Premier Cook on election trail in the Kimberley – community calls for fracking ban commitment
Premier Cook on election trail in the Kimberley – community calls for fracking ban commitment
West Australian Premier Roger Cook is on the election trail in Broome and has been greeted with a strong community call to extend the ban on fracking in the southwest of the state and the Dampier Peninsula to cover all the Kimberley.
While the WA Government under Premier Mark McGowan’s leadership promised veto rights for Traditional Owners and farmers over fracking in 2018, the promise has not been fulfilled and the whole process is creating significant division in communities across the region.
“There’s a simple answer to the whole question of the destructive industrialisation of the Kimberley through oil and gas fracking and that’s a ban on the industry like there is in the Southwest of the state,” said Environs Kimberley Executive Director Martin Pritchard.
The community protest at local Kimberley MP Divina D’Anna’s office called for the ban in light of the proposal by Texan fossil fuel company Black Mountain, to drill and frack 20 oil and gas wells in the Martuwarra Fitzroy River catchment.
The WA EPA is currently assessing the proposal and a decision will be required of the WA Government after the election.
The Kimberley community has vehemently opposed fracking for the past 12 years and concerns have been heightened recently with Black Mountain proposing a pipeline to an LNG refinery in the Pilbara.
“A recent report by climate scientists has shown the potential for 8,700 oil and gas wells across the region that would seriously undermine Australia's ability to meet its climate goals, surely the Premier Roger Cook doesn’t want to open the Kimberley to that,” Mr Pritchard said.
“What we have now is a completely different proposition to what the WA government based its lifting of the ban on fracking in the Kimberley in 2018. What we’re facing now is turning the Kimberley into Texas,” Mr Pritchard said.
“The community wants a commitment from the Premier and the Labor party that the already existing ban on fracking in the Southwest of the state and the Dampier Peninsula be extended to cover the whole Kimberley,” Mr Pritchard said.
Surveying of over 1,000 people in the seat of Fremantle revealed 92% of voters want a ban on fracking and 72% are willing to change their vote for it.
“If its too risky for the Southwest then we shouldn’t be discriminated against in the Kimberley just because it’s been a safe Labor seat,” Mr Pritchard said.
You can send a message asking Premier Cook to ban fracking in the Kimberley here.
Photo: Damian Kelly.
Darkest day in the 50 year history of WA environmental laws
The Environmental Protection Act Amendment Bill 2024 introduced into WA Parliament today will compromise the independence of the Environment Protection Authority and exacerbate WA’s climate and nature crises.
“The Premier’s assertion that reforms are needed due to ‘green tape strangling development’ is disingenuous in the extreme. Delays have come about due to the lack of resources and staff in the EPA and the WA government should take responsibility for that.”
“This is the darkest day in the 50 year history of environmental laws in WA,” said Environs Kimberley Director of Strategy Martin Pritchard.
“Increasing the EPA Board from 5 to 9 to stack it with mining, oil and gas and property development interests does not pass the pub test; we need environmentally-focused people whose primary interest is protecting the environment, not facilitating its destruction.”
“We understand that the government will also issue the EPA with what it calls ‘Statements of Expectation’, effectively directing the EPA to follow the government's priorities. This undermines the independence of our most important environment watchdog.”
“Removing the community’s right to appeal an EPA decision not to assess a project is a retrograde, anti-democratic step to appease industry and only benefits big business.”
The government’s changes will effectively strip the EPA of its independence at a time when we need to strengthen WA’s nature laws to defend nature and the places we love because of the unfolding climate change and extinction crisis.
“The Environmental Protection Act Amendment Bill 2024 is the Cook Labor government caving in to the mining, oil and gas and real estate industries instead of looking after WA’s nature which has a spiralling number of threatened species getting closer to extinction.”
Places like the Kimberley’s National Heritage-listed Martuwarra Fitzroy River and animals like threatened Bilbys, threatened turtles and whales, and the critically endangered Freshwater Sawfish are already at severe risk of extinction and need more protection, not less.
“We need a stronger EPA and environment laws. What is currently being proposed is exactly what Liberal Premier Colin Barnett wanted and we can’t believe the Labor Government is willing to gut our environmental laws to fast track damaging projects which will supercharge the multiple environmental crises we are facing.”
Woodside’s Browse oil and gas drilling plan for Scott Reef rejected by EPA
Woodside’s Browse oil and gas drilling plan for Scott Reef rejected by EPA
Oil and gas multinational Woodside’s Browse Basin project at Scott Reef with joint venture partners BP, Japan Australia LNG and PetroChina has suffered a huge blow after being rejected by the WA Environmental Protection Authority (EPA).
Congratulations to the EPA for a sensible first step in rejecting a terrible proposal.
Scott Reef. Pic: Alex Westover
The EPA have said the company’s plans to drill 50 oil and gas wells around the globally significant Scott Reef off the Kimberley coast has unacceptable impacts on endangered Blue Whales, be a threat to endangered Green Turtles, and risk pollution and oil spills at the highly biodiverse and fragile reef, according to reports made public today. The EPA considers these risks too high.
Scott Reef is a marine biodiversity hotspot that supports 29 marine mammal species including endangered Blue Whales. Nine hundred species of fish have been found at the reef and 1,500 species of invertebrates, including soft and hard corals, sponges and crustaceans. It is also a hotspot for sea snakes, including the elusive Dusky Sea Snake, which hasn’t been seen since 2002.
Save Scott Reef protest in Broome. Pic: Alex Westover.
“This proposal to drill 50 oil and gas wells around Scott Reef off the Kimberley coast, one of the most important marine hotspots in Australian waters, would be rejected out of hand at the Great Barrier Reef and Ningaloo, so it’s not surprising the WA EPA has rejected it,” said Martin Pritchard, Director of Strategy at Broome-based conservation group Environs Kimberley.
The WA EPA has been assessing this proposal for 5 years and, in a letter to Woodside, it has been reported that there could be unacceptable impacts on endangered Blue Whales, Green Turtles and the reef itself,” said Mr Pritchard.
Woodside withdrew its controversial plans for $80 billion LNG refineries on the Kimberley coast at James Price Point in 2013 after fierce opposition from locals and protests across the nation.
“The risks of destroying one of the world’s great coral reefs with oil and gas drilling are clearly too great, and we’re calling on Premier Roger Cook and Environment Minister Reece Whitby to also reject the threat to Scott Reef,” said Mr Pritchard.
It is understood that Woodside now has an opportunity to respond to the EPA, which will make its recommendation to the State Government. Both the State and Federal Governments will then make final decisions on whether or not the Browse project and drilling at Scott Reef can go ahead.
WA Premier takes axe to EPA instead of strengthening environmental protection
WA Premier Roger Cook’s proposed changes to the EPA would slash environmental protections that the West Australian community has spent over 50 years fighting for, according to Broome based conservation group Environs Kimberley.
“These changes would slash environmental protection for iconic places like the Kimberley at a time when its recognised we are in a nature survival crisis and there has been no consultation with conservation groups,” said Environs Kimberley Director of Strategy Martin Pritchard.
The proposed changes include stacking the EPA Board with more industry representatives, getting private consultants to rush through decisions and the removal of the public’s right to appeal decisions on the environment.
“This is straight out of the fossil fuel industry’s playbook, they’ve been trying to weaken our environmental laws for decades. It’s an effective privatisation of what is supposed to be an independent advisor to government on WA’s globally significant environment,” Mr Pritchard said.
“The Premier’s assertion that reforms are needed due to ‘green tape strangling development’ are disingenuous. Delays have come about due to the lack of resources and staff in the EPA and the WA government should take responsibility for that.”
“We’re calling for public consultation on any proposed reforms and that a primary emphasis be put on protecting the environment not rushing damaging developments through.”
“We need a stronger EPA and environment laws. What is currently being proposed is exactly what Liberal Premier Colin Barnett wanted and we can’t believe the Labor Government is willing to gut our environmental laws to fast track damaging projects.”