Mining and Petroleum

WA Greens MLC Robin Chapple criticises Labor’s decision to allow for destruction of Heritage

WA Greens Member for the Mining and Pastoral Region Robin Chapple has criticised the State Government for its rejection of his proposed amendments to protect precious Heritage across WA.

Mr Chapple introduced amendments to the EPA last Thursday (5^th of November) to include protection of Indigenous Heritage sites, motivated by the approval for destruction at Rio Tinto’s controversial Silvergrass project.

Mr Chapple noted that the current Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Mr Ben Wyatt, signed off on the destruction of 40,000+yo caves at the Silvergrass site, adjacent to Rio Tinto's Nammuldi mine. [see p7454 of Hansard attached] 

“The decision from the Minister for Environment, Mr Dawson, not to support these amendments which protect Aboriginal Heritage, raises the question: what has the WA Labor Government learnt from the Juukan fiasco, if anything at all?      

Mr Chapple spoke generally of the vision between the Department of Environmental Regulation’s duties, and the Department of Aboriginal Affairs’ duties as a “no man’s land”; with both Departments and their subsidiary bodies “passing the buck”.  

“Minister for Environment Stephen Dawson has argued that, ‘no person can…limit the powers of the EPA by agreement’ despite the provisions of the notorious ‘Claim Wide Participation Agreements’; binding and gagging Traditional Owners’ objections

“This runs directly against the evidence – the gag orders we’ve seen in-place in agreements to do with the Juukan caves and elsewhere, directly do have that power.   

Mr Chapple’s amendments to protect both tangible and intangible Aboriginal cultural heritage were defeated by a bloc of Labor, Liberals, and cross benchers (excluding The Greens (WA)).

WA Greens MLC Robin Chapple expresses serious safety concerns over conversion of BP refinery

WA Greens Member for the Mining and Pastoral Region Robin Chapple has spoken out about BP’s decision to convert its Kwinana refinery to an import terminal.

Mr Chapple spoke generally of the increased ecological and health risks that this move creates; the new terminal will bring in foreign fuels that use the carcinogenic additive Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether (MTBE).

“These replacement fuels, largely from developing nations in Asia, carries an immense risk to the people exposed to them and the environment as a whole”

“MTBE is such a volatile product that even low amounts will contaminate ground water irreparably for generations and at only four parts per billion, is enough to make water undrinkable”

“The State Government needs to step in and regulate this dangerous chemical, removing it from WA’s fuel supply to stop more environmentally sensitive companies from being undercut by dangerous, sub-standard fuel imports”

“If the State Government was serious about not wanting a monopoly on fuel, they need to stop looking for cheap short term options. We need to invest in the undeniable viability of clean and renewable technologies to meet our energy needs”

WA Greens MLC Robin Chapple says Jadestone oil should be held accountable over recent spill

WA Greens Member for the Mining and Pastoral Region, Robin Chapple, says Jadestone’s recent spill at their Stag oilfield platform requires a full investigation by Australia’s offshore oil authority (NOPSEMA).

Mr Chapple has spoken generally of the company’s claim that only 73.5 litres of oil being spilt as “highly dubious” after online comments from employees put the amount at over 10,000 litres.

“We are looking at a four kilometres pipe which is listed on their website as being eight inches in diameter, at full capacity that’s over 125,000 litres of oil that was allowed to seep into the ocean over three days – maybe even more”

“I have legitimate doubts over the reporting by Jadestone - this is the same mob that were issued multiple safety notices on their Montara platform last year and the disastrous spill and blaze on the same platform in 2009”

“This is another multinational not based in WA or even Australia with serious management problems that we will be forced to bear the burden of, which in this period of economic stress, is simply not good enough”

Mr Chapple has voiced serious concern over threatened wildlife species including thousands of turtles that are currently present in the area for mating.

“The ocean is buzzing with life during this time of year and the ecological risk this leak poses cannot be understated”