained.
Over the coming days Red Hand will try and bring you
all three issues in order to shead some light. However, there were a few very interesting disclosures
made at this week’s shire council meeting.
It was casually mentioned that Woodside has not yet provided the Shire with their Environmental
Management Plan as was required in their Development Assessment Approval issued
in Feb last year.
This Plan was required to be lodged with Shire with advise
from the Department of Conservation and Environment (DEC) prior to any works
being undertaken. Should this prove
correct Woodside have been acting outside their DAP approval conditions?
The Shire president also mentioned glibly (this is the
second time Red hand has heard this from the president) “that the third Compulsory Acquisition
(NOITTs) has again been botched”. How this has occurred was not
clarified by the shire president.
The Department of Planning made a statement on the 19th
January, 2013 stating that the paid chairperson of the Kimberley Development
Assessment Panel (DAP) Mr Kotsoglo
resigned last month before taking the job with the company Planning Solutions. This department went on further to say that no
conflict of interest had arisen because Mr Kotsoglo had resigned as committee
chairman before taking the job with the company Planning Solutions.
However, Mr Kotsoglo is in fact the founding director
and established Planning
Solutions (WA) Pty Ltd in April 1998 This
very same company how has an application
with the DAP to build the temporary FIFO village, 20 kms out of town.
According to Development Assessment Panel Procedures
Manual - DAP Members are required to report any suspected breach of the Code of
Conduct, or any misconduct of a DAP member concerning DAP business.
So when asked from the public gallery at the council
meeting:
“Has the Broome
Shire made a complaint under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2003 (which
enables disclosures to be made within defined forms of misconduct within the
State public sector, local government and public universities without fear of
reprisal)_ directly to the Director General or to the office of the Ombudsman
for Western Australia regarding Mr Kotsoglo’s alleged Conflict Of Interest?”
The shire president replied and again stated on the
local ABC radio the following morning that Mr Kotsoglo’s conflict of interest was
currently being investigated by Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC).
The DAP code of conduct is evidence that the DAP
structure is not as transparent or accountable as has been claimed. Panels have
a superior probability of producing incidents of conflict of interest at best
and corruption at worst, precisely because lack of transparency and
accountability of panel members.
The permanent and known members will also make panels
and panelists a target for people wishing to illegally influence the approvals
process.
The makeup of the Development Assessment Panels, with
Local Government being a minority member shows a clear and deliberate attempt
by the state to remove local decision making from the community and Local
Government. Effectively locking both out of the development assessment
processes and local planning issues.
Obviously an uneven number was required to avoid
deadlocks. The issue is not the number of members on a panel, but it’s the ratio.
The fact that these DAPs has Local Government as a minority is an outright
attack on our democratic rights with community losing its representation.
With the Minister appointing three members and two
elected members creates an imbalance and diminishes Local Government decision
making. Community interest and the primacy of local Town Planning Schemes are
gradually being diminished under the pressure of those with a short term
commercial interest and those looking after only the big end of town.
However, the most concerning issue is the fact that when
the DAP does sit on the 4th April 2013 to assess Planning Solution’s
application to build a FIFO temporary Workers village, none of the current
Kimberley DAP members will be able to claim that they have no conflict of
interest because every one of them has a working relationship with Mr Kotsoglo,
Mr Planning Solutions himself.
So who will represent the interests of community, in
balancing development of the built environment with: the natural environment,
community needs, cultural values and economic sustainability when the state
government overrides local government responsibility and the wishes and values
of the community?
How are we to improve our community’s quality of life
and create and maintain our vibrant community? How are we to sustain the values
we hold as a community, when we are being totally marginalized?
Photo Damian Kelly
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