Rudd warned on Kimberley LNG project
THE campaign to block Woodside's $30 billion liquefied natural gas development in Western Australia's Kimberley region has intensified, with all federal MPs to be sent a booklet outlining the reasons the gas plant should be built elsewhere.
A former Federal Court judge, Murray Wilcox, QC, who has written the material for the Save the Kimberley campaign, said the Rudd government risked being labelled ''hypocrites'' if it forced the development on traditional owners two years after its apology to the stolen generations.
A week after he was made an officer of the Order of Australia, Mr Wilcox warned the government that it was presiding over a ''deeply divisive'' project and called on Woodside and its joint venture partners - BHP Billiton, BP, Shell and Chevron - to build the plant at Karratha or consider other options.
''I have been around these sorts of controversies over a long period and I have never come across a case where the pros and cons are overwhelmingly in one direction,'' he said. ''Although the Prime Minister's apology was directed at the stolen generation, it was seen as an indication that the new government would take a more empathic attitude towards indigenous people.
''If we then ignore the protests of the traditional owners virtually at the first occasion an issue comes up, there will be a feeling of 'what was that apology all about?' The government runs the risk of being seen as hypocrites,'' Mr Wilcox said.
While Woodside is pushing for the greenfields site at James Price Point in the Kimberley, BHP and Shell prefer Karratha. The federal government has given the developers until early April to decide but the Kimberley is considered the most likely.
Complicating the proposal is a split between traditional owners. Some have criticised an in-principle agreement struck with the Kimberley Land Council in April that would give them more than $1 billion in compensation over 30 years. A splinter group has vowed to challenge any official approval from the council.
Wayne Bergmann, chairman of the council, lashed out at ''environmental do-gooders'' who he said were ''threatening the chance for Kimberley Aborigines to improve their living conditions''.
''The splinter environmental groups are disingenuous because they come with no promises,'' he said. ''Their position is not about progressing our well-being but creating museum pieces of landscape absent of Aboriginal people.
''I am calling on all Aboriginal people like Noel Pearson and Galarrwuy Yunupingu to reassess what value they place on environmental groups.
''You don't see all the 'save the do-gooders' turning up to try and help us resolve our social challenges,'' Mr Bergmann said.
Wednesday 3 February, 2010
SMH
SMH
