Comments last week by WA Premier Roger Cook that WA could be 'forced to frack' the Kimberley if Woodside doesn't drill for oil and gas at Scott Reef (Browse Basin proposal), have been met with outrage across the state.
Over a 100 people gathered at the WA Parliament at short notice to reject the Premier's statement and called on him to enforce the states' domestic gas policy of retaining 15% for domestic use.
Environs Kimberley’s Martin Pritchard at WA Parliament protest
Today, community members occupied the Premier’s electorate office as well as three other Ministers offices (Simone McGurk, John Carey, and Don Punch) and offices of local MP’s in Maylands (Dan Bull) and Bibra Lake (Sook Yee Lai). See Lock the Gate media release here.
Frack Free Kimberley community members occupying Maylands MP Dan Bull's office
In Broome, community members protested the Premier’s threats to frack the Kimberley and drill Scott Reef at local MLA Divina D’Anna’s office.
Environs Kimberley Executive Director Martin Pritchard said:
"The Premier has really upset people by saying that an iconic place like the Kimberley has to be sacrificed to fracking if Woodside doesn’t drill for oil and gas at Scott Reef.
His own party, WA Labor, voted to extend the current fracking ban in the Southwest, Perth Metro, Peel and Dampier Peninsula, across the state late last year.
The response has been strong with a snap rally at the WA Parliament, sit-ins in the Premier’s electorate office as well as 5 other MP offices including the Minister for Water in Bunbury and an action outside Kimberley MLA Divina D’Anna’s office in Broome.
Protest in Broome at Kimberley MP Divina D'Anna's office
This is just the beginning, we know the community will not allow the mass industrialisation of the Kimberley by the onshore oil and gas industry.
The Premier said that WA will run out of gas early in the next decade, but we know that if oil and gas companies did the right thing and supplied the 15% domestic gas requirement, instead of leaving the state short, and more renewable energy was built, there would be no need to frack the Kimberley or drill around Scott Reef.
The government has to understand that the social licence around oil and gas extraction is evaporating, last year’s election result in Fremantle showed that. There is no social licence to drill around Scott Reef and they certainly don’t have it for fracking the iconic Kimberley.
People hate the idea of fracking and the Valhalla proposal in the Martuwarra Fitzroy River catchment is riddled with flaws. Groundwater, including drinking water, would be at risk from carcinogenic chemicals. Radioactive wastewater has come to the surface with previous test wells and we know wastewater dams have overflowed in the wet season.
We cannot risk the Martuwarra Fitzroy River to fracking, it’s a known polluting industry and its not compatible with the superb nature experiences of the Kimberley and its $500 million tourism industry.
Black Mountain can’t manage wastewater. They haven’t consulted all Traditional Owners. And they can’t prevent damage to endangered creatures who call it home, it would industrialise the Kimberley.
Woodside’s Browse project would wreck Australia’s most outstanding coral system at Scott Reef, the community feels strongly about this.
The Premier needs to make big gas accountable to everyday day people and make them meet the domestic supply requirements so there’s no need to trash the Kimberley and its coral reefs.
Environs Kimberley is calling on WA Environment Minister Matthew Swinbourn to reject the Valhalla fracking proposal and the Premier to ban fracking in the Kimberley.”
Showing 1 reaction
Sign in with
Facebook