Noonkanbah protest

Press, 1 September 1980, Page 7

Noonkanbah protest

NZPA Perth There would be world-wide repercussions over the drilling at Noonkanbah in the far north of Western Australia, a protest; meeting at Perth was told yesterday. A State Labour Minister of Parliament, Mr Brian Hodge, and a former Federal Labour member, Kim Beazley, said yesterday at a meeting of 450 angryi protesters in the Perth Town Hah.

The meeting called on the Western .Australian Government to halt drilling at Noonkanbah and open negotiations on the issue.

The resolution, passed unanimously, will be conveyed to the Prime Minister (Mr Malcolm Fraser), and to the National Aboriginal Conference delegation attending a United Nations conference in Geneva.

The meeting was addressed by union leaders, clergy-' men and politicians. ; The secretary of the Western Australia Labour Council (Mr Peter Cook), said the C.S.R. company faced union action because of its failure to retaliate against: the seizure of its drilling rig by the State Government.

In Brisbane, the President

of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (Mr Bob Hawke) said Mr Fraser had the power to stop oil drilling on the sacred Aboriginal site at Noonkanbah. “ The Federal Government was given control over Aboriginal affairs by an overwhelming majority- in a referendum in 1967, and it was hot clear if the Western Australian Government’s assertion of special, powers to permit the drilling under a state act was valid. The union movement would have more talks to see what action it could take to halt drilling, Mr. Hawke said.