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This is a family with four young children, who ran a profitable business; they filled in every form and ticked every box. They have broken no laws, and there are no outstanding environmental notices, but yet, they came to Western Australia with their life savings and they are losing everything. (Note: Matt and Janet are from the USA, Hugo, Oklahoma ¨C Anthony)
Don¡¯t bring your investment dollars to Western Australia ¡ª not while the Department of the Environment effectively controls the state.
The Thompsons waited a full year to get Works Approval for a 15,000 head feedlot. After they had already committed the capital, the rules kept shifting. They discovered they¡¯d need ongoing licenses as well. After several years of ramping up the capacity on these licenses, things changed. Matt spoke out as a skeptic. About that time, the renewals were delayed, then the numbers were cut in half, and new conditions were added that were impossible to meet. To feed and supply water for thousands of cattle the Thompsons had to sign agreements in advance to pay for hundreds of thousands of dollars of goods they could not use, but had no way of knowing that at the time. When they appealed, it took 18 months to get ¡°vindicated¡± but by then there was only six months left on the ¡°two year¡± license. Not enough to set up all the contracts and run a business. The new sub-clauses meant that even licenses for a qualified ¡°10,000¡å head had vague untestable conditions: the license you have when you don¡¯t have a license.
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