The environmental group Disrupt Burrup Hub (DBH) said a recent legal win against fossil fuel giant Woodside shows that corporate power can be curtailed.
Kristen Morrissey, Joana Partyka and Emil Davey, three members of DBH who had been sentenced over a peaceful “stink bomb” protest at the company’s headquarters in June 2023, avoided jail time on July 2.
Morrissey was given an 11-month prison sentence, which was suspended for 18 months; Partyka received a seven-month sentence, suspended for 12 months, and Davey was placed on a community-based order.
Woodside then opened a civil case against the group in the Supreme Court, seeking information on other activists who had been involved in planning the protest. But on July 23, WA Supreme Court Justice Matthew Howard rejected Woodside’s demand for information about the activists. Howard said Woodside’s “evidence and submissions do not rise above mere conjecture and or speculation”.
Howard said after Woodside demanded access to documents revealing the identities of activists that WA Police had thoroughly investigated the 2023 case and the identities of others involved in the action were already known. He said that Woodside’s application would, if granted, “involve a very serious invasion of privacy and confidentiality, and should only be made as required by the interests of justice”.
For Partyka, one of the “DBH three”, the ruling was a late, but positive, step.
“It’s been three long years of having this legal threat hang over my head. I won’t lie — it’s been stressful. But … not once have I wished that I’d done anything differently in terms of my activism and standing up for what I believe in.”
Partyka added that a crucial part of the Supreme Court ruling had been Howard’s delineation of Woodside’s application as being “part of [the company’s] broader response to discourage protests against its projects.”
“It’s very clear that Woodside is seeking to intimidate, silence and bully us for daring to call attention to their activities, which are destroying climate, climate, Country and our futures.
“I feel vindicated by the court’s dismissal of Woodside’s application. The Supreme Court Justice ... pretty much said exactly what we’d been saying all along: That this was designed from the outset to discourage protests against their destructive, dangerous greed.”
DBH was established to protest Woodside’s plans to exploit the Scarborough and Browse gas fields, located in the Burrup Peninsula in the Pilbara region. The gas fields fall within Murujuga, which has special significance for First Nations people in the Pilbara. It is home to the world’s largest collection of ancient rock art or petroglyphs, that are estimated to be between 40,000 to 50,000 years old.
Environment and First Nations activists have drawn attention to Woodside’s destruction of around 5000 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.
Murujuga’s rock art, nominated to be listed as part of UNESCO World Heritage, has already been damaged by emissions from the Burrup Hub. Its destruction means the end of carvings which comprise an archive of sacred songlines and stories.
These were the motivations behind DBH activists’ action at Woodside’s HQ. Partyka said their goal was to highlight “the activities of Woodside and the destruction they’re inflicting on climate and culture”, something she thinks they did “very effectively”.
They not only managed to evacuate Woodside's headquarters, but “the fact that we’re still talking about the action more than three years later — and using it as a vehicle for our anti-Woodside message … [means] … we got real bang for our buck.”
Partyka said the Supreme Court ruling vindicates the right to pursue peaceful protest without legal repression.
“Woodside is a multi-billion-dollar corporation that is no doubt used to getting what it wants, and they’ve been completely humiliated on such a public stage,” Partyka said. “It’s extremely satisfying and should serve as a warning to corporations and other powerful entities to think twice before abusing the legal system to stifle protest and free expression.”
[For more information visit Disrupt Burrup Hub.]