The Great Australian Minerals & Energy Resources Rip-Off: & Boots on the Ground for Oil

With far reaching insight and in-depth research The Great Australian Minerals & Energy Resources Rip-Off chronicles decades of government mismanagement of Australia’s resources up to the present day. Energy undoubtedly ranks as one of the most critical issues of our time, The Great Australian … focuses on oil as a strategic resource; alternatives to oil; dirty oil; gas; depletion; ‘perpetual boots on the ground for oil’; global oil industry history; the oil, gas & mineral resources revenue rip-off; taxation and sustainability; the 100% renewable economy; climate, environment and health. The Australian Government’s 2017 Finkel Review recommends Hydrogen based technologies be included in Australia’s National Electricity Market future. The zero emissions Hydrogen Economy is based on power supplied by splitting water to obtain hydrogen gas, producing electricity to power cars, buildings, industry, homes and transport, and now commercially available worldwide as an alternative to all fossil fuels. Both hydrogen and biofuels are included in the Finkel Review’s recommendations and commercially available technologies and CSIRO developments covered in detail, including where to buy. The hidden reasons behind the dismissal of the Whitlam Government and its attempts to introduce the same oil resource and revenue reforms as those introduced in Norway and the U.K. at that time, and which were blocked in Australia by the Liberals. Had Whitlam been successful, Australia would be enjoying far greater revenue returns than we do today as well as gas piped from the NW Shelf to the east coast. The 1975 invasion and twenty-five year illegal occupation of Timor-Leste (East Timor) and war crimes and the oil motive are covered in detail. Geological evidence is included which establishes that Australia laid claim to oil and gas resources in the Timor Sea, located on Timor-Leste’s side of a theoretical midway sea-bed boundary, on the grounds that these lay on Australia’s continental shelf. Geological evidence including satellite imagery (included in the chapter) establishes that these resources lie on the land bridge which connects Australia to PNG, contrary to the legal requirement under the related International Law which requires that for Australia’s sea-bed boundary claim to be lawful it must be based on a claim on Australia’s “continental shelf”. The legal implication is that the Treaty between Australia and Timor-Leste was void at inception and Timor-Leste is owed substantial compensation. And particularly within the context that Timor-Leste had just begun to recover from war crimes and occupation when Australia effectively ‘pounced’, with a deal in writing intended to commit a still reeling Timor-Leste to a deal which was not in Timor-Leste’s interests. Australia’s justification that the East Timorese people were supposedly communist is overturned on evidence now available in declassified U.S. documents from the period and in 2012 former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott admitted that “securing oil supplies” was the real motive. Published oil industry evidence supports this admission. Secrets included reveal the key role played by Australia’s university-based and government geologists responsible for the discovery of 95% of Australia’s offshore oil and gas resources, and more. ‘On the books’ discoveries were handed to overseas corporates free of charge, in addition to U.S. and corporate influence on Australian Government policy and legislation negotiated as backroom deals for exploration permits covering these same resources. The Liberal Party Machine and looking after the big end of town: the oil industry and relevantly the OECD’s solutions to the growing gap between rich and poor. The OECD reports Australia is one of the worst offenders in this area and that the growing gap between rich and poor itself, reduces growth.

Janis Embury is a qualified science journalist, with additional qualifications and experience, in law, renewables, sustainability and with an investigative specialization in global oil, renewables, climate change, history and law.