WEBVTT - The Texas oil man planning to frack the Kimberley 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:09.840 I'm Nicole Johnston and you're listening to seven AM. A 0:00:09.920 --> 0:00:14.240 battle's brewing in Western Australia's unique Kimberly region. Beneath its 0:00:14.320 --> 0:00:18.239 red dirt is a vast reservoir of onshore gas. Now 0:00:18.280 --> 0:00:21.360 an oil tycoon from Texas wants to get it out. 0:00:22.120 --> 0:00:25.239 The Kimberlee is at the center of a controversial proposal 0:00:25.440 --> 0:00:30.040 called Project Valhalla, to drill fracking wells across it. The 0:00:30.040 --> 0:00:34.159 community is divided, somewhat the royalties, others want to protect 0:00:34.240 --> 0:00:40.599 the region's biodiversity and cultural significance. Today journalist Katherine Wilson 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:44.239 on the fight over fracking in the Kimberley and the 0:00:44.280 --> 0:00:57.160 company trying to push it through. It's Monday, April sixth Kath, 0:00:57.240 --> 0:00:59.880 Could you start off by taking us to the Kimberly 0:01:00.200 --> 0:01:02.920 tell us about the place and why this idea of 0:01:03.000 --> 0:01:07.160 fracking is so confronting for so many people there. 0:01:07.319 --> 0:01:07.520 Yeah. 0:01:07.680 --> 0:01:12.440 So, the Kimberly region is renowned as the largest and 0:01:12.600 --> 0:01:17.800 most intact tropical savannah in the world. This is an 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:21.520 area three times the size of England and almost half 0:01:21.600 --> 0:01:27.080 its residents are First Nations and this is important because 0:01:27.120 --> 0:01:31.760 there's an incredible intact culture with many traditional owner groups 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:37.280 and their cultural practices have been intact for millennia, and 0:01:37.319 --> 0:01:41.480 the Kimberly catchment includes the Mattawara Fitzroy River. 0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:43.800 One traditional owner. 0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:46.600 I spoke with describes the river as a life vane 0:01:47.040 --> 0:01:50.680 where generations hunt and fish and she told me it's 0:01:50.800 --> 0:01:54.320 how our ancestors live back in the day. We still 0:01:54.400 --> 0:01:59.960 do that today. And other traditional custodian Albert Wiggan described 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:02.200 the region as a garden of Eden. 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:06.120 It's quite simple. There's nowhere else like it on the planet. Literally, 0:02:06.240 --> 0:02:08.840 there is no place like the Kimbles on the planet. 0:02:08.880 --> 0:02:12.760 And he described the song lines here as a kind 0:02:12.880 --> 0:02:17.040 of mapping flowing with the Fitzroy River and its tributaries 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:20.960 and also its water holes and underground aquifers. 0:02:21.360 --> 0:02:25.519 As indigenous people in the Kimbleis, we've always revered water 0:02:25.560 --> 0:02:27.560 as being the source of creation. 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:30.720 There's no other place like it on the planet, with 0:02:31.000 --> 0:02:33.920 not a single extinct local species. 0:02:34.800 --> 0:02:37.720 And can you explain for us exactly what fracking is 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:39.440 in really simple terms? 0:02:39.480 --> 0:02:40.440 What does it involve? 0:02:40.800 --> 0:02:45.680 So fracking involves rigs that drill down between two and 0:02:45.800 --> 0:02:50.720 five kilometers into the rock and then forces megaleters of 0:02:50.760 --> 0:02:55.760 water and sand and chemicals under high pressure into the 0:02:55.880 --> 0:02:57.680 rock layers to fracture them. 0:02:58.040 --> 0:03:00.400 So this allows many gases to be. 0:03:00.400 --> 0:03:05.320 Collected, and it also involves millions of liters of contaminated 0:03:05.360 --> 0:03:09.200 wastewater to be managed on the land and in this 0:03:09.280 --> 0:03:13.960 case near important tributaries of the Fitzroy River system. So 0:03:14.040 --> 0:03:20.200 what's been proposed is an exploration project of initially twenty wells, 0:03:21.120 --> 0:03:24.320 possibly with a view of up to forty thousand wells 0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:30.639 in future. But these initial twenty wells are called Project Valhalla, 0:03:31.639 --> 0:03:35.920 and Project Valhalla covers an area roughly the size of Tasmania, 0:03:36.040 --> 0:03:40.280 and it covers the Fitzroy River catchment in the Canning Basin, 0:03:41.200 --> 0:03:45.080 which apparently has one of the world's last undeveloped large 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:49.200 scale reservoirs of onshore gas. And it will also involve 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:53.400 other infrastructure you know in kind of pristine country, like roads, 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:58.280 processing plants, a pipeline and wastewater treatment and so on. 0:03:58.800 --> 0:04:03.480 Now, cath fraks been banned in Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia, 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:06.000 and it used to be banned in WA as well, 0:04:06.640 --> 0:04:08.000 So why was that overturned. 0:04:08.280 --> 0:04:12.400 Yeah, fracking was banned in Western Australia after a state 0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:18.000 inquiry in twenty and seventeen found the economic benefits were 0:04:18.000 --> 0:04:24.000 slight and it found the environmental risks were beyond regulatory scope, 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:25.880 but that ban was lifted. 0:04:25.920 --> 0:04:27.920 In twenty nineteen. 0:04:27.800 --> 0:04:31.800 The WA government decided to lift a moratorium on fracking 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:35.839 after an independent scientific inquiry declared the practice safe. 0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:41.320 The West Australian government has said that it only opened 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:44.039 up about two percent of the state to fracking, but 0:04:45.160 --> 0:04:49.320 frac three advocates say this is disingenuous because most of 0:04:49.360 --> 0:04:53.640 the state can't be fracked anyway, and the Project Valhalla 0:04:53.760 --> 0:04:56.960 itself covers roughly two percent of the state. 0:04:57.680 --> 0:05:01.280 Kath what's been the reaction from people in Kimberly about this? 0:05:01.400 --> 0:05:02.200 What are you hearing? 0:05:02.480 --> 0:05:06.480 The resistance to cracking is very widespread and it seems 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:11.440 to cross all ideological lines, and there are various surveys 0:05:11.480 --> 0:05:14.240 of residents' attitudes to cracking. 0:05:14.440 --> 0:05:16.880 And these show that an overwhelming. 0:05:16.279 --> 0:05:20.440 Majority of Western Australians oppose it. And the bodies opposing 0:05:20.480 --> 0:05:24.760 it include Environs Kimberly, whose director explained to me how 0:05:24.800 --> 0:05:29.120 residents have been defending the Kimberly from mining since colonization. 0:05:30.000 --> 0:05:34.000 Several indigenous land councils and farmer alliances like Lock the 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:38.240 Gate and from the First Nation groups voices for Kimberly. 0:05:39.200 --> 0:05:43.400 One traditional owner, Albert Wiggin, told me that there's anxiety 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:45.479 and mistrust and genuine. 0:05:45.040 --> 0:05:49.400 Fear in Western Australia. There's such a mining orientated state, 0:05:50.160 --> 0:05:52.720 you know, and it has such a significant input into 0:05:52.720 --> 0:05:56.120 our national economy, and so it has a lot of 0:05:56.160 --> 0:06:01.120 influence and power, so to speak, industry and when it 0:06:01.160 --> 0:06:04.279 comes to what the future of Western Australia is going 0:06:04.320 --> 0:06:04.920 to look like. 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:05.200 And. 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:11.640 You know, for Indigenous people, I don't think our aspirations 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:13.680 are necessarily on the cards as well. 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:17.320 And so but still, Project vel Hella has. 0:06:17.200 --> 0:06:21.480 Secured land agreements with a couple of Indigenous communities and 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:26.719 this influenced the EPA decision. Other Aboriginal communities in the 0:06:26.800 --> 0:06:32.520 lease area oppose Project vel Heller, especially downstream communities who 0:06:32.600 --> 0:06:36.919 say they haven't been consulted. And Albert Wiggin told me 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:41.440 about the impacts to downstream communities beyond health and environmental risks. 0:06:41.440 --> 0:06:45.160 He said song lines would be disrupted and so would 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:48.719 access for some of the traditional owners. He calls Project 0:06:48.800 --> 0:06:51.120 vel Haller the end of my people. 0:06:51.160 --> 0:06:53.960 Really, it kind of defines that the end of my 0:06:54.080 --> 0:06:58.320 people and their ongoing connection, their ongoing relationship with this 0:06:58.480 --> 0:06:59.600 incredible environment. 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:03.040 So as you can imagine Nicole. 0:07:03.120 --> 0:07:06.839 This has caused a split among First nation groups and 0:07:06.960 --> 0:07:12.240 also within families. Albert says some traditional owners are vulnerable 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:16.800 to being exploited by promises of fracking royalties because they 0:07:16.840 --> 0:07:20.480 need the financial support that the company. 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:22.720 Is offering them in return for agreement. 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:28.640 Coming up the Texan oil man with the Kimberly in 0:07:28.680 --> 0:07:38.040 his sights, Kath, could you tell us about the company 0:07:38.280 --> 0:07:41.239 that is actually behind this project, Black Mountain. 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:46.880 Yes, so, Black Mountain is the company behind Project Valhalla. 0:07:47.240 --> 0:07:51.120 It's founded and chaired by Ritt Bennett, who is a 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:54.080 Texan oilman in his mid forties who comes from a 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:55.640 Kentucky coal family. 0:07:56.040 --> 0:08:00.840 Originally from Kentucky, I grew up in coal country, so 0:08:01.280 --> 0:08:04.640 different part of kind of post fuels. But my family 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:09.160 had had continuous coal mining operations since nineteen twelve. 0:08:09.240 --> 0:08:14.720 So when the state lifted its fracking band, he bought 0:08:14.880 --> 0:08:18.160 an exploration permit over the Canning basin. 0:08:18.440 --> 0:08:21.880 We can stand up twenty riggs and drill a boatload 0:08:21.920 --> 0:08:25.120 of all and gas wells within six months and really 0:08:25.160 --> 0:08:29.800 gross meaningful production and that responsiveness just doesn't exist the mining. 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:33.280 This seemed like a brave move because so far the 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:38.880 Kimberly community has fended off al CoA origin Mitsubishi, but 0:08:39.520 --> 0:08:43.560 Red Bennett is persistent and Black Mountain has now spent 0:08:43.640 --> 0:08:48.160 around forty million on Project Veelhaller, much of it fighting 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:53.240 through regulatory obstacles. For example, it managed to get an 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:56.120 exemption to laws forbidding export. 0:08:55.640 --> 0:08:57.120 Of inland gas. 0:08:57.800 --> 0:09:02.760 It repeatedly deferred its required meant to conduct seismic surveys. 0:09:03.480 --> 0:09:07.640 The company claimed Project Valhalla would run with net zero 0:09:07.760 --> 0:09:12.320 carbon emissions, but in twenty twenty three ACID fined it 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:16.960 for greenwashing and said its sustainability claims had no credible basis. 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:20.720 The Australian Securities and Investment Commission yesterday announced that it 0:09:20.760 --> 0:09:25.120 issued three infugement notices to Black Mountain Energy for greenwashing. 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:29.439 The finds relate to AX announcement, including one which claimed 0:09:29.559 --> 0:09:33.880 greenhouse gas emissions associated with its Valhalla project I Fitzroy 0:09:33.920 --> 0:09:35.200 Crossing were net. 0:09:35.160 --> 0:09:40.959 Zero, and then the Federal government's Independent Expert Scientific Committee 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:46.600 also found the company's claim that downstream water resources wouldn't 0:09:46.640 --> 0:09:51.240 be impacted weren't substantiated, and it also found the company 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:56.000 had not proved that vulnerable species weren't at risk. These 0:09:56.000 --> 0:10:00.400 include fish, lizards, and mammals that have huge significance to 0:10:00.600 --> 0:10:07.240 indigenous residents. And there's also Ret Bennett's eyebrow raising past 0:10:07.320 --> 0:10:10.199 comments that suggest a climate skeptic mindset. 0:10:10.559 --> 0:10:13.440 Yeah, I guess there would have been volcanoes, et cetera. 0:10:13.640 --> 0:10:16.640 Just the natural cyclicality of the Earth, which I sometimes 0:10:16.720 --> 0:10:19.640 think we're presumptuous and thing like humans are driving kind 0:10:19.679 --> 0:10:22.360 of off every kind of climate event that occurs. 0:10:22.440 --> 0:10:28.520 But after all these setbacks and regulatory roadblocks, the West 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:32.760 Australian EPA found the risks from Project val Heller were 0:10:32.880 --> 0:10:39.199 insignificant and recommended it for ministerial approval with conditions that 0:10:39.240 --> 0:10:43.040 the company is happy with. So this suggests to some 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:46.360 people that the company has friends in government. 0:10:46.920 --> 0:10:47.640 The project. 0:10:47.720 --> 0:10:50.560 It's now at this stage where it needs approval from 0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:53.360 both the federal and the WA Environment ministers. 0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:57.680 Do you think that's looking likely? It's hard to tell. 0:10:58.120 --> 0:11:02.200 There have been an unprecedented number of objections to the 0:11:02.200 --> 0:11:07.720 EPA's decision in the Kimberly community. Now that community consists 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:10.800 of only around forty thousand people, but there were more 0:11:10.840 --> 0:11:16.600 than eight thousand formal objections appealing to the EPA. Many 0:11:16.640 --> 0:11:20.679 of these objections came from outside the state, and groups 0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:24.640 like Environ's Kimberly as saying that their campaign really needs 0:11:25.040 --> 0:11:26.760 nationwide mobilization. 0:11:27.160 --> 0:11:31.319 Everyone understands how special the Kimberly is and it's completely 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:35.400 unacceptable to have industrialization through oil and gas fracking. 0:11:35.600 --> 0:11:40.240 I spoke with Environ's Kimberly director Martin Pritchard, who told 0:11:40.240 --> 0:11:44.280 me that people are absolutely aghast and that they see 0:11:44.320 --> 0:11:48.160 the Kimberly as a sacred cultural and environmental landscape and 0:11:48.200 --> 0:11:53.160 they can't understand how the EPA made this recommendation. 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:56.600 Today we've had the outrageous news that the West Australian 0:11:56.600 --> 0:12:00.800 EPA has recommended that fracking could go ahead in the Kimberley. 0:12:01.640 --> 0:12:04.560 This is the worst decision the EPA's made in years 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:05.719 in Western Australia. 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:09.000 What is it that Black Mountain is promising to the 0:12:09.040 --> 0:12:12.200 local community in return for this access. 0:12:12.320 --> 0:12:17.320 So, among other things, Black Mountain is promising a couple 0:12:17.360 --> 0:12:24.000 of traditional owner groups, possible royalties, football team sponsorship, laptops, 0:12:24.480 --> 0:12:30.760 community funding including science classes. Among people objecting, there's a 0:12:30.840 --> 0:12:34.800 strong belief that the bulk of financial benefits, though, would 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:39.400 go offshore, especially as gas said sports are being taxed 0:12:39.400 --> 0:12:45.400 in Australia. There aren't easily access details of Black Mountain 0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:50.240 employment and financial projections, but of course there would be 0:12:50.280 --> 0:12:55.280 some employment involved in fracking and building infrastructure, and locals 0:12:55.320 --> 0:12:59.480 do argue that this would be more than offset by 0:12:59.559 --> 0:13:03.480 damage to the tourism industry, which trades on the region 0:13:03.720 --> 0:13:06.520 being in a pristine state. So it's a bit tricky, 0:13:06.559 --> 0:13:10.079 and of course the damage to indigenous culture can't be 0:13:10.559 --> 0:13:14.280 quantified in financial terms. 0:13:14.400 --> 0:13:17.240 And cas do you think that the community at the 0:13:17.320 --> 0:13:20.520 end of the day can actually win the fight here 0:13:21.240 --> 0:13:23.880 or the odds really stacked against them in terms of 0:13:23.920 --> 0:13:27.160 being able to defeat an oil company and possibly even 0:13:27.200 --> 0:13:28.360 the state government on this. 0:13:29.080 --> 0:13:31.760 We'll have to wait for the appeals process to complete 0:13:31.800 --> 0:13:36.960 sometime this year to see if the state's Environment Minister, 0:13:37.000 --> 0:13:42.480 Matthew Swinburne will accept the EPA recommendation. But the interesting 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:46.120 thing about this fight is that the majority of the 0:13:46.240 --> 0:13:52.600 labor government, the state labor government itself seems to oppose fracking. 0:13:53.200 --> 0:13:57.560 The Western Australian Labor Party Conference was held in November 0:13:57.640 --> 0:14:01.760 last year, and its members vote to ban fracking, so 0:14:01.840 --> 0:14:06.600 that's really confusing and for those fighting, the next step 0:14:06.800 --> 0:14:11.560 might involve electoral pressure, with Labor having already seen damage 0:14:11.640 --> 0:14:13.200 in seats where fracking. 0:14:12.880 --> 0:14:14.119 Has become an issue. 0:14:14.520 --> 0:14:19.760 Martin Pritchard from Environs Kimberly told me the safe Labor 0:14:19.800 --> 0:14:23.520 seat of Fremantle was nearly lost last election to an 0:14:23.520 --> 0:14:27.920 independent who took up the Kimberly fracking cause. And he 0:14:28.160 --> 0:14:31.080 also warned that the Labor Party suffered the near loss 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:35.800 of its prize Kimberly seat in twenty thirteen to the Greens, 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:40.479 and this was amid the fight against Woodside's proposed gas refinery. 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:44.080 So based on past victories, it would seem a no 0:14:44.240 --> 0:14:48.160 win scenario for Black Mountain, especially as the company had 0:14:48.200 --> 0:14:52.120 to delist from the Australian Stock Exchange after failing to 0:14:52.640 --> 0:15:02.200 attract investment capital. The fracking issue and mining issues generally 0:15:02.600 --> 0:15:08.960 in Western Australia have generated the most extraordinary galvanization and 0:15:09.080 --> 0:15:13.920 mobilization across the country. Most of those objections to the 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:16.920 EPA didn't come from the Kimberley itself. It came from 0:15:16.920 --> 0:15:21.080 outside West Australia and Australia wide, so I think this 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:27.640 is really quite an extraordinary story of grassroots mobilization against 0:15:28.040 --> 0:15:32.240 big companies, a succession of big companies who have a 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:35.560 lot of clout and government and yet you know, still, 0:15:35.680 --> 0:15:39.120 this is an extraordinary story of people power that has 0:15:39.760 --> 0:15:43.480 seen this whole region kept in its pristine state. 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:49.760 Cath thanks so much for joining us. 0:15:50.120 --> 0:15:51.000 Thank you, Nicole. 0:16:02.360 --> 0:16:04.480 We'll be back tomorrow with an episode on the first 0:16:04.560 --> 0:16:07.920 e Safety report on the government's teen social media ban, 0:16:08.680 --> 0:16:11.840 with kids getting around it and reporting the same level 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:15.440 of online abuse. The early results are not looking good. 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:18.680 I think it's a red flashing light for the policy. 0:16:19.400 --> 0:16:22.960 It confirmed how much circumvention there is of the ban. 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:25.400 About seventy percent of them said they still had them 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:29.720 after the ban. That is very, very widespread. They said 0:16:29.720 --> 0:16:33.720 their number of reports about cyber buoying and image based 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:37.040 abuse on those platforms that have been banned from teens 0:16:37.040 --> 0:16:39.000 in the age group that were meant to be banned 0:16:39.280 --> 0:16:40.200 had not changed. 0:16:41.280 --> 0:16:43.800 So is it a failure or is the government right 0:16:43.920 --> 0:16:47.840 to ask for more patients. I'm Nicole Johnston and this 0:16:47.920 --> 0:16:48.960 is seven AM. 0:16:49.000 --> 0:16:49.800 Thanks for listening.