Latest news with #NativeTitle
Sydney Morning Herald
3 days ago
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Moving on before cleaning up: Gas wells spark fears for the Kimberley
The regulator has now listed both the well-containing leases as pending cancellation, and said it prefers sites to be decommissioned and rehabilitated before cancellation takes place, because this facilitates access arrangements. Rey Resources, which sold the subsidiary and wells but remains their operator, has no apparent use for them and ascribes little value to them; before the sale it wrote down their value from nearly $5 million to $400,000 and its latest shareholder update gives no mention of them in its text or tenements map. But rather than plan decommissioning or rehabilitation, after the government knocked back its last environmental plans for the sites, Rey Resources lodged two fresh plans for only annual inspections and maintenance. Environmental group Lock the Gate says they also contain multiple inaccuracies; they do not reference or address the 44 breaches the regulator identified in 2021 that gave rise to the recent government directions notice, instead referencing a nearly decade-old inspection. They also refer to tanks and fences that Lock the Gate says no longer exist on the sites, and security measures Lock the Gate says were also not executed. Lock the Gate also says they contain passages that are obvious remnants of older documents. DEMIRS has estimated the cost to close an abandoned gas well at $1.5 million but that was in 2021 and an easier location, leading Lock the Gate to estimate that the clean-up for these three wells could exceed $5 million given their greater number. Operator Rey Resources hopes to strike it rich from its other leases, including the huge Derby Block tenement covering King Sound and the land adjacent to the wells. Shortly before announcing the China Guoxin deal, Rey applied to clear more than 3000 kilometres of grid lines across Derby Block for seismic testing, prompting fears from Lock the Gate that it lacked either the serious intention or capabilities to safely carry out such work in this high-value location, which is also subject to floods, extreme tides and cyclones. The applications then disappeared and in March, Rey lodged a new plan for Derby Block, which the regulator says it is 'screening'. The WA government has also listed the Derby Block tenement as under 12-month suspension with an extension application lodged in September 2024 for a second year. Rey Resources recently advised investors it was 'actively contacting with Native Title holders and landowners for the land access for the proposed 3D Seismic survey' and 'working with consultant [sic] for the update of [Derby Block's] seismic environmental plan.' It remains unclear whether the department intends to issue further directions notices to China Guoxin/Gulliver Productions regarding the two other wells. Rey Resources did not respond to a request for comment. Attempts to contact China Guoxin Investment Holdings were unsuccessful. Environs Kimberley executive director Martin Pritchard said Minister for Mines and Petroleum David Michael needed to take charge before this evolved into a 'Northern Endeavour' situation, referring to the ageing disused oil vessel Woodside sold to an inexperienced company that failed and left the federal government with an enormous clean-up bill. 'We're calling on Minister Michael to explain how taxpayers will not become liable,' Pritchard said. 'Oil and gas companies appear to have free rein in the Kimberley to undertake exploration, but it looks like existing legislation is failing to ensure that industry cleans up the mess.' Lock the Gate says the government should permanently remove these tenements, which could represent the beginning of an extensive fracking industry in the region. Minister Michael said the safe, timely and responsible decommissioning of oil and gas infrastructure was a government priority. He said the complexity of ownership and operational history at particular sites often required thorough due diligence to resolve liability, which DEMIRS prioritised to ensure compliance. In March 2024, he said, DEMIRS released a new guideline outlining the requirements for decommissioning of petroleum and geothermal energy assets, including wells, in WA's onshore areas and state coastal waters.
The Age
3 days ago
- Business
- The Age
Moving on before cleaning up: Gas wells spark fears for the Kimberley
The regulator has now listed both the well-containing leases as pending cancellation, and said it prefers sites to be decommissioned and rehabilitated before cancellation takes place, because this facilitates access arrangements. Rey Resources, which sold the subsidiary and wells but remains their operator, has no apparent use for them and ascribes little value to them; before the sale it wrote down their value from nearly $5 million to $400,000 and its latest shareholder update gives no mention of them in its text or tenements map. But rather than plan decommissioning or rehabilitation, after the government knocked back its last environmental plans for the sites, Rey Resources lodged two fresh plans for only annual inspections and maintenance. Environmental group Lock the Gate says they also contain multiple inaccuracies; they do not reference or address the 44 breaches the regulator identified in 2021 that gave rise to the recent government directions notice, instead referencing a nearly decade-old inspection. They also refer to tanks and fences that Lock the Gate says no longer exist on the sites, and security measures Lock the Gate says were also not executed. Lock the Gate also says they contain passages that are obvious remnants of older documents. DEMIRS has estimated the cost to close an abandoned gas well at $1.5 million but that was in 2021 and an easier location, leading Lock the Gate to estimate that the clean-up for these three wells could exceed $5 million given their greater number. Operator Rey Resources hopes to strike it rich from its other leases, including the huge Derby Block tenement covering King Sound and the land adjacent to the wells. Shortly before announcing the China Guoxin deal, Rey applied to clear more than 3000 kilometres of grid lines across Derby Block for seismic testing, prompting fears from Lock the Gate that it lacked either the serious intention or capabilities to safely carry out such work in this high-value location, which is also subject to floods, extreme tides and cyclones. The applications then disappeared and in March, Rey lodged a new plan for Derby Block, which the regulator says it is 'screening'. The WA government has also listed the Derby Block tenement as under 12-month suspension with an extension application lodged in September 2024 for a second year. Rey Resources recently advised investors it was 'actively contacting with Native Title holders and landowners for the land access for the proposed 3D Seismic survey' and 'working with consultant [sic] for the update of [Derby Block's] seismic environmental plan.' It remains unclear whether the department intends to issue further directions notices to China Guoxin/Gulliver Productions regarding the two other wells. Rey Resources did not respond to a request for comment. Attempts to contact China Guoxin Investment Holdings were unsuccessful. Environs Kimberley executive director Martin Pritchard said Minister for Mines and Petroleum David Michael needed to take charge before this evolved into a 'Northern Endeavour' situation, referring to the ageing disused oil vessel Woodside sold to an inexperienced company that failed and left the federal government with an enormous clean-up bill. 'We're calling on Minister Michael to explain how taxpayers will not become liable,' Pritchard said. 'Oil and gas companies appear to have free rein in the Kimberley to undertake exploration, but it looks like existing legislation is failing to ensure that industry cleans up the mess.' Lock the Gate says the government should permanently remove these tenements, which could represent the beginning of an extensive fracking industry in the region. Minister Michael said the safe, timely and responsible decommissioning of oil and gas infrastructure was a government priority. He said the complexity of ownership and operational history at particular sites often required thorough due diligence to resolve liability, which DEMIRS prioritised to ensure compliance. In March 2024, he said, DEMIRS released a new guideline outlining the requirements for decommissioning of petroleum and geothermal energy assets, including wells, in WA's onshore areas and state coastal waters.
ABC News
24-05-2025
- General
- ABC News
Bigambul elders caring for country through generational knowledge
Whether slapping mud pies on the banks of border rivers in south-west Queensland, or flattening out land with a toy steamroller made from a tin filled with dirt, Bigambul woman Leah Mann thought her childhood was all fun and games. Now an elder of her people, she realises those cherished moments were partaking in the ancient Aboriginal tradition of caring for country. "We had an old tobacco tin, our nana would put seeds in it, we would throw them down by the creek and that would grow food," Aunty Leah said. It is this multi-generational knowledge of the environment that the Bigambul Native Title Aboriginal Corporation, based in Goondiwindi, realised needed to be documented and shared in their new Caring for Country Plan. The traditional owners said the plan, released on Thursday, would guide the development of infrastructure projects across the region and lead to the ongoing protection, rehabilitation and restoration of country. Aunty Leah said they were also embracing new environmental protection methods to plan for the future. "We have a greenhouse, and we propagate all the seeds we have taken from our country. Those will be planted back where they used to grow," she said. "The waterways will look better because we'll add little things like mussels and some certain fish that will clean the waterways." Some strategies in the Caring for Country Plan have already seen success in the Goondiwindi area, including the use of fire to control invasive weeds. First Nations firefighter sector commander Jason Scott said they conducted cultural and mitigation burns to help control Harrisia cactus and the mother of millions succulent. "We conduct cool burns to boil the cactus, to get it back down to its root system," Mr Scott said. "Kangaroos will then eat that root system or farmers will put cows over the top. "With the mother of millions it's a toxic burn, so we have to be very careful and well-regulated with our breathing." Mr Scott said the Bigambul rangers carefully ensured no culturally significant sites were impacted. "The rangers do a replanting program on country to bring back some of the native trees that have been decimated due to over-logging and removal," he said. "We've got a lot of native trees coming back because in Australia our trees require fire to be able to propagate." The Caring for Country Plan took three years to develop and included input from the local community, industry and various government departments and representatives. Project director Jeremy Hall said they spent nine months building partnerships and collaborating with interested parties across the wider Goondiwindi area. "We use this as a very powerful tool when speaking to proponents coming on country, whether it's renewables or major infrastructure," Mr Hall said. "The first port of call is no harm. But if you're going to cause harm, take a balanced approach on how you will mitigate and not just offset it, but mitigate and care." Mr Hall said their objective was to foster support and understanding, connecting community and mob to country. "Bigambul is open for business … it's part of the nation-building initiatives," Mr Hall said. The Bigambul people, whose lands cover about 17,000 square kilometre of south-west Queensland, believe that a healthy country creates healthy people. Elder Regina Munn said it was their cultural obligation to keep the knowledge of the land and water intact for future generations. "When [the land] is dry, arid and scorched it's almost depressing," Aunty Regina said. "When the rain comes the earth is quenched, the rivers rise, the fish and birds are out. All of that combines to create a happy community. "It's not just about Bigambul land, it's about the land in general, and it's all the land in general that we have native title determination over."
Daily Express
27-04-2025
- Politics
- Daily Express
GRS Govt's best gift to Sabah's natives
Published on: Sunday, April 27, 2025 Published on: Sun, Apr 27, 2025 By: Dharma Lingam Text Size: Flashback: Our front page report on April 18. THE Hajiji-led Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) Sabah Government deserves the highest accolade for doing what no other previous State Government dared to do – put an end once and for all to the land scandals, some involving big plantation companies, arising from fraudulent land transactions. Where genuine innocent land applicants don't even know their lands had been approved and changed hands without their knowledge many times over. The amendments to the Land Ordinance at the State Legislative Assembly on April 17 and which was the front page lead story in the Daily Express the following day would now make it an offence to acquire Native Title lands through fraudulent means and without exercising due diligence. There have been many instances, for example, of natives giving their Mykad particulars in the hope of being included in bloc applications but ending up being deceived. Owners of such lands now face the prospect of having to surrender these lands, if it has been established that they have been acquired illegally. The Daily Express had over the years published related reports on such land scams. These were in: 18-09-2014 – Daily Express - and in 20-12-2014 – Daily Express - Before the colonial administrator set foot on Sabah (North Borneo), native customary laws which have immense influence on local communal tribes had existed. When the British North Borneo Company acquired the various territories which now comprise present day Sabah, they had considered it imperative to recognize the significance native customary laws and it was preserved under Article 9 of the Royal Charter in verbatim 'In the administration of justice by the Company to the people of Borneo, or to any of the inhabitants thereof, careful regard shall always be had to the customs and laws of the class or tribe or nation to which the parties respectively belong, especially with respect to the holding, possession, transfer and disposition of land and goods, and testate or intestate succession thereto, and marriage, divorce and legitimacy, and other rights of property and personal rights.' Subsequently the colonial administration introduced a number of legislation specifically relating to native affairs with written law that specifically dealt with rights of the natives over land entitled the Native Rights to Land Proclamation of 1889 with the preamble 'for the protection of Native Rights to Land'. The 1902 legislation was a code of native land tenure which made native land rights registrable and provided for the procedures regarding the practice of cultivation. The Native Rights to Land Proclamation of 1889 read together with the 1902 legislation was to form the basis for the introduction of the Land Ordinances of 1901, 1913 and 1930 culminating in the renaming of the 1930 legislation as the present day Land Ordinance. The concept of native lands was introduced to prevent lands held by the natives in North Borneo (Sabah) from being disposed of to the non-natives with the primary beneficiaries of native lands land being 'the rural poor natives' or 'small-scale farmers'. These native lands are restricted from sale, lease, transfer of title and charge (mortgage) to non-natives similar to the concept of Malay Reservation Land that were introduced by the British in the Federated Malay States of Perak, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and Pahang in 1913 to avoid lands held by the Malays in those states from being disposed of to non-Malays. The native land is a special law and the Sabah Land Ordinance 1930 prohibits the attachment in execution of any NT land. Section 17 of the Sabah Land Ordinance 1930 repeats the provisions first introduced in 1883 against dealings in native lands with non-natives. The purpose of the restriction is to keep such lands in the hands of natives and to prevent access of non-native in areas where their presence is not favoured. The restriction applies also to charges but an exception is made to enable natives to obtain credit from specified financial institutions on the security of their native titles. However any sale and enforcement of a charge is limited to natives. Moreover, a trust cannot be created on such land to persons who are non-native. Now the world will be able to see what is being exposed about public listed company, businessmen, professionals, plantation, investors and developers engineering an exceptionally dubious and intricate scam to grab native lands by exploiting the land system of the Sabah Land Ordinance 1930. A cleverly concealed modus operandi concocted by these public listed firms, businessmen, professionals, plantation, investors and developers are by coordinating and obtaining Land Applicants (PT) involving naïve and vulnerable natives induced into believing that they would be able to secure lands by furnishing their ICs to these middlemen orchestrated by these public listed company, businessmen, professionals, plantation, investors and developers. The intention and blatant act of these public listed company, businessman, professionals, plantation, investors and developers as main conspirator are in furtherance of their plan to exploit native lands for logging timber, property development, agriculture, palm oil plantations and pure greed to own and deal in native lands that is explicitly forbidden by law. They mobilised their clandestine operation through using natives NRICs in applying for unalienated lands of the standard procedure under section 70(1) that allows Natives to apply without delay for State land at PPHTs throughout the Sabah. When the State Authority approves the application, the land will be alienated and a land title will be issued to the applicant. Land applications means property of native land's designee who applies by submitting land use applications regarding the unalienated lands. Land applications approved for native titles are subject to cultivation conditions as to commencement. It is basic law that land applicants are not conferred any land law rights. The Land Rules (Section 46) (G.N. 505 of 1930) - Section 2 subsection (4) clearly states that, LAs are not conferred with any right whatsoever to the land applied and acceptance of any such payment shall not constitute any undertaking that the application will be approved. It is important to remember that a person is presumed to have legal capacity unless it is proven that one lacks capacity as in the case of land applicants. Capacity is a legal concept that describes whether a person can legally enter into a contract. Legal capacity is the ability to: (i) make a binding legal agreement, (ii) sue another person and (iii) make other decisions of a legal nature such as land transaction. Yet, public listed company, businessman, professionals, plantation, investors and developers had regularly pursued LAs (PTs) in almost all their land dealings. They exploited the land system of the Sabah Land Ordinance 1930, a unique and a modified Torren's system that is exemplified by indefeasibility, charges and compliance of land law requirements on entry, registration and notation of interests. It is prudent to note that this is not the result of any 'innocent error' on their part but a vital element in the furtherance of their illegal exploit of native land grabs, corrupt practice, backhanders and gross tax evasion. The using of vulnerable native and employees by way of nominees are clearly to deploy as their native land grab industry foot soldiers. Indefeasibility is the key principle of the Torren's system. Under it, a title is made conclusive on registration and the Sabah Land & Survey Department (JTUS) guarantees that the titles are unimpeccable (validity) based on Section 88 of Sabah Land Ordinance. Indefeasibility simply means that something is impossible to be defeated or made invalid or cancelled and is adopted based on the principle of (i) Immediate indefeasibility is a situation where the transferred title is valid regardless of any element of fraud or forgery while (ii) deffered indefeasibility ((concedes or complies) only protects a subsequent purchaser to a title that is defeasible. In other words, if one obtains a title where fraud or forgery is involved, this title could be cancelled. However if the same party sells it to another purchaser who seemingly 'bona fide purchaser' that title is considered to be indefeasible. The indefeasibility therefore defers across one transfer of the title where fraud or forgery is involved to the next purchaser who buys it supposedly in good faith and valuable consideration. Herein lays, the problem the basic element of good faith is described as the absence of fraud, deceit or dishonesty and the knowledge or means of facts of such at the time of entry into a transaction while bona fide (valuable consideration) in general terms clearly refers to the absence of fraudulent intent or deceit. Since the Land Applications (PTs), Power of Attorney, Substitution Under Power of Attorney, Sublease Agreements, Sale and Purchase Agreements, Trust Deed Agreements, Memorandum of Transfer and Memorandum of Charge are dealings in native lands that is explicitly forbidden by law and are shrouded in illegality, it follows therefore that neither parties can acquire good title to pass on the purchaser as the current law passed under Section 88A (2) – explicitly confirms that titles obtained through (i) fraudulent means, (ii) forgery or (iii) unlawful methods would render the title VOID - not valid. The Remedy Lies in the Restitutionary Provision for Lands By invoking the Land Rules (Section 46) G.N. 505 of 1930 – Procedure under section 34 breach of conditions of title, empowers the State Authority to recall these NT lands. Rule 12 (1) owing to the breach or default in observing the conditions of the title and section 12(1) that would render the Public listed company, businessman, professionals, plantation, investors and developers and/or their proxies/nominees in breach or default and is not capable of being repaired or made good due to the circumvention of law/illegality shall revert to the State Authority all right, title and interest of Public listed company, businessman, professionals, plantation, investors and developers and/or their proxies/nominees will subsequently cease and be extinguished. Under the Sabah Land Ordinance, the Director can cancel permits and licenses for prospecting or other land-related activities if there's a breach of conditions or provisions of the Ordinance. The Director of Lands and Surveys, acting under the Sabah Land Ordinance 1930 (Cap 68), the main legislation governing land matters in Sabah, including the issuance and cancellation of land titles may cancel a title deed under specific circumstances, such as surrender or cancellation under sections 112, or orders by the Director under Section 118. The Director can cancel a title deed under the following circumstances: @ Surrender or Cancellation under Section 112: This section likely outline specific procedures and grounds for surrendering or cancelling a title deed. @ Orders by the Director under Sections 119: These sections likely outline specific circumstances where the Director can issue orders related to land titles, leading to cancellation of these NT titles. At first, it may appear that the State Authority can do nothing much about these NT lands but legally; there may be two options available. Firstly, the State Authority can proceed in Public listed company, businessman, professionals, plantation, investors and developers and/or their proxies/nominees to Court. The State Authority may apply for an injunction as one of the equitable remedies that the High Court by its discretion may grant an order to restrain or prohibit the continuance of business operation in these said native lands as the central basis for the State Authority is to impeach the proxies/nominees titles rights to the native lands. The State Authority may also obtain a declaratory order to the effect that this conversion exercise is unlawful, inconsistent and null and void to the policy of the Land Rules and the Sabah Land Ordinance. Hence, the State Authority by invoking 'the new Section 88A (2)' owing to the breach of conditions and provisions by way of forfeiture would cause these lands to revert back to the State Authority. It is a principle of antiquity that whatever that is invalid from the beginning cannot be binding by a subsequent act - meaning whatever is inherently defective cannot be rectified later by validity. There is also nothing to prevent the amendment that allows such power to legislate from having retrospective effect as Article 74 of the Federal Constitution (9th Schedule, list II- State List) states that land is State matter. Dharma is a lawyer specialising on land matters. The views expressed here are the views of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of the Daily Express. If you have something to share, write to us at: [email protected]
