Climate ‘Extremists’ Trespass onto Home of Energy CEO

Police charged a protester with one count of criminal damage after she spray-painted the Woodside Energy logo on the front doors of the Western Australia parliament in Perth, Australia, on Feb. 22, 21. Courtesy of Disrupt Burrup Hub

Radical climate activists have targeted the home of the head of Australian energy giant Woodside Energy.

CEO Meg O'Neill said the extremist protestors were accompanied by camera crews when they illegally trespassed onto her property on Aug. 1 in the wealthy Perth suburb of City Beach.

“This was not a ‘harmless’ protest,” she said in a statement obtained by AAP.

“It was designed to threaten me, my partner, and our daughter in our home.

“Such acts by extremists should be condemned by anyone who respects the law and believes people should be safe to go about their business at home and at work.”

Woodside was critical of the protestors’ actions.

The logo for Woodside Petroleum, Australia's top independent oil and gas company, is projected onto a screen at a briefing for investors in Sydney, Australia, on May 23, 2018. David Gray/Reuters

“Illegal protest activity like this only serves to distract from the real work being undertaken to achieve decarbonisation,” a spokesperson said.

“This is an unacceptable escalation in activity designed to threaten and intimidate by an extremist group which has no interest in engaging in respectful and constructive debate about Woodside’s role in the transition towards a lower-carbon world.”

The protestors have been linked to the Disrupt Burrup Hub campaign, which has engaged in an ongoing guerilla-style protest movement against Woodside over developments in the Burrup Peninsula, about 30 kilometres west of Karratha in the north-western Pilbara region—a mining-rich area of Western Australia.

The Burrup region is considered culturally significant to Indigenous Australians and contains thousands of petroglyphs by Indigenous people.

Western Australia Police confirmed the incident against O'Neill occurred during the early hours of Aug. 1.

“About 6.45 a.m., officers attached to the state security investigation group attended a home in City Beach as part of an ongoing investigation,” a spokesperson said.

“Two men, aged 34 and 31, and a 19-year-old woman were arrested and are assisting police with their inquiries.”

Radical Campaign Against Energy Giant

The incident comes a day after a magistrate rejected a police application for an order to stop group members from communicating while on bail.

Earlier this year, in January, two radical activists linked to Disrupt Burrup Hub attempted to vandalise a 130-year-old painting by spray painting the Woodside logo (using a stencil) onto Fredrick McCubbin’s “Down on His Luck” which has been part of the Art Gallery of Western Australia since 1896.

One vandal then appeared to glue her hand to the wall beside the $3 million (US$2.07 million) painting.

In February, another protestor, Joana Partyka, spray-painted the Woodside logo onto the front doors of the state’s parliament house, while another, musician Trent Rojahn, used a fire extinguisher to paint the words “Disrupt Burrup Hub” across the facade of the energy company’s building in the CBD.

In June, the extremists released a foul-smelling gas into the headquarters, forcing the evacuation of 2,000 staff.

Woodside responded last week, sending a legal letter to a campaigner and initiating civil action.

According to AAP, the energy company said it would claim compensation for lost productivity and other damage.

In April, CEO O'Neill said most people were keen for the projects to go ahead.

“A vocal minority wants to shut down the industry and the jobs and livelihoods that go with it,” she told the National Press Club.

“Extremism is not the answer. We need confidence in stable regulatory outcomes, or we risk choking our energy industry, impacting both domestic and international supply.”

Radicalism is Alienating the Public: YouTuber

The actions of Disrupt Burrup Hub are reminiscent of those adopted by radical activists Just Stop Oil across the United States and Europe.

Protestors in the UK have disrupted roads and major sporting events, including the Ashes cricket series and the Wimbledon tennis tournament.

In response, Youtube pranksters Josh Pieters and Archie Manners disrupted a Just Stop Oil banquet.

“When you’re protesting and campaigning for things, you need to bring people with you, and Just Stop Oil are having the exact opposite effect on the British public,” said Pieters in an interview with Piers Morgan.

A former radical activist in South Africa, Eric Louw, says the strategy from fringe groups like Just Stop Oil is to generate publicity through extreme action.

“At heart, all acts of terrorism are based upon a strategy called ‘propaganda of the deed.’ Activists carry out an act (or deed) that is designed to be so visually compelling that the news media will not ignore it,” he wrote in The Epoch Times.

“Hence, journalists also become facilitators and enablers of the propaganda that activists are trying to spread—journalists have the means with which to distribute news about the actions plus the embedded radical political messages far and wide, thereby helping the activists.”