Gas hub groups risk $1.5b loss

Flip Prior, The West AustralianJune 12, 2012, 4:18 am
The State Government has warned Kimberley Aboriginal groups they risk losing a $1.5 billion compensation package because of their plan to pull out of a native title deal covering the site of the planned James Price Point gas hub.

It has also again raised the spectre of the Government compulsorily acquiring the land north of Broome to ensure the Woodside Petroleum-led $30 billion LNG development goes ahead.

The warning came after the Goolarabooloo and Jabirr Jabirr groups approached the Federal Court last week to have their joint native title claim covering the Browse LNG precinct discontinued.

The Goolarabooloo and Jabirr Jabirr are expected to instead lodge separate native title claims over the area.

However, court determination of which group has native title rights is expected to take at least a year and could jeopardise State and Federal government plans for construction of the James Price Point hub to start in the middle of next year.

The Federal Court will hear the claimant groups' discontinuance application on Thursday.

The Goolarabooloo and Jabirr Jabirr, represented by the Kimberley Land Council, signed a $1.5 billion compensation deal with the State Government and LNG project operator Woodside Petroleum in 2009.

A Department of State Development spokesman said yesterday the Government had advised the KLC it would oppose the application and considered the proposal a breach of the Browse agreements, including the project, regional benefits and land use agreements.Woodside declined to comment.

Woodside halts drilling at claimed culturally significant site

Rania SpoonerSydney Morning Herald

Woodside Petroleum has agreed to stop drilling at the controversial site marked for a $35 billion gas hub, only moments before a Goolarabooloo man’s application to halt works was due to heard by a Perth Supreme Court today.

It is understood Woodside would continue other earth moving works at the James price point site in Western Australia's Kimberly region, but would not touch sections on the coastline and dunes, which applicant Thomas Hunter claims have cultural and environmental Importance.

Mr Hunter is represented by the Environmental Defender's Office principal solicitor Josie Walker who said an agreement to throw out the application had been reached half an hour before they appeared in court.Mr Hunter has taken the Shire of Broome and Woodside to court claiming an important report was not considered by the Kimberly Joint Development Assessment Panel prior to Woodside obtaining approvals to work at the site in Frebruary.

The EDO claim the approvals are invalid and are seeking a determination from the court, which could mean longer delays.

A lawyer appearing for the WA Minister for Planning suggested he may attempt to join the case.

A final investment decision on the hub is not expected until the middle of 2013.

The matter has been adjourned until June 15.

Read more: http://www.watoday.com.au/business/woodside-halts-drilling-at-claimed-culturally-significant-site-20120608-200r1.html#ixzz1xAvq3cKI

Plan to drill sacred sites inflames dispute

• GRAHAM LLOYD 
• From:The Australian 
• May 25, 2012 12:00AM

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WOODSIDE Energy has sought permission to drill on Aboriginal sacred sites at its proposed $40 billion James Price Point gas hub near Broome, setting the company and West Australian government on a collision course with traditional owners who remain camped at the site.

The company lodged a Section 18 notice with WA's Registrar of Aboriginal Sites on May 18 for permission to damage sites and indigenous groups have been given until next Friday to respond.

The issue threatens to further inflame relations between indigenous groups over the James Price Point development.

The Kimberley Land Council, which has negotiated a $1.5bn compensation package for the gas hub development, is understood to have helped Woodside draft its Section 18 application for ministerial consent to work in the area.

But the work program is bitterly opposed by the Goolarabooloo, who have been at odds with the KLC and who claim native title and cultural heritage rights over the area.

Goolarabooloo law boss Joseph Roe said Woodside's drilling program to test the feasibility of the James Price Point liquefied natural gas project would damage areas that had been recognised for their heritage values since 1991.

A Woodside spokesman said if approved, all activities in the area would be monitored by representatives of the traditional owners and be conducted under a cultural heritage management plan.

He said the company planned to undertake a limited range of engineering and environmental studies in areas south of James Price Point that are known to contain indigenous heritage sites. "In executing this work Woodside will avoid sites where possible, or minimise any disturbance to them," the spokesman said.

The drilling program is understood to include the area where pipes come ashore from the Browse Basin gas field and surrounding sand dunes, which contain extensive heritage areas.

"There are some old ceremonial grounds in there," Mr Roe said yesterday. "It is part of the song cycle and inside the song cycle there are old ceremonial grounds used for the initiation of boys."

Mr Roe said his family would contest the Section 18 application. "The whole family, including children, will go to the camp to stop the work," he said.

About 150 police reinforcements were sent to Broome last week to oversee the closure of one protest camp and ensure the company could get its earthmoving machinery to the James Price Point site.

A Goolarabooloo camp located closer to the worksite remains in place.

Mr Roe's lawyer, Andrew Chalk, said the matter was further complicated by the failure of the state government's compulsory acquisition of the James Price Point land, which he said threw the validity of the whole KLC agreement into question.

Mr Roe said Woodside's Section 18 application proved the company did not have all the approvals it needed to conduct its feasibility work, as it had claimed.

Mr Chalk has previously written to Woodside and its joint venture partners warning directors it would be a criminal offence to damage sites at James Price Point without approval under the Aboriginal Heritage Act. Mr Chalk has also provided Woodside with maps with the location of the sites.

He said Woodside's lack of approval called into question the WA government's decision last week to spend $1 million on police resources to help Woodside get its machinery past protesters.

Mr Chalk said it was possible Woodside might receive ministerial consent for its Section 18 application despite objections.

"The idea of the act affording protection is a bit of a mirage," he said.

Guerilla protest hits gas hub tests

GRAHAM LLOYD 

From:

The Australian 

May 19, 2012 12:00AM

TENSIONS were raised dramatically in the standoff over the proposed $40 billion James Price Point gas hub near Broome yesterday, as a guerilla protest stopped work and Woodside directors were warned that they might be personally liable for criminal damage if drilling went ahead near sacred sites.

Heavy police reinforcements, sent to Broome to assist Woodside begin its new-season work program, were unable to prevent two middle-aged women who locked themselves to a car anchored to the ground from wrecking the company's plans.

The lock-on caused a split between protesters and a traditional claimant group that had been gradually increasing the legal pressure on Woodside to respect heritage values at the James Price Point site. Many protest organisers believed the positive message from low-key protests during the week had been wrecked by illegal action, which they said could be used to justify the heavy police presence in Broome.

The state government and police command had been criticised during the week for spending $1 million on a 10-day police operation that, until yesterday, had appeared to be unnecessary.

The indigenous politics surrounding the James Price Point project have become tangled with a former joint native title claim over the area now split into two.

The Kimberley Land Council still has a $1.5 billion compensation package agreement with Woodside if the James Price Point project goes ahead. But the Goolarabooloo group has withdrawn from the KLC umbrella and lodged its own claim, forcing the state government and the company to negotiate.

Goolarabooloo matriarch Teresa Roe is the daughter of Paddy Roe, the traditional leader whose bones are buried in the sand dunes at the James Price Point site. Standing on the dunes at James Price Point yesterday, she said: "I am crying for my country. We are going to fight really hard to keep that country alive. I don't want it to be destroyed just for money. I don't want the money; I want my country."

A spokesman for the KLC was not available to comment.

Mrs Roe's son, Joseph Roe, is recognised as the senior law man for the Goolarabooloo and is leading the legal fight to stop the Woodside development.

Lawyers for the Goolarabooloo said last night they had written to directors of Woodside and its joint-venture partners, repeating a warning that they might be personally liable for criminal action if the company went ahead with a planned work program to test drill in the sand dunes.

A letter was first sent on November 25 last year, putting directors on notice about the cultural heritage sites including songlines and a number of specific areas.

Goolarabooloo lawyer Andrew Chalk said: "If they go ahead with the drilling program they could be committing an offence under the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972.

"I have written to the company directors to remind them that if work is carried out with their actual knowledge they may be personally liable."

Mr Chalk said another letter had been sent to federal Environment Minister Tony Burke, asking that he act on an application for emergency protection of the area under section nine of the Heritage Act. An application for a 30-day protection order was first made in July last year. Woodside said last night it had the "relevant consents and approvals required for the current program of engineering and environmental studies within the Browse LNG Precinct".

"We acknowledge that some people are opposed to the project but there are many people in the Kimberley who are looking forward to the employment and economic benefits that would flow if it proceeds," Woodside said.

Semi-retired man lands world's 'best job'

Cortlan Bennett

news.ninemsn.com.au

Dave Smith has "the best job in the world".

He's also one of West Australian Premier Colin Barnett's recently labelled "professional protesters".

The semi-retired former Perth man lives on WA's spectacular far-north Kimberley coast at James Price Point - the proposed site of Woodside Petroleum's controversial $30 billion liquid natural gas (LNG) plant, about 60km north of the tourist town of Broome.

This "unremarkable beach", as Mr Barnett has described it, is where Mr Smith has been "employed" since Easter by the traditional owners, the Goolarabooloo people, to watch for any encroachment by Woodside on native lands and national heritage-protected dinosaur footprints abutting the gas hub site.

In return, Mr Smith gets free rent and one of the most striking coastal views on the continent.

"I think I've got the best job in the world," says the former computer programmer and bird photographer.

"It sounds a bit romantic, but the country calls you. There's just something special about this place."

Mr Smith spends his days fishing, walking, birdwatching and bathing in the Indian Ocean.

But he also has plenty to keep an eye out for.

Recently, Woodside employed a marine jack-up rig to test drill the coastline for a possible port to service its LNG plant.

Mr Smith and other locals, including dinosaur footprint tracker Louise Middleton - who with late partner Paul Foulkes brought the James Price Point tracks to scientific attention in the mid-80s - claim the rig is getting dangerously close to the national-heritage-protected intertidal zone which uncovers the tracks at low tide.

"The beauty and mystery of these dinosaur tracks is that most of them can only been seen when the tides reveal them," Ms Middleton told AAP.

The tracks have been described by University of Queensland palaeontologist Steve Salisbury as "one of the most extensive and diverse dinosaur track sites anywhere in the world".

When AAP visited the site this week, there was a large vessel - dubbed the "the floating hotel" by locals - on which marine contractors are based, and three police vessels in addition to the jack-up rig off the coast.

Mr Smith said many protesters at James Price Point - contrary to Premier Barnett's view - were not "fly-in, fly-out trouble makers", but concerned locals who demonstrated when they had time.

Disagreement over impact of Supreme Court decision on James Price Point traditional owner gas deal

By Ben Collins

ABC News online

Disagreement over impact of Supreme Court decision on James Price Point traditional owner gas deal
The West Australian Supreme Court has ruled notices of compulsory acquisition at James Price Point invalid. 
Lawyers representing James Price Point traditional owners opposed to gas processing are at odds with the 
State Government and Woodside on how this impacts the billion dollar deal with native title claimants.

Lawyer Andrew Chalk representing traditional owners Phillip Roe and Neil Mckenzie, says that the agreement between the Goolarabooloo/Jabirr Jabirr native title claimants, the State Government and Woodside that relinquishes any claims to native title at James Price Point in return for a benefits package worth over a billion dollars has been nullified by the Supreme Court decision.

"That agreement...under the native title act depended on those notices being valid. If the notices are invalid then the surrender of the native title...falls away." he said.

But Premier Barnett has dismissed the impact of the Supreme Court decision on the plans to develop the James Price Point gas processing precinct. He told the ABC that the State Government will simply reissue the notice of intent on the specific area that has now been identified. He points out that compulsory acquisition has never actually taken place.

"The land was not compulsorily acquired. We have acquired it through negotiation with the Aboriginal representatives, and that is according to the Native Title Act, and that stands." Mr Barnett said.

Woodside have released a statement saying that their current site investigation work will be able to continue, and that the agreement they struck with native title claimants allows for changes to be made to the compulsory acquisition notices which were the subject of the Supreme Court decision. The oil and gas company also emphasise that "This legal action by Roe and McKenzie is not supported by the registered native title claim group, who are party to the Native Title Agreement."

The Kimberley Land Council (KLC) says that the Goolarabooloo/Jabirr Jabirr native title claimant group continue to support the agreement signed with the State Government and Woodside. In a statement the KLC say that they want "...the State Government to provide certainty that the proposed development of James Price Point will go ahead, following a Supreme Court decision that questions the development's progress."

The Court decided that moves to compulsorily acquire the land at James Price Point were invalid based on the requirements to specify precisely which areas of land were to be acquired. ABC Kimberley reported the discrepancies over the areas of land the State Government were saying they needed for the gas processing precinct and the area stated in the notices at the time compulsory acquisition was first initiated in September 2010.

The Premier confirmed to parliament later that month that he was pushing ahead with compulsory acquisition before the site work had been done to establish exactly which bit of land would be used for the gas precinct. Premier Barnett told parliament that over 7,000 hectares would be compulsorily acquired for what would ultimately be a 3,500 hectare precinct.

"This is to allow sufficient flexibility to identify final locations for each component of the Browse LNG Precinct and associated infrastructure taking into account Aboriginal cultural heritage concerns, as well as environmental and geotechnical considerations." the Premier said.

But today the Supreme Court ruled that the Land Administration Act does not allow the Government to make a broad compulsory acquisition, then choose the portions required and then return the remainder to its original title.

Andrew Chalk says the basic point from this decision is that "...if the government is going to forcefully take people's land they should be required to state precisely what it is that they're intending to take."

There may be further ramifications for the State Government which is said to have used this strategy to compulsorily acquire land in other cases. But the real impact for Kimberley gas processing at James Price Point will be felt if Mr Chalk's claim that the native title compensation deal has been voided, is borne out.

If this is the case then the Government may have to start the longwinded compulsory acquisition process again, and the Kimberley Land Council would have to reconvene native title claimants and take them through the painstaking process of coming to a new agreement with Woodside and the State Government.

This would be another stumbling block for the controversial plans for gas processing at James Price Point. The decision comes after Premier Barnett urged Woodside to hold their nerve amidst reports of increasing economic reasons not to proceed with the project. And there is ongoing uncertainty about environmental and heritage impacts. If the Environmental Protection Authority raises concerns in their report on James Price Point, due at the end of next month, then the gas precinct will be fighting for survival on multiple fronts.

No doubt lawyers from both sides will be preparing for the next court battle over whether this decision affects the billion dollar deal with native title claimants.

The Minister for Lands has 28 days in which to appeal the decision. The ABC has contacted the Minister for Lands, Brendon Grylls, for a response.