Kimberley gas plant protesters ‘left nothing’ for people

THE Aboriginal leader who backed a $40 billion gas plant in the Kimberley as a way of creating indigenous jobs has attacked “extreme nutter” environmentalists who he says derailed the plan but have since done nothing to help the region’s impoverished people.

Wayne Bergmann, a businessman and former head of the Kimberley Land Council, told an oil and gas conference in Perth yesterday that suicide rates and unemployment were rising in the Kimberley due to a paucity of jobs, especially for younger people.

Telstra director Geoff Cousins and singers Missy Higgins and John Butler were among those who opposed the use of James Price Point, 60km north of Broome as the site for the Woodside Petroleum project.

The high-profile campaigners joined green groups in arguing against industrialisation of the remote Kimberley region, which boasts some of the world’s most spectacular wilderness areas.

Woodside abandoned its plan in 2012 and walked away from a deal with the KLC to pay $1.5bn in benefits to Kimberley indigenous groups over 30 years in exchange for use of the land at James Price Point.

The company is instead planning to build the plant to process its Browse Basin gas reserves off the Kimberley coast using floating LNG technology.

This means that only a fraction of the employment, health and education benefits promised to Aborigines will be delivered.

Mr Bergmann, who lives in Broome, yesterday said the environmentalists had left the Kimberley and their legacy was “destroying any opportunities” for Aboriginal people.

“Geoffrey Cousins is still living in his house in Sydney — he hasn’t left anything back in our region.

People on the left make all sorts of noise about the problems of poverty and the problems of indigenous peoples - but then oppose one of the best way for these people to get out of poverty. By being allowed to exploit what they own, to go into partnerships with big business to get the money to rebuild their own communities, and not coincidentally also create real jobs for the people living in them, so they can make their own way rather than rely on handouts.

Unfortunately like most articles from The Australian this one is behind a paywall and I've shared as much of it as I can, but the second part of the article tells us about Mr Bergmann's attempts to start a maritime company where 51% of the company will be in indigenous hands, in another partnership with big business. That new company is being attacked by a Union ostensibly because they are worried Aboriginal workers will be exploited - the facts are that the workers are going to be paid at least 20% and potentially as much as 220% above the minimum legal rate for the work they are doing. Once again, the left trying to derail real opportunity for indigenous people, while making all the politically correct noises they can.

Many if not most "environmentalists" want the human race wiped off the face of the earth (themselves not included, of course).

The last thing they want to do is help "indigenous peoples" lift themselves out of poverty. If that happened, they might start reproducing faster.

THE Aboriginal leader who backed a $40 billion gas plant in the Kimberley as a way of creating indigenous jobs has attacked “extreme nutter” environmentalists who he says derailed the plan but have since done nothing to help the region’s impoverished people.

They do not care about indigenous people, or any others for that matter..............

The Aboriginal leader who backed a $40 billion gas plant in the Kimberley as a way of creating indigenous jobs has attacked "extreme nutter" environmentalists who he says derailed the plan but have since done nothing to help the region's impoverished people.

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