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Four (DBH) climate campaigners pleaded not guilty on January 21 to charges of conspiracy to commit an offence, which was dropped. But they did plead guilty to the lesser charges.

Two other DBH campaigners, Jo and Tahlia, pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit an indictable offence, which was pressed by WA Police months later.

They explained in a ouside the Perth Magistrates Court that the charges related to an attempted protest outside the Woodside CEO’s house in August 2023 and came after the ABC released unaired footage from a Four Corners program to the WA Police.

“The WA Police managed the bully the ABC into handing over footage,” Talia said. The corporate media pile-on that the CEO’s home was not a fit place for a protest would have helped.

Jo said the WA Police had been “relentless” in its pursuit of “anyone who is “brave enough to stand up against Woodside”.

The pair said they will defend themselves at a three-day trial in September on the conspiracy charges, and asked for support to help pay the fines.

“If we’re talking about people’s homes,” Tilda said, “There’s going to be 1 billion people displaced by climate change by the time we reach 2050, a year in which [Woodside’s] North West Shelf will still have another 20 years of operation.

“Meg O’Neill is just as guilty of targeting people’s homes as I am. Every fossil fuel CEO is just as guilty of targeting people’s homes as I am.”

Woodside’s Burrup Hub project is Australia’s biggest polluting fossil fuel project, encompassing the Perdaman Fertiliser Plant, Karratha Gas Plant, Scarborough Gas Plant (which is now expanding to twice its size) and two offshore platforms, with more to come.

DBH said WA authorities have relentlessly pursued its activists for standing up to Woodside — “even campaigners who weren’t even present at the actions they were charged in relation to”.

Western Australian Legislative Council member to the climate activists on January 23, saying: “We will always support climate activists who are putting themselves on the line in the name of protecting our future, our environment and the climate from big corporations — like Woodside — and the major parties who are doing their bidding in Parliament.”

Meanwhile, Santos was fined  by the Karratha Magistrates Court, on January 6, for a large oil spill off the Western Australia Pilbara coast. Santos pleaded guilty to spilling 25,000 litres of oil into the Indian Ocean.

The described it as a “meaningless fine” for a “serious offence”, comparing it to less than the average household pays for groceries in a year.

But, he said, it is not the only way Santos gets a great deal in Australia pointing to ATO Company data which states that Santos paid no company income tax from 2015 to 2023 “despite declaring $38 billion of income”.

“This is a serious oil spill. Dead dolphins were found within 200 metres of the slick 17 hours after the leak, according to WA government regulators. Allegations of a cover-up by Santos by an anonymous whistleblower were tabled in Federal Parliament,” Ogge said.

 [Donate to the Disrupt Burrup Hub crowd fundraiser .]