“Outrageous” House Arrest for Woodside evacuation accused charged with Doing an Act Creating a False Belief after safely sounding alarm about Burrup Hub gas

Evacuated Woodside workers. Photo credit: The West Australian.

Disrupt Burrup Hub campaigner Kristen Morrissey faced a Perth court this morning and was bailed on house arrest charged with one count of Doing an Act to create a False Belief. 

It comes after Ms Morrisey safely evacuated the headquarters of gas company Woodside yesterday with a hoax “gas leak” using harmless, non-toxic ethyl mercaptan “stench gas”, normally used to sound the alarm about industrial emergencies.

Disrupt Burrup Hub’s use of harmless ethyl mercaptan stench gas to safely evacuate thousand of workers Woodside corporate headquarters headquarters yesterday came less than a week after Woodside endangered their own workers in an unplanned explosion at the Pluto gas facility at the Burrup Hub, leading to confirmed reports of multiple injuries.

Ms Morrissey had been denied bail and held overnight at Perth Police Centre to face Perth Magistrates Court this morning, where police strenuously opposed bail seeking to remand Ms Morrissey until her next hearing.

In adjourning the matter until June 13, Magistrate Tavener also noted that police provided insufficient information regarding any potential risk from the non-toxic ethyl mercaptan stench gas to inform his decision regarding potential imprisonment.

In placing Ms Morrissey under house arrest, Magistrate Kevin Tanever noted that Ms Morrissey’s “motives for protest are such that bail conditions may not stop her.”

“She obviously has a very strong belief in her cause and with such beliefs it is difficult to place conditions,” Magistrate Tavener said.

Appearing for Ms Morrissey, defence barrister Zarah Burgess said:

“There is no evidence that police were able to put before the court today that there were any adverse effects on any of those 2500 people who were evacuated from the Woodside building,”

“Ms Morrissey is clearly an intelligent, capable person with strong pro-social tendencies.”

Human Rights Watch Australia researcher Sophie McNeill said today: 

“This is an outrageous move. House arrest should be reserved for individuals who pose a serious risk to the community, not for a peaceful climate activist. 

“Ms Morrissey has not yet been found guilty of any offence. This order is a pre-emptive punishment which is excessive and disproportionate. 

“Under international law, detention before trial should be used only to the extent it is lawful, reasonable, and necessary. 

“I’m concerned this decision is politically motivated and is another example of the criminalisation of climate protest in Australia.“

Kristen Morrissey, who used non-toxic stench gas and yellow smoke plumes to safely evacuate Woodside’s Perth headquarters yesterday, said after her court appearance this morning: 

“I used safe, harmless “stench gas” yesterday to sound the alarm about Woodside’s Burrup Hub gas emergency yesterday - but the destructive danger posed by the gas from Woodside’s Burrup Hub is no hoax.”

“All Woodside workers were safely evacuated by Disrupt Burrup Hub yesterday, in stark contrast to Woodside’s activities at the Burrup Hub where a large explosion last week at their Pluto gas plant injured their own workers and led to a Worksafe investigation.”

“Faking a gas leak using harmless, non-toxic ethyl mercaptan, or stench gas, serves as a potent warning of the dangers of gas from Woodside’s Burrup Hub to our culture and climate, and even to Woodside’s own workers.”

“Disrupt Burrup Hub will continue to safely sound the alarm about the dishonesty of the false claims by the WA government about Woodside’s Burrup Hub, already causing permanent damage to ancient, sacred Murujuga rock art and emitting 6 billion tons of CO2 over its lifetime. The leaks don’t stop here.“

The Burrup Peninsula in Western Australia is known as Murujuga to traditional custodians, a deeply sacred place that contains the largest, oldest collection of Aboriginal rock art in the world. This priceless cultural treasure is currently nominated for UNESCO world heritage listing, but the sacred songlines and stories contained in these carvings are being damaged by emissions from the Burrup Hub and face total destruction within decades. Woodside has previously been responsible for the destruction of around 5,000 sacred rock art sites in the construction of earlier parts of its Burrup Hub mega-project, including the Karratha Gas Plant and Pluto LNG processing facility.

Woodside's Burrup Hub is the biggest new fossil fuel project in Australia. It consists of the Scarborough and Browse Basin gas fields, the Pluto Project processing plant, and other linked liquified natural gas (LNG) and fertiliser plants on the Burrup Peninsula in WA’s remote north-west Pilbara region. The Burrup Hub is projected to produce more than 6 billion tons of CO2 by 2070, making it four times larger than the Adani coal mine and one of the biggest carbon bombs in the world.

On January 19, Joana Partyka, a ceramic artist and illustrator from Perth, sprayed the Woodside logo in yellow paint on the colonial masterpiece ‘Down on His Luck’ at the Art Gallery of WA. The protest was subsequently endorsed by most descendants of ‘Down on His Luck’ painter Frederick McCubbin. On February 13, punk musician Trent Rojahn coated the Woodside building with a fire extinguisher full of high-pressure yellow paint and sprayed the slogan ‘Disrupt Burrup Hub’ across the glass at the entrance to Woodside’s corporate headquarters. On Tuesday February 21, graphic designer and mum of two Tahlia Stolarski sprayed the Woodside logo six times in yellow paint on the front doors of WA Parliament.

On April 28, Gerard Mazza and Tahlia Stolarski were charged with Aggravated Burglary ting to evacuate the Woodside AGM in Perth using harmless stench gas and smoke flares. On May 3, environmental activist Violet CoCo, the first person jailed under repressive new police powers legislation in New South Wales, sprayed the Woodside logo in yellow paint on the front of the Perth Police Centre in protest at the escalating police crackdown on climate protest in Western Australia.