QGC steam-roll onto private land without landowner consent
10th of Apr, 2011
Queensland Gas Company (QGC) has again been called to explain its actions after another landholder has accused the mining company of breaching its access agreement. Six Degrees spokesperson and Friends of the Earth campaigner Drew Hutton said lawyers for landowner Bryce Keating had complained that QGC had breached its agreement by clearing vegetation for a road wider than the 20 metres stated in their contract. Despite the challenge, QGC had resumed construction activities on the private land, raising the question of whether mining companies should be able to access private land when the terms of the access agreement were challenged.
In a letter to QGC written by Mr Keating's lawyer Peter Shannon on March 30, the landowner demanded QGC suspend entry to the property until a new compensation agreement was reached.
"Entry upon our clients' property will be treated as trespass," the letter stated.
Read the full text of the letter here.
At the weekend, Mr Hutton said police had "packed up and left," telling the protest group this was a "civil matter now" and QGC had stopped all work on the pipeline.
However, it is also understood a lack of police at Tara over weekend was a contributing factor to the suspension of mining activities.
According to Mr Hutton:
They (QGC) suddenly realised that, if they have breached their environmental agreement on this pipeline, then they might be similarly in breach in many other areas.
However, Mr Hutton said police returned to Tara and dismantled the blockade on Monday afternoon, forcing about 15 protesters to leave the area while QGC resumed construction activity.
Tara protester Scott Collins said, as of late Tuesday, protesters had also returned to the site and would continue to blockade the area.
Providing a conflicting account of the reason for the construction shutdown at the weekend, a QGC spokesman said work had stopped on Thursday because the sub-contractor did not have the necessary equipment to proceed and work would continue when the equipment became available.
The spokesman said QGC lawyers were liaising with Mr Keating's legal representatives.
Bryce Keating's solicitor Peter Shannon said Mr Keating supported the protesters holding a blockade on his property "as long as they did not misbehave" and his client had not yet held any meetings with QGC to discuss the issues.
Mr Shannon said the current compensation measures only considered land valuation and did not take into account the social impact of any mining activities.
He said he believed some land access agreements across Queensland needed to be renegotiated.
According to Mr Shannon:
QGC is going into Tara with jackboots when they should be more sensitive to the needs of the community.
At the moment QGC are looking like corporate thugs and they need to address their own behaviour and sense of corporate responsibility.
Bryce Keating is legitimately upset and he is convinced he is being trounced upon and bullied.
The people of Tara are being hung out to dry.
It is in the CSG industry's best interest to get this right but this is not going to be resolved if they send in the police and use whatever social influence the company has to get its way.
State MP for Southern Downs, Lawrence Springborg, also weighed into the debate this week.
He told the ABC that resource companies should not be able to enter private land until access disputes were settled by "all legal processes".
Despite ongoing difficulties with police and QGC security, coal seam gas protesters blockading Queensland Gas Company (QGC) from constructing the Tara pipeline claimed the Keating dispute was a "victory" in the latest round at the troubled development.
It is the most recent incident for the beleaguered company, which was forced to shut down its major pipeline construction between its Surat Basin gas fields and Gladstone earlier this month because some environmental plans for soil and species management had not been approved.
Further Info Links
- See photos from the Tara Blockade here.
- Daily updates on the Tara Blockade can be viewed here.
This post is based on an article which first appeared in the Queensland Country Life, on April 8th, 2011. See the original article here.
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