News

Robin Chapple MLC, Greens WA spokesperson for the Mining and Pastoral Region, today condemned the Grylls-Barnett decision to hand over the right to develop 13,400 hectares of prime Ord-East Kimberley Expansion Project land to Kimberley Agricultural Investment, an Australian company wholly owned by the Chinese real estate company Shanghai Zhongfu.

“This is a curious decision, not least because Shanghai Zhongfu is a construction and real estate company, with no experience in agricultural ventures,” Mr Chapple said.

Greens Member for the Mining and Pastoral Region Robin Chapple MLC has been saddened by the findings of the Lillilwan Report into the effects of excessive alcohol consumption by pregnant Aboriginal women on their unborn children.

The report into foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) was compiled after a comprehensive study of Fitzroy Valley residents, in the Kimberley region of WA, and will be released later this month.

“I look forward to considering the report in its entirety once it is published later this month,” Mr Chapple said.

In today’s West Australian Western Power chief executive Paul Italiano accused households with solar panels of shirking their responsibility for network maintenance costs.

Mr Italiano said households with photovoltaic cells drew less energy from the grid and so had lower electricity bills despite requiring the same level of service as people without solar panels and that this ‘imbalance’ would have to be met by charging customers without solar panels more.

The Barnett/Grylls government say the state should have 15 to 20 local metropolitan councils, compared to the current 30.

We propose an alternative to forced amalgamations, that of regional service delivery and appropriate local representation. This process would see groups of local governments establishing joint provision of technical and specialist services to achieve economies of scale.

Larger councils become less representative of the communities they serve.

Melbourne firm Phoenix Energy have lodged their application to the EPA to build a $400 million, 60MW waste-to-energy plant in Kwinana. The project is backed by prominent WA business woman Janet Holmes a Court and Japanese firm Mitsubishi.

The plant will require around 300,000 tonnes of municipal waste per year to produce electricity.

Australian Greens Senator for Western Australia Scott Ludlam, Greens WA MLC Robin Chapple.

WA Greens have welcomed the opening of the nation’s first utility-scale solar farm, using the occasion to urge the Federal Government to keep its ambitious renewable energy target despite attacks from Premier Colin Barnett and corporate rivals from the coal and gas sector.

Robin Chapple calls on Norman Moore, Minister for Mines to instigate a full-scale public enquiry into BHP Billiton’s Perseverance Underground Mine after yet another major mine safety incident yesterday.

On late Sunday morning a seismic event at the Perseverance Underground Mine resulted in a rock fall. All 79 employees were safely evacuated, despite a power outage disrupting the evacuation process.

Lynas has now submitted an application to the regulator, the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA), to import radioactive waste from Malaysia,” an Australian High Commission spokesman told The Malaysian Insider today.

This revelation beggars belief as just a few days ago a two-year temporary licence to operate was granted to Lynas, who intend to ship radioactive ores through Fremantle Port to export them to their plant in Malaysia, now seem to be asserting that they should be able to import the wastes of those ores back onto Australian soil.

A new round of grants to boost Western Australia’s mining exploration investment was announced today by Mines and Petroleum Minister Norman Moore during the opening of the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies’ (AMEC) Convention 2012.

This was announced in a media release today which also stated that more than $27 million in grants for exploration drilling projects had been allocated since 2009 and that by 2016 this State Government will have provided more than $138 million to explorers as part of the program.