<
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/oct/27/the-west-australian-goes-big-on-woodsides-keeping-the-lights-on-claim-but-keeps-readers-in-the-dark-on-climate>
"Who needs to pay for newspaper advertising? Not the fossil fuel company
Woodside in its home state of Western Australia, based on recent evidence. It
can place its message unchallenged in Perth’s local daily without the
inconvenience of having to pay for it.
Last Friday the
West Australian went big with an opinion piece by Meg
O’Neill, Woodside’s Perth-based chief executive – not once, but four times.
The coverage began on page one, with an “exclusive” tag, the headline “Blown
out of the water” and a two sentence write-off saying O’Neill had warned that
“reams of red tape” were endangering WA’s gas supplies and putting jobs and
energy security at risk.
This front-page splash pointed to a longer news story on page four. It
explained O’Neill was concerned that laws governing the approval of offshore
gas developments were stymieing new developments. She argued those projects
were needed “to enable WA’s energy transition” and a failure to fix the laws
could lead to a spike in cost-of-living pressures.
The news report quoted no other opinions. It was a summary of O’Neill’s opinion
piece, which ran in full on page 50.
It made clear she was specifically focused on Woodside’s $17bn Scarborough gas
development, which hit a legal snag last month. The federal court overturned
the approval of Woodside’s plan to conduct seismic blasting for Scarborough,
agreeing with a judicial review application by Mardudhunera woman Raelene
Cooper that argued the offshore petroleum regulator should not have given the
company the green light until it had adequately consulted with traditional
owners."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
