Miners hiding behind Barnett's police army

Miners hiding behind Barnett's police army

WA Police officers in a show of force at the site of a protest at Broome's CSG hub at James Price Point. Picture: Damian Kelly Source: The Australian

THIS week the government of Western Australia dispatched about 200 police officers to the sleepy tourist town of Broome to do the dirty work for several of the world's largest oil and gas companies.

This mini army has been assembled on the doorstep of the Kimberley wilderness for one purpose -- to suppress the widespread opposition of the Broome community to the construction of the proposed $40 billion James Price Point industrial precinct.

In a startling admission, WA police commissioner Karl O'Callaghan confirmed earlier this week that the decision to drag police off their beats across the state and send them to Broome would cost taxpayers $100,000 a day, for an undisclosed period and with no cost to the companies involved in the project. The final bill will likely be several million dollars.

All this to move away and silence a dogged and growing band of locals who have stood in the way of the plans of a consortium of the world's biggest companies, including Shell, Chevron, Woodside, BP and BHP Billiton, to build this massive gas plant in a beautiful and sensitive part of the remote Dampier Peninsula.