It’s very sad to see that the blockade at James Price Point has been broken after a month of brave struggle against Woodside and its partners. Workers have now entered the area and begun destroying one of the world’s last remaining wildernesses.

As usual, Big Business profits while the rest of the world suffers. It just proves once again that those with money are in charge. Us protesters have no money and therefore no say. Doesn’t matter if we’re right or not.

And if that wasn’t enough, the Australian Government has just approved Shell to start drilling off Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia; a world heritage-listed marine park.

How much money are we paying Tony Burke and his colleagues to ‘protect’ our land? Obviously not as much as Shell!

Woodside Petroleum are in the process of building a major gas hub on James Price Point, an area of the Kimberley known for its natural beauty and biodiversity. Many unique species of plants and animals live here, and a great deal of these are already under threat.

What better way to protect them than building a $30 billion gas plant, which inevitably will cause enormous damage to the Kimberley coast. Every environmental organisation and activist in Australia is opposed to the project, including the Wilderness Society, Conservation Foundation, Conservation Council of WA and Save The Kimberley.

WA Premier Colin Barnett first stated:

One of our priorities is protection of the Kimberley which I think is WA’s greatest responsibility environmentally. (The West Australian, 4 September 2010)

He then proceeded to approved the project, promising great benefits for WA (and no doubt receiving great benefits of his own). Meanwhile, the opposition started a blockade of the site, which has been ongoing for the last two weeks month.

Interesting to note is who the main actors are. The project is managed by 5 companies: Woodside, Shell, Chevron, BP and BHP. Just seeing those names makes me shiver, considering all of them have among the worst environmental track-records in modern history:

Woodside – Bypassed environmental regulations in Australia and legal regulations in Mauritania.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodside_Petroleum#Criticism
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4684836.stm
http://www.finnewsnetwork.com.au/archives/finance_news_network17357.html

Shell – Destroyed Niger Delta and violated US environmental regulations on several occasions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_Oil_Company#Environmental

Chevron – Caused environmental damage in the US, Ecuador, Angola, Niger and Bangladesh.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevron_Corporation#Controversies

BP – Destroyed Gulf of Mexico, dumped toxic material, released harmful chemicals and spilled oil across the US on countless occasions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bp#Environmental_record

BHP – Polluted sites in Papua New Guinea.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ok_Tedi_environmental_disaster

Is this the environmental protection Barnett was talking about? Allowing the worst environmental criminals in history to operate an LNG plant in an extremely fragile environment? That sounds like a sure recipe for success… Well, for monetary success that is.