Saturday, February 28, 2009

Traditional owners aim for LNG deal

A committee was elected representing traditional owners from the area (Goolarabooloo and Jabirr-Jabirr) around the proposed LNG processing site at Prices Point to negotiate a deal with the State Government and Woodside which includes:
• Long term jobs ands benefits
• Traditional owners want to be economic partners not victims to be compensated.
The Committee will report back to the wider traditional owner group at the end of March for a decision whether to continue negotiations. A final agreement is not expected to be reached until the end of the year.
Premier Barnett wants an agreement by March 31st after which he will consider compulsory acquisition.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Fly in, fly out politicians

Regional Development Minister Brendon Grylls came with a 'fly in fly out' visit to tell us that 'more people could get to know the Kimberley if a gas hub was built.'

At the same time Federal Energy Minister Martin Ferguson lobbed in for a one day visit to inform us that:
  • An LNG hub would not be bad for tourism - will only take a small area of land - be environmentally clean and employ a couple of hundred people.
  • An LNG hub would help overcome indigenous disadvantage through investment in communities.

As Robert Vaughan wrote in the Advertiser on Feb 12th - "Broome would be well advised to take a good look at the train wreck BHP left at Ravensthorpe."