Tiwi islanders lob court action to halt $3.6b Santos Barossa pipeline

afr.com:

Santos may be forced to halt construction of its 262-kilometre underwater pipeline to its offshore $5.8 billion Barossa gas project if the Federal Court agrees to an injunction sought by local Indigenous groups.

The Tiwi Islands traditional owners will appear in the Darwin court on Tuesday afternoon to argue work should be paused until the federal officials assesses evidence showing the cultural heritage risks posed by the pipeline.

Tiwi traditional owners will submit to the court an expert report showing that if installed in the current proposed location, the pipeline would damage Sea Country, dreaming tracks, Songlines and areas of cultural significance.

This is the third time environmentalists and Indigenous groups have worked together to cruel efforts to build oil and gas projects, as climate activists gain traction in the courts to prevent fossil fuel developments.

Molly Munkara is a senior Jikilaruwu elder. The traditional owners want Santos to abandon a major pipeline to the Barossa gas project. 

The Environmental Defender’s Office, representing traditional owner Simon Munkara, will ask the Federal Court for an injunction to stall pipeline construction until the offshore regulator NOPSEMA has assessed the fresh evidence and Santos has submitted a new environment plan.

Mr Munkara will argue that any work on the pipeline without assessing the new evidence breaches environmental regulations.

That’s because the cultural heritage risk identified in the expert report has not been considered in Santos’ pipeline environment plan approved by offshore regulator NOPSEMA in March 2020, the court will hear.

“In this case, Mr Munkara will argue that no work on pipeline installation should commence until all the risks to Tiwi