Media release: Multiple arrests in major police operation at Disrupt Burrup Hub rally at Woodside HQ as WA breaks global heat records while PM and cabinet visit Perth
Tuesday 20 February 11am AWST
For immediate release
Multiple people have been arrested amid a significant police operation at a Disrupt Burrup Hub rally to Ban Browse Gas outside Woodside corporate headquarters in Perth this morning as a record heatwave in WA breaks global temperature records while the Federal Cabinet and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visit Perth.
Hundreds of Disrupt Burrup Hub campaigners descended on Woodside from 9am amid a sea of drummers, placards and speeches from politicians and campaigners opposed to Woodside’s Browse Gas expansion of the Burrup Hub in WA’s Pilbara region.
A sit-in outside Woodside subsequently blocked traffic as dozens of police hauled campaigners off the road, including school children and the elderly, and issued move-on notices and arrested a number of campaigners.
It comes a week after Woodside launched Supreme Court proceedings against multiple Disrupt Burrup Hub campaigners for damages following a previous protest at Woodside HQ that safely evacuated more than 2000 workers on June 1 2023, and days after Woodside were awarded more than $9,000 in costs against Disrupt Burrup Hub punk Trent Rojahn, who spray painted the entire building using a fire extinguisher in February 2023.
Mr Rojahn spoke at the rally outside Woodside this morning along with Greens MLC Brad Pettitt, social justice activist Megan Krakouer and Deputy Chair of the Deaths in Custody Watch Committee Desmond Blurton.
Sarah English, a Disrupt Burrup Hub campaigner, said in her speech at the rally:
“Browse Gas will be one of Australia’s biggest climate polluters, releasing 6 billion tonnes of emissions by 2070 as part of Woodside’s Burrup Hub. Woodside wants to drill 50 wells in and around Scott Reef, which is a sanctuary for turtles, whales, and dugongs.
We're already experiencing climate impacts like more frequent floods, fires, and heatwaves. Now, experts are saying we should name our heatwaves, so people know how deadly they are. Woodside Chairman Richard Goyder can have naming rights for the next climate disaster, and so can CEO Meg O’Neill, so when Heatwave Meg hits we can all say Meg screwed us over.
When the system is unjust, the only just response is to challenge it. The most powerful form of non-compliance is non-violent direct action. It’s how historical and recent campaigns have been won – and it’s how we’re finally going to stop Woodside.”
Deputy Chair of the Deaths in Custody Watch Committee and Disrupt Burrup Hub campaigner Desmond Blurton said in his speech:
“Last week I was up in Geraldton, where it was 46 degrees! On Sunday this weekend, it was 49 degrees! WA is the hottest place in the world so far this year. I said while I was up in Geraldton - this is not global warming - this is global boiling!
Woodside’s Burrup Hub is the biggest fossil fuel project in the country. It’s the most polluting project in the whole Southern Hemisphere. It will emit 6 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions in the next 50 years. It is causing these record heatwaves. It is causing the bushfires that burn through our tribal lands and destroy precious animal habitats on our boodja. It is burning up the Pilbara.
Woodside are the reason our tribal lands are burning up. Woodside are the reason our children won’t have a future. Woodside are the reason that WA police are siding with climate criminals against peaceful protest. And Woodside need to pay to clean up their mess.”
Greens MLC Brad Pettitt spoke at the rally and said:
“While it might not be surprising that Woodside is operating as a self interested, profit focused climate destroying company, what should surprise us and make us angry is that the WA Government is bending over to enable this. It’s weakening the EPA, fast tracking approvals and clamping down on climate protests. It’s state capture fed by revolving doors and spineless political leadership.”
ENDS
