20-06-08 On June 3 when a relatively small piece of gas pipe ruptured on Varanus Island off Dampier in the North-West not many West Australians could have predicted the scenario we are now facing as a state. The crisis is sending shock waves through the economy and metropolitan and regional Western Australia. It ranges from the inconvenient -- not using heating and lights as much as usual -- to the potentially devastating, as workers lose their jobs and businesses close.
What is becoming clearer is that our Government, the companies involved and the energy industry in general should have had a clearer understanding of the risk faced by Western Australia. With each day, it seems we discover there have been short cuts, difficult decisions avoided or long-term plans shelved.

It has also been revealed that the Carpenter Government delayed the approval of a new Apache Energy gas processing plant by more than six months and allowed it only after the extent of the gas crisis became apparent. The applicationfor the facility, which will substantially increase the security of the state's gas supply, was made in December and rejected in April by Indigenous Affairs Minister Michelle Roberts because of a "lack of consultation with the Ngarluma Aboriginal group".
This has led to claims by MP Dan Sullivan that the Government had engaged in a "massive cover-up" by failing to inform the public it had delayed the approval.

No one doubts it is difficult -- and often costly -- to have contingency plans for worst-case scenarios. But in terms of the gas crisis in Western Australia, there seems to have been far too little worthwhile preparations to guard against the outcome we now face.
To placate the growing disquiet about the incident, the Government has been on the front foot -- from Premier Alan Carpenter's presidential-style address on TV to handing out free light bulbs and fridge magnets. But the Western Australian people now want and deserve more than this. They are tiring of the political platitudes rolled out each day. They are now demanding answers from the Government and Apache Energy, which runs the gas processing plant.

What caused the explosion?
Why is an apparently innocuous accident now pushing Western Australia to its limits?
What should have been done to avoid the present scenario?
And what can be done to safeguard against a repeat performance?

A prompt and spin-free reply seems the least the people of this state should be receiving.