From Abc · · 3m
Traditional owners oppose Woodside's Browse gas expansion
Indigenous partners of 30 years break silence over a confidential 1998 land deal they say is unfit for purpose and blocks the company's $50 billion project.
In brief
Indigenous partners of 30 years break silence over a confidential 1998 land deal they say is unfit for purpose and blocks the company's $50 billion project. Traditional owners partnered with Woodside for nearly 30 years have publicly opposed the company's Browse Basin expansion, citing a confidential 1998 land access…
Partners of 30 years break silence
Ngarluma-Yindjibarndi Foundation Limited, Woodside's traditional owner partner since almost 1998, has publicly opposed the company's Browse Basin expansion for the first time.
The 1998 deal blocks the new project
Traditional owners say Woodside's proposed fifty billion dollar Browse expansion cannot proceed while a confidential nineteen ninety-eight land access deal remains unfit for purpose.
Sacred sites destroyed before the deal
The nineteen ninety-eight agreement covered the North West Shelf joint venture, more than fifteen hundred thirty kilometres north of Perth, built over sacred Indigenous sites thought to date back fifty thousand years.
Elders allegedly pressured to sign
Senior and former members of Ngarluma-Yindjibarndi Foundation Limited claimed the deal pressured elders who could not read or write, with some signing with the letter X.
Country comes first for the people
Elder and NYFL director Ricky Smith said ngurra, or country, is the main thing for their people and must not be destroyed, touched or damaged.
“Ngurra (country) is the main thing for our people: to have our country, not to be destroyed, not to be touched or damaged.”
Compensation of fifty to one hundred dollars per site
The nineteen ninety-eight deal included five hundred thousand dollars as compensation for deprivation of land or waters. NYFL estimates this equates to about fifty to one hundred dollars per cultural site affected.
Gag clauses silenced traditional owners
The agreement included strict confidentiality and no-challenge clauses. Former NYFL chairperson Clinton Walker said these gag clauses prevented people from standing up for country.
“We were forced with gag clauses … we couldn't speak up for what we wanted.”
Woodside's latest offer falls short
NYFL tabled a new agreement last November requesting thirty million dollars annually. Woodside countered in May with twenty million dollars cash plus twenty homes over ten years and four hundred thousand dollars annually.
NYFL formally opposes Browse approval
NYFL chief executive Sean Paul Stephens said the organisation formally asked government not to approve Woodside's Browse bid while negotiations remained at an impasse.
Woodside acknowledges evolved standards
Woodside said it was proud of its long-standing relationship with NYFL and acknowledged that expectations and standards for agreements with Aboriginal communities have evolved significantly since nineteen ninety-eight.
Life expectancy gap reveals broken system
Sean Paul Stephens said life expectancy for First Nations men in the Pilbara is almost thirty years less than non-Indigenous people, showing the system is broken.
“The life expectancy for First Nations men in the Pilbara is almost 30 years less than a non-Indigenous person like myself, and that tells us that the system is broken.”
Browse awaits approval for fifty billion dollar project
Woodside awaits permission to develop Australia's largest undeveloped gas reserve in the Kimberley's Browse Basin.
Here's the gist
Traditional owners partnered with Woodside for nearly 30 years have publicly opposed the company's Browse Basin expansion, citing a confidential 1998 land access deal they say needs modernising before any new project proceeds.
