If Entura’s conduct in Sarawak is ethical, why refuse to co-operate?

Sepawi (left) and Taib’s Awang Tenggah (centre) sign the Memorandum of Understanding with former Tasmanian government minister David Crean, now of Hydro-Tasmania last year. Image from Sarawak Report, here

IF ENTURA’S CONDUCT IN SARAWAK IS ETHICAL, WHY REFUSE TO CO-OPERATE?

The Tasmanian Greens today said it was unacceptable that State-owned Hydro Tasmania had refused to release information about the activities of its wholly-owned Entura consultancy with regard to its work on 12 controversial dam projects in the Sarawak region of Malaysia.

Greens Energy spokesperson Kim Booth MP said Energy Minister Byran Green MP did nothing to clear up the murky allegations over Entura’s activities in parliament this morning, which include the displacement of thousands of indigenous Dayak peoples from their traditional homelands.

“It is simply unacceptable that Hydro’s Entura has refused my Right to Information request for details about its highly-contentious involvement in dam projects which stand accused of displacing thousands of indigenous people, not to mention the devastation of virgin tropical rainforest,” said Mr Booth.

“Bryan Green, Hydro’s shareholder Minister, wheeled out the well-worn fig-leaf for dodgy dealings of ‘commercial-in-confidence’, by which he refused to provide information about Entura’s possible corruption.”

“If the allegations about Entura’s involvement in Sarawak, run by a deeply corrupt dictatorship, are true, they are highly likely to breach Hydro’s obligations under the GBE Act, which require Hydro-Entura undertake sound commercial practice with regard to the economic and social objectives of the State.”

“Given these Sarawak dam projects stand accused of displacing thousands of indigenous people, Mr Green’s suggestion today that the “test of whether [Enutra] meet the GBE Act is whether they turn a profit” reveals that the only thing that matters to Mr Green is money and Entura’s balance sheet.”

“Unlike Labor, the Greens actually put ethical and social concerns ahead of revenues. We believe in people before profits.”

“The Greens are not going to walk away from interrogating the tendering process that Entura went through because we believe Entura could be involved in a corrupted process and the displacement of thousands of indigenous Dayak Malaysians,” said Mr Booth.

Earlier on Tasmanian Times, including related links:

Questions which must be answered

Is this why Ta Ann Tasmania operates at a loss

First published: 2012-06-21 03:37 PM