Disrupt Burrup Hub has been accused of weaponising children, following a protest at Woodside’s Annual General Meeting on April 17.
Emma, Tom and Nell, two young people and a young mother, respectively, stood up during the corporation’s AGM and called out Woodside Chair Richard Goyder and CEO Meg O’Neill’s children to highlight the enormous cost of the corporation’s decisions on future generations.
The West Australian claimed to be speaking on behalf of most arguing that O’Neill was correct to say she was “fair game”, but her family had a right to privacy.
The West Australian and O’Neill have long painted Woodside as “victims” of “intimidating” climate protesters.
Last year, a protest at O’Neill’s house was intercepted by the State Security Investigation Group of the WA Police.
Following this, climate activist Matilda Lane-Rose became the subject of an infantilising depiction by The West Australian, that culminated in it stating she had been “groomed” by another activist, a claim that was easily disproved.
The establishment media like to rob young people of their autonomy and political choices: the claim that youth are being corrupted by climate activists is nonsense.
Young people are the victims of today’s fossil capitalism and they have every right to voice their opposition to massive fossil fuel projects, such as Woodside’s Browse Basin expansion.
“I really hope that Meg O’Neill does not want their child, Chase, to inherit the world that we will be inheriting if [Woodside’s] Burrup Hub goes ahead,” Emma said in an interview posted to Disrupt Burrup Hub’s Instagram.
Heynick’s motives are clear: she is a young person and can see very clearly the effects that the destructive quest for infinite growth on a finite planet will have.
It is important to amplify the voices of those most affected by climate catastrophe, and those include young people.
Woodside’s own shareholders also have doubts in the company’s climate plan, as a majority voted at the AGM to reject it.