The finish for the plan to dump nuclear waste at Muckaty
Muckaty nuclear dump scrapped Land council abandons Muckaty dump push SMH, June 19, 2014 Neda Vanovac”…… the Northern Land Council has decided to abandon its push to locate a national nuclear waste dump on Muckaty Station in the Northern Territory. The NLC announced on Thursday that it had settled with opponents of the dump and that Federal Court proceedings would be dismissed. Settlement talks had been going on since the trial began earlier this month, NLC CEO Joe Morrison said.
Last week, the court travelled from Melbourne to Tennant Creek to take evidence from a number of Aboriginal clans from the Muckaty Land Trust, located 120km north of the town, who said their wishes were overruled by a fifth clan and the NLC, who worked together to nominate the site.
The groups have been battling one another for seven years since Muckaty was formally nominated in 2007……..
Whether a dump would be located on Aboriginal land is up to the Commonwealth and traditional owners, Mr Morrison said…….The $12 million that had been on the table from the federal government as compensation for the community will not be paid, and a second site on Muckaty will not be put forward.
Both sides will pay their own legal costs.
Whether a dump would be located on Aboriginal land is up to the Commonwealth and traditional owners, Mr Morrison said. The federal government has agreed to an NLC request the site no longer be considered, and it will hold discussions to find an alternative, Minister for Industry Ian MacFarlane said in a statement.
“If a suitable site is not identified through these discussions the government will commence a new tender process for nominations for another site.”
Lawyers for the traditional land owners at Muckaty Station said their clients were overjoyed with the outcome.
“Every step of the process was opposed by people on the ground, and that may be one reason why they’ve decided to no longer rely on litigation,” Maurice Blackburn lawyer Elizabeth O’Shea told reporters in Melbourne. http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/muckaty-nuclear-dump-scrapped-20140619-3af4c.html
Origin Energy, EnergyAustralia and AGL Energy looking silly, ripping off customers?
Following a model pioneered by political activist group, GetUp!, Greenpeace has developed a mock advertisement (below) imitating the format of the power retailers own advertisements. Itswebsite carries a YouTube clip of the advert and seeks donations to pay to have the advertisement aired on television. The advertisement prominently carries the brands of Origin Energy, Energy Australia and AGL Energy, as solar panel installers posing as employees of these companies remove solar panels from a roof while suggesting the companies are trying to rip off customers by seeking to have the Renewable Energy Target reduced.
One actor states, “by ripping up Australia’s Renewable Energy Target, we can rip you off on your energy bills for years to come”.
A website – www.thegreatenergyripoff.com – has been developed to accompany the advertisement, asking people to “join our petition to the dirty energy giants to support the Renewable Energy Target. We’ll hand deliver it directly to the energy companies so they know consumers expect better.”
Australian climate denialists off to a Climate Sceptic Conference in London
Climate sceptics to fly Queensland MP to international conference, Guardian 18 June 14, George Christensen says he is closely associated with conservative thinktank The Heartland Institute Conservative climate-sceptic thinktank The Heartland Institute is footing the bill for Queensland backbencher George Christensen to travel to Las Vegas to take part in its “international conference on climate change”.
Christensen told Guardian Australia he was “closely associated with the institute” through his relationship with Australian climate-sceptic academic Bob Carter, who is also a constituent in Christensen’s electorate of Dawson.
The institute, which proudly displays the assessment by The Economist that it is “the world’s most prominent think tank promoting scepticism about man-made climate change”, says its July 7-9 conference offers attendees the chance to “learn from top economists and policy experts about the real costs and futility of trying to stop global warming” and to “meet the leaders of think tanks and grassroots organisations who are speaking out against global warming alarmism”.
Christensen will appear beside Carter – science policy adviser to the Institute Public Affairs – and two other Australian climate sceptic academics, Dr Jennifer Marohasy and Dr William Kininmonth, in a session entitled “The global warming debate in Australia”…….
The conference will hear from a who’s who of international climate sceptics, including Britain’s Lord Christopher Monckton.
Christensen quoted a Heartland Institute-sponsored document, “Climate Change Reconsidered”, as a source during the parliamentary debate on the repeal of the carbon tax bills…….
Christensen chairs the Coalition’s backbench committee on industry policy. His travel plans were discussed in Graham Readfearn’sDesmogblog.com. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jun/16/climate-sceptics-to-fly-queensland-mp-to-international-conference
Australia a drag internationally, pitted against USA on carbon policy
Carbon policy pits Aus against US: Garnaut http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/double-climate-threat-to-our-economy-ceda/story-fni0xqi4-1226958415074 19 June 14 AAP AUSTRALIA is setting itself against the US and will become a drag on global climate change efforts with the repeal of the carbon tax, prominent economist Ross Garnaut says. THE former government adviser says China, Europe and the US are gearing up for another big effort to address climate change and by scrapping its detailed and sophisticated carbon laws, Australia is going against this.
“With our existing policies, we’re not ahead of any game yet but we’re part of the game. We will be doing our fair share,” Professor Garnaut said on Wednesday. “With the repeal of the carbon laws, and in the absence of anything in their place, then we won’t be doing our fair share.”We will be a drag on the international system.” He said the move was particularly puzzling when the world’s two big emitters, China and the US, whose inaction had previously been a problem, were committing themselves to very strong action.
“We have set ourselves against our ally the United States on a major question of policy in a way that we haven’t done since the Ottawa conference in 1931,” Prof Garnaut said.
The comments came at the release of a report by the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) into the economic trouble Australia could face without an appropriate response to climate change.
The report says Australia faces the risk of growing repair bills from extreme weather and barriers to major project investment.
CEDA chief executive Stephen Martin said policy makers need to recognise climate change is an economic issue, not just an environmental issue. “Statistics show that the number of catastrophic weather events is increasing and the economic losses associated with these events are also trending up,” Prof Martin said. He said Cyclone Yasi, Black Saturday, the Queensland floods and other weather events have had a direct impact on industry and on most Australians’ hip pocket.
Professor Martin said the federal government needs to introduce a national risk register that includes strategies to manage risks of extreme weather. “Australia is reliant on foreign capital to fund major projects and new developments in international climate change policy are likely to impact international capital flow and investment decision making,” Prof Martin said.
The costs to Australia of climate inaction
Australian business and investors operate in a global business environment. While our current political and business leaders pursue an approach of not regulating the greenhouse emissions of Australian industry, the global economy is rapidly moving in the opposite direction.
Australia’s economy will suffer if we fall behind on climate action Martijn Wilder The Conversation, 18 June 2014,
Australia’s economy faces grave threats from climate change, but the greatest threat is if we do not make a serious effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
It’s not just the physical impacts of climate change that will hurt Australia’s economy. In a new report released today by the Committee for Economic Development of Australia, I and others argue that falling behind on reducing greenhouse gas emissions leaves Australia’s economy vulnerable to global efforts to tackle climate change.
But so far Australian government and business has focused on the cost of reducing emissions, despite evidence that it will be far more costly to do nothing.
Counting the costs of climate action
In Australia it has long been the view that limiting emissions through carbon pricing will directly limit economic growth. This is despite industry being largely protected from the costs of efforts to reduce emissions through the Clean Energy Act through free emissions permits and compensation. Continue reading
Senator Nova Peris sticks up for the Aboriginal Land Rights Act
Land Rights Act not an impediment: Peris Herald Sun 17 June 14, NORTHERN Territory Senator Nova Peris has rejected claims the Aboriginal Land Rights Act is holding indigenous people back. THE NT Minister for Community Services Bess Price said at a development conference in Darwin on Monday the Act has locked Aboriginal land away……..
Senator Peris said there were a number of things preventing Aboriginal economic development, such as a lack of infrastructure. “For someone in Bess Price’s position, when she opens her mouth she does speak for Aboriginal people but what she’s saying is totally untrue,” she told ABC radio, but admitted the approvals process was too slow.
Under the Land Rights Act in the NT, landowners must negotiate with a land council for an Indigenous Land Use Agreement before they can sell or use their land for commercial purposes, and lending institutions prefer longer 99-year leases in order to guarantee funds for people to buy their own homes or launch businesses, which can only be approved by the federal minister.
But land councils do not always act in the interests of traditional owners, said Senator Nigel Scullion.
“Sometimes a land council has a particular agenda and can assist with economic development; other land councils have other agendas and perhaps might not be so helpful because they have some fundamental opposition to independence from particular groups,” he told ABC.
“There’s no doubt that the system needs some adjustment but I don’t agree with Bess that it’s in the actual Land Rights Act. I can’t see any circumstance that the (Act) can’t assist with; it’s supposed to be enabling legislation.”
Both the Northern Land Council and the Central Land Council have indicated that they don’t like 99-year township leases “and they’re actively working against the interests of traditional owners in some cases”, Senator Scullion said.
“It’s my task to make sure that land councils as commonwealth agencies dance to the beat of the traditional owners’ drum, that’s their role……..http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/land-rights-act-not-an-impediment-peris/story-fni0xqi4-1226957327562
AUDIO: latest report on the Muckaty nuclear waste dump court case
Muckaty Court Case heads to Darwin http://caama.com.au/muckaty-court-case 17 June 14 Damian Williams The federal court case on the planned Muckaty nuclear waste dump has now adjourned. Paddy Gibson for the Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning is following the trial:
The court is now adjourned. The last sitting was on Saturday. The judge travelled again out to Muckaty. Aboriginal people thanked the court judge for coming to Muckaty out-station coming to country to hear from the elders directly and other Aboriginal people who are opposing nuclear waste dumping on their land. The case will now move to Darwin to take evidence from Northern Land Council
Crucial day of evidence, we heard from – a very senior man, Dick Foster known as reliable authority on who owns this land. NLC was relying on this man, Dick Foster. In their early nomination they actually used Mr Foster’s name. Whereas Dick has been crystal clear since 2007 that the NLC is wrong The NLC are relying on the wrong idea that a small piece of Muckaty belongs to just on e family group. Not alright for this family to sell one piece of the and made it clear that this was wrong. The anthropology used was not correct. They needed to slow the process down. NLC should have heard from all of the groups on how decisions would be made for that small piece of land. NLC forged ahead in 2007 far too quickly according to Mr Foster. Sold Muckaty out without the consent of Aboriginal owners. Far too much pressure.
Needed to encourage proper discussion on how that should be done. Sold Muckaty out
His evidence crucial. Process was far too rushed.
He made it clear that there was a lot of pressure on senior people like himself. with a number of government people on senior Aborigines,
That evidence was very significant. No one in this case is questioning the cultural knowledge of Mr Foster, though not a traditional owner himself. No question that he is not an authentic witness on Aboriginal culture, and the land around Muckaty
The NLC and government should back off now. They really should listen to these people. People have been saying – “You’ve got it wrong. You’re rushing us”
The other point about the evidence that came out on the country – people have not been told the real story, right back to 2007. Even the individuals who nominated the land were never told. had no idea of the true nature of what was planned. No one was ever told that there could be accidents. Those sorts of question are in the legislation, but this was never explained to the people. People were not told of possibility of drastic accident. People were never properly informed that they may lose their land forever.
The government is trying to say that it’s only for 200 years. But there are provisions sin the legislation, that the government could hold that land forever. Never explained to any traditional owners in the consultation process. That is clear from the evidence which has come out. They’re trying to say that this will be at temporary facility.
Relying on faulty flawed anthropology. Enormous amount of pressure was put on the traditional owners. They were relying on faulty, flawed anthropology. Iy was rushed through inn order to do a deal. Rights systematically stripped away from the traditional owners. Very strong case coming out now from the people who are opposed to the nuclear waste dump.. Quite shocking to learn how the government and NLC have treated these people, through this process.
Evidence is now wound up in Tennant Creek and Muckaty
Next is a trip to Darwin. The focus now will be on the NLC and the Commonwealth. They will be subject to the same cross examination that the Aboriginal people had to go through.
The Aboriginal people are happy and proud with what they have achieved. They have been so strong, so articulate.- that they have stood up to these non indigenous very highly paid, highly educated barristers for the Land Council and government attacking them in the witness stand. Some of the Aboriginal witnesses were cross examined for 3 hours – with lawyers for the government and NLC trying to trick them trap them The truth has come out on how this nomination came about back in 2007. Evidence is now wound up
We’ve had to go through 7 years of heartache, pain, stress sickness, and many people have died. A lot of people not alive now to give evidence on how they were treated. A very sad stressful thing that has happened to this community. In Darwin the pressure will be on the NLC and Government.
The greedy few will benefit from nuke waste dumping, at the cost of Aboriginal land and culture
Dennis Matthews, 17 June 14 Little has changed from the days when the Federal Government tried to locate the dump in SA.
They denied it was a dump, it was a “repository”. We won that battle.
They claimed it was for only low level waste. We won that battle by publicly asking them where the short-lived intermediate waste was going to go, Nick Minchin unashamedly admitted that it was going in the low level dump. The reporter doing the interview was noticeably taken aback by that admission.
They kept stressing volumes rather than amount of ionising radiation. We stressed that it’s not the volume or mass of the waste that is dangerous it’s the amount of ionising radiation.
The Kupa Piti Kunga Tjuta were so strong and got both Australian and International awards for their determination in the face of attacks by the Government-industry complex. The Kunga-Tjuta had experience with ionising radiation through the fallout from the British nuclear weapons tests at Maralinga.
The anti-dump campaign stressed that the waste should be left where it is and looked after by the experts at Lucas Heights – if those experts didn’t want it there then they shouldn’t make it in the first place.
Those who benefit most from Lucas Heights want the costs picked up by those who benefit least.
AUDIO: Report on Day 8 of Muckaty Nuclear waste Dump Court Case
AUDIO Report on Day 8 of Muckaty nuclear waste dump court case. http://caama.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Muckaty-Day-8.mp3
The Muckaty mob have been so strong in this court-room. It’s an intimidating system. Gladys Brown – strong indigenous woman, grilled by white men in an intimidating manner. Australian govt and NLC didn’t want the court case to come to Muckaty and Northern Territory. Awful to watch the NRC lawyer denigrating the cultural knowledge of these Aboriginal women. Trying to trip them up all the time – about their dreaming stories. But these witnesses are holding their ground, sticking to their guns. That the Land council anf govt did not listen to them A very disturbing process to watch.
Confronting for these women to be surrounded by white men – challenging their cultural knowledge.
White law is given absolute upper hand, through these whole proceedings.. It’s the Aboriginal women who are on trial. These women being put through the ringer. No acknowledgement of the strength of the law and knowledge in this area.
So much is being revealed about the consultation process.
One of the darkest aspects – The government and lawyers always emphasise the low level waste – medical equipment etc. They never talk the spent nuclear fuel – from Lucas Heights, currently overseas, but coming back as its the most dangerous industrial waste of all. It is never discussed in detail
Very obvious that in the early consultations – the people were not told a true account of what nuclear waste is. None of this contained a genuine discussion about the spent nuclear fuel rods.
As soon as the traditional owners started to get information, from the Environment Centre, they started action against the dump. From Day one it should have been explained. It was never brought up by the Northern Land Council. The NLC claim the protest comes from outsiders. Not so.
Community Energy Congress in Canberra, as Farmers warn against weakening Renewable Energy Target
Farmers, activists warn against reducing renewable energy target on Global Wind Energy Day http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/farmers-activists-warn-against-reducing-renewable-energy-target-on-global-wind-energy-day-20140615-zs8ix.html June 16, 2014 Markus Mannheim Public service editor Over the years, Boorowa grazier Paul Magee watched each of his five children become adults and leave the family farm to find work.
For him and his wife, Lynette, the opportunity to host wind turbines on their 700-hectare property, about 110 kilometres north of Canberra, may have come a little too late.
But the lamb farmer hopes the growing wind-energy industry will help lure young people back to the bush, and says the federal government must maintain its backing for renewable energy. “There is a possibility that one [of my children] could move back here and help to improve the farm and make it more productive – if the renewable energy target is not changed,” Mr Magee told a rally of activists outside Parliament House on Sunday, Global Wind Energy Day.
“There is a further possibility that others … may gain employment in the area. The economic benefits would help stop the drift to larger cities.”
A review of the so-called RET – an aim for 20 per cent of the nation’s electricity to come from renewable sources by 2020 – is due to be completed shortly, amid fears the Abbott government will reduce the target or scrap it entirely.
Last month, Treasurer Joe Hockey launched an unprompted attack on windfarms near Lake George, just outside the ACT, telling conservative radio commentator Alan Jones he found them “utterly offensive” and “a blight on the landscape”. Climate activists have also noted that the RET review’s leader, former Caltex chairman Dick Warburton, and other panel members have close links to the fossil-fuel industry.
Mr Magee said he could not understand the Treasurer’s view. “It could be argued that the very same four-lane freeway he was travelling on is more offensive and a bigger blight on the landscape, and indeed the urban development that has ruined the north shore of Sydney,” he said, referring to Mr Hockey’s electorate.
Small groups of residents near windfarms occasionally oppose the industry, saying turbines are noisy and reduce rural property prices.
However, NSW government polling in 2010 found almost nine in 10 residents in the region near the ACT border supported windfarms, including 61 per cent of people who lived one to two kilometres away from turbines.
Regardless of what happens to the federal RET scheme, ACT Environment Minister Simon Corbell told the rally that Canberra would maintain the nation’s most ambitious renewable energy policy: 90 per cent of the ACT’s electricity would be sourced from renewable energy by 2020.
He also noted that the Royalla solar farm – the largest in Australia – was just a few months’ away from being commissioned.
“The sad thing about that project is that it’s only 20 megawatts. When you look at renewable energy and solar energy around the world, you see that so many nations are investing in schemes and in projects that are in the hundreds of megawatts.
“In a country like Australia, we should be doing the same.”
Sunday’s rally preceded the 2014 Community Energy Congress, which will be held on Monday and Tuesday at the National Library. About 300 delegates are expected to attend from across Australia and overseas.
Australians’ uptake of solar power is having a dramatic effect on electricity markets
Solar turns tables on Australia’s electricity markets REneweconomy By Giles Parkinson on 16 June 2014 Australia’s electricity markets are forecast to experience more declines in consumption over the next three years, as homes and businesses conserve energy, use smarter appliances and turn increasingly to generating their own electricity.
The 2014 National Electricity Forecasting Report issued on Monday by the Australian Energy Market Operator has highlighted once again how all previous assumptions about electricity demand have been turned on their head in recent years.
As we reported on Friday, AEMO has been forced to revise down its forecast demand for 2013/14 for a second time, and it now expects demand from the National Electricity Market to continue falling for at least another three years.
AEMO notes that in the past five years, instead of surging demand, consumption from the grid has actually fallen by an average of 1.8 per cent a year from 2009–10 to 2013–14.
Ironically, this has been driven, it says, by surging network costs – which have risen in turn because of the $45 billion that was invested on the basis of high demand forecasts five years ago.
These rising costs, in turn, have encouraged consumers to conserve energy, turn to more energy efficient appliances, and look to rooftop solar to deflect their costs. Demand has also been reduced by declining industrial production.
The fall in demand, or at least the fall in demand from the grid (because many houses with solar PV are still consuming, just producing much of their own needs), is being used by incumbent generators and others with vested interests as an excuse to halt, or slow down, the pace of deployment of renewable energy in Australia……
The situation is even more dramatic in South Australia, where we explain here that a textbook decarbonisation of the grid is occurring thanks to its high penetration of rooftop solar, the big uptake of large-scale renewables, and the sidelining of old coal generators.
Of course, as we have seen in the submissions to the RET Review, the incumbent generators hate this. Origin Energy argued that the RET was never designed to force incumbent generators out of the market – it was always presumed that demand would rise and renewables would account for most of new capacity…….. http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/solar-turns-tables-on-australias-electricity-markets-81352
Nuclear waste dump on Aboriginal land: a step towards importing the world’s radioactive trash?
Nuclear dump will end heritage links:court The West Australian , NEDA VANOVAC June 12, 2014,An Aboriginal woman who opposes the construction of a nuclear waste dump in the Northern Territory says it’s a stepping stone to Australia storing the world’s waste.
The Federal Court is sitting in Tennant Creek to hear from members of four clans who say they were not properly consulted by the Northern Land Council (NLC) and the Commonwealth, which they say wrongfully acknowledged the Lauder family of the Ngapa clan as traditional owners of the site, 120km north of the town.
The court must sift through the criss-crossing songlines and dreamings of the seven clans who claim land within the 221,000ha Muckaty Station to decide who owns the two square kilometres that would house the facility.
Marlene Bennett told the court on Thursday that if the dump went ahead, the local people would lose their connection to heritage forever. “The world wants to store their nuclear waste somewhere. I have no doubt in my mind that parcel of land will get bigger and bigger. We won’t be able to get there any more, hunt there any more. It’s going to impact on the whole area,” she said.
“The songs, stories, ceremonies, culture, everyone is dispossessed again.”
Her uncle was part of a group of traditional owners taken to see the Lucas Heights storage facility in Sydney in 2006, but Ms Bennett says he thought they were planning to build a rubbish dump to create jobs for the community.
“(His) understanding was a commercial rubbish tip, which is quite different to a nuclear facility,” she said. “To see him so distressed, saying, ‘We agreed to this, but we didn’t understand what it was about’. Obviously they weren’t informed correctly.” She said indigenous people were often too intimidated to speak out in the face of authority.
“I’m concerned about the level of information that was imparted, not just showing the community the dollar signs,” Ms Bennett said.
Whether the federal government and the NLC consulted the community properly is a key element of the case…….https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/national/a/24224338/nuclear-dump-will-end-heritage-links-court/
Pacific leaders condemn Tony Abbott’s climate policies
Pacific presidents speak out against Australia’s stand on climate change Australia Network News, Fri 13 Jun 2014, Pacific leaders have criticised Australia’s moves to form a conservative international climate change alliance, saying it will only isolate Australia further in the Pacific.
The comments from the presidents of Kiribati and Marshall Islands came as Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott met US President Barrack Obama for formal talks in Washington………
Kiribati’s President Anote Tong says climate change is an issue of survival for Pacific Island states, not just economics.
“We’re not talking about the growth GDP, we’re not talking about what it means in terms of profit and losses of the large corporations, we’re talking about our survival,” he told Radio Australia’s Pacific Beat
Australia further isolated in Pacific
Mr Tong also says the Abbott-Harper strategy throws previous regional agreements to which Australia was a signatory into doubt. He says Australia’s stand is also likely to get “some, if not a lot” of attention at next month’s Pacific Island Forum leaders’ meeting in Palau.
Mr Tong says as far as Kiribati is concerned, it now doesn’t matter what Australia or any other country does because it is already too late.
“What will happen in terms of greenhouse gas emissions levels agreed to internationally will not affect us, because our future is already here… we will be underwater,” he said………http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-13/pacific-presidents/5521478
Muckaty nuclear waste case: Commonwealth law may prevail over Aboriginal owners’ wishes
The Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act (2005) states that even if an Aboriginal community or group that might be affected by the proposed nomination has not been consulted and does not consent, the nomination can go ahead.
And even if Justice Anthony North rules that the NLC behaved improperly, the facility might still be built at Muckaty.
Nuclear waste dump may still go ahead https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/national/a/24233270/nuclear-waste-dump-may-still-go-ahead/ NEDA VANOVACJune 13, 2014, The news is always a little old at the Tennant Creek newsagency.It takes a while for the papers to be transported to the town, 1000km south of Darwin and about 500km north of Alice Springs in the rocky, semi-arid Barkly tablelands.
At 283,648 square kilometres, the tablelands are one-fifth of the Northern Territory and bigger than New Zealand. However, even eight years after the battle over the proposed Muckaty waste dump began, this dispute is anything but old news. The Federal Court this week took evidence from locals in what many hope will be a long-awaited resolution to a situation that has split the town.
In 2006, a small patch of land on Muckaty Station, 120km north of Tennant Creek, was put forward by the Northern Land Council (NLC) to the Commonwealth government to become Australia’s national radioactive waste storage facility. The council had the permission of the Lauder family of the Ngapa clan, which it determined were the rightful owners of that spot.
However, seven clans lay claim to land within the 221,000ha station, and all have dreamings and songlines that overlap and intersect, meaning the court will have to untangle what it can to determine which group can claim to the roughly two square kilometres that would house the facility if it goes ahead.
The case is arguably the biggest of its kind since the Jabiluka mine blockades of the 1990s. Continue reading
Maningrida’s Aboriginal landowners fight plans for offshore fracking
Offshore fracking fight washes up on the pristine shores of Arnhem Land, Guardian, 13 June 14, As a US gas company eyes the potential in the shallows around Maningrida, the traditional owners have vowed to protect their ancestral land – and they’re prepared to go to the high court The first Alice Eather knew of Paltar Petroleum’s plans for her ancestral land was when she read a square-inch notice buried in the back pages of the NT News. The August 2012 announcement detailed an application by the US giant for a license for exploratory oil and gas drilling. If successful, it planned to carry out hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, around the coastline of Maningrida in West Arnhem Land.
“It was the most horrible day of my life,” says 24-year-old Eather. “No one was told a thing. There had been no consultation and the ad said we would be given two months to object.”
Objections from the region’s myriad Aboriginal clans and some 13 language groups have since been vocal and persistent. Almost two years on, leaders from the Protect Arnhem Land campaign say they will take their battle as far as the high court if necessary.
“I had never done any of this in my life,” says Queensland-raised Eather, whose mother is from the Kunibidji people of Maningrida. “But our job is to protect country. If we don’t do this, we are not doing our duty.” The 10-million hectares of Arnhem Land represent a fraction of the some 80% of the Northern Territory which is currently under application for unconventional oil and gas exploration. But the local campaign to halt fracking by Paltar highlights the complexity of trying to protect land in this resource-rich territory.
The town, whose name derives from the phrase “where the dreaming changed shape”, sits on an estuary at the mouth of the Liverpool river and is home to around 2,600, many of whom live on its some 30 homeland centres or “outstations”………
Most of Arnhem Land falls under the 1976 Aboriginal Land Rights Act that grants inalienable freehold title to traditional owners under federal law. This includes the right to veto applications for development or exploration. However the jurisdiction of the Act ends at the low-tide mark and therefore gives no clear rights over sea activity like the seismic and acoustic sampling proposed by Paltar in the shallows around Maningrida….
“The Land Rights Act does not give Aboriginal people a lot of chance to say no to production,” says Stuart Blanch, an environmental lawyer and director of the Environment Centre NT who is advocating for the campaign. “Even if they refuse a license to explore, every five years the developer has a chance to come back and reapply. If they say yes to exploration, they can’t have a change of heart.”
As Blanch notes, this has led investors to offer strong incentives for traditional owners to license their initial applications in the form of generous royalty payments. The Northern Land Council (NLC), the body responsible for mediating applications, has also been accused of keeping traditional owners offside in development negotiations. Where local clan members often have little access to the technicalities of proposals or related legislation in their own language, the remunerative rewards of $10,000-20,000 per owner for granting a license can be alluring.
“The NLC is a creation of the white man under federal law. It survives financially by facilitating developments on Aboriginal land that are recognised under the Act.” he says. “The history is that traditional owners are under pressure to say yes to exploration.”……
Paltar’s application for now remains in limbo in the hands of the NT government who hold the power to approve an offshore exploration license. State bureaucrats have given reassurances that they will take account of traditional owners’ claims, but Eather and others remain sceptical that Paltar will relinquish their plans. Nonetheless, she says the grassroots nature of the Protect Arnhem Land campaign has afforded local clans some agency in what is often an arcane and unnavigable legislative sphere.
“I don’t think Paltar will budge. But the most vital thing is that [the campaign] is community-driven,” she says.
Blackfellas have always felt like they are kept in the dark, that it is the ballandar [white people] who have all the law and all the knowledge. We can make a big change to that.”……http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/13/offshore-fracking-fight-washes-up-arnhem-land
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