Cook flags concerns about activists hijacking Indigenous heritage
The revelations about the EDO’s conduct have also prompted calls for greater clarity around the sources of the organisation’s foreign funding
The Premier of Australia’s biggest export state has expressed his concerns about Indigenous culture being manipulated to suit anti-development agendas, after revelations about the conduct of the Environmental Defenders Office and its consultants during a legal challenge against oil and gas company Santos.
West Australian Premier Roger Cook on Wednesday said he believed there were instances where Indigenous heritage was being hijacked to try to stop major projects.
“That is really worrying, and we don’t want to see any manipulation of the self-determination of First Nations people being undertaken in order to progress someone else’s agenda,“ he said.
The comments followed The Australian’s publication of new details about the steps academic, legal and activist figures took as part of their efforts to scuttle Santos’ $5.8bn Barossa gas project in the Timor Sea. Federal Court judge Natalie Charlesworth threw out a challenge against Barossa amid concerns about the “lack of integrity” and the scientific method used by academics who prepared evidence for the EDO, and is set to announce shortly whether the EDO will have to cover Santos’ multimillion-dollar legal bill.
The Barossa case focused on the potential impact of the project’s gas pipeline on songlines associated with the Ampiji, or mother serpent, and Jirakupai, or crocodile man.
Songlines have also been cited in a legal challenge in Western Australia against Woodside Energy’s $16.5bn Scarborough gas project, while Regis Resources’ $1bn McPhillamys gold mine near Blayney in NSW was blocked by Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek after she agreed that a tailings dam would affect a disputed blue-banded bee songline.
Mr Cook said he was yet to make a decision about the state government’s support for the EDO, which runs off government grants and donations from Australia and overseas.
“It’s important that in the environmental approval process that all voices are heard, and the Environmental Defenders Office is responsible for making sure that perhaps some voices that otherwise wouldn’t be heard, do get an opportunity to influence the process,” he said.
“But what you’ve seen is some situations where, clearly, people are utilising the traditional owner agreement process as a way to frustrate or thwart a particular environmental approval process.”
The revelations from the Santos case also saw the opposition call for clarity around the sources of the foreign funding that have helped bankroll the EDO.
Opposition resources spokeswoman Susan Macdonald said the government needed to ensure there had been no foreign interference in the EDO. “It was two British elections ago that it was found that there was Russian funding of the anti-fracking campaign as part of that election. And in hindsight, it was a clear pathway to destabilising that country’s energy security,” she said.
Asked in the Senate by Senator Macdonald about the EDO revelations and the origins of the organisation’s overseas funding, Penny Wong said Australia had “very robust” systems against foreign interference.
“I would trust the legal system in Australia to make sure that any evidence that was fabricated … to the extent that or in the way that you have described, that a court would have the capacity to recognise that, and that would be something the judge will want to have regard to,” Senator Wong said.
A spokesman for the EDO said the group complied with all the regulatory requirements that apply to charities in Australia.
Industry groups expressed their anger about the latest revelations from the Santos case.
Australian Energy Producers chief executive Samantha McCulloch said the documents showed the need for a halt to taxpayer funding of the EDO. “It is unacceptable that the EDO continues to receive $2m a year in taxpayer funds from the federal government to disrupt and delay critical energy projects,” she said.
Association of Mining and Exploration Companies chief executive Warren Pearce said the latest details about the EDO’s handling of the case were “shameful”.
“These publicly funded groups have been essentially doctoring evidence before the courts to build a case,” he said.
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