Catholic Diocese of Broome

Office of Justice, Ecology and Peace

– Resources of the Kimberley

By Br Shane Wood, CFC, Co-ordinator

We are all well aware of the untold wealth of resources that are currently sustaining the economic boom of both Western Australia and indeed the nation. The flow-on effects are not so well publicized, but are being felt at the lower end of the economic scale in our cities and towns.

Once Governments obtain a taste for the easy money that can be had from encouraging investment in resources, and once they become largely dependent upon that income, it is sometimes difficult to convince them that this might not be the ‘jar of oil and the measure of meal’ ( I Kings 17:14-16) that will continue to replenish itself forever. There needs to be a sizeable investment in the future for when the resources run out or there is a downturn in the commodity markets and the returns diminish. The best investment to make is in the families and young people of our State. I am not sure that we have seen this investment in the recent budgets at Sate or Federal levels.

As far as the Kimberley is concerned, we are running the risk of placing our eggs in the same basket of reliance on resource extraction to keep us going. To this point, at the local levels we have seen a drain on the most valuable resource we have, our young people, who are lured away from further education and training to participate in the prospect of becoming wealthy quickly through employment in the resources industry. We have seen our local housing stocks and local infrastructure neglected and run down. We have seen our land taken over by already wealthy developers for large energy inefficient tourist resorts and housing.

At the same time, our lower end of the market tourists cannot find accommodation because the caravan parks are occupied by permanent residents with nowhere else to go and our cheaper motels and hotels are either taken up with permanent bookings from resource companies or are being taken over by resort owners for their staff to live in. Meanwhile, the long-term residents, both indigenous and non-indigenous struggle to find a place to live.

Onto the scene come those wishing to extract oil, gas and uranium from the Kimberley waters and land, promising as they always do, that the local community will obtain extraordinary benefits in the short term in exchange for allowing this violent assault on the sea and landscape of the Kimberley. For once there has been a strong alliance formed between parts of the tourism industry, the local indigenous traditional owners, environmental organizations and many in the general public in resistance to an open arms welcome to these overtures. In the current circumstances, when much of what locals and tourists alike have come to value more and more as pristine and worthy of preservation is coming under greater pressure, it seems to me to be wise to take our time and to try to cut through the technical jargon, the smoke screen of ‘commercial in confidence’ responses and promises that the economic benefits will ‘trickle down’ to those who need the most help. We’ve heard it all before. It is time for those who claim to be green to also come clean.

In the meantime, the locals deserve a better deal from our political leaders.

Some time ago the Federal Member for the Kimberley, Barry Haase, was boasting about the low unemployment numbers in the electorate. I sent off an email asking three simple questions: