2020-11-03
More spending on environmental management, ending of native forest logging, and revival of some or our rural rail networks urged
By Hon. Diane Evers, MLC, Member for South West
What a year it has been, as we come to the final stages. The last two busy months have seen the belated 2020/21 State Budget Papers tabled, reflection on the Forest Products Amendment Bill and, of course, a busy agenda of parliamentary business and electorate matters. It was as important as ever to appreciate time spent in the South West Region, something I was able to enjoy when attending Greens events and holding youth workshops in the region.
South West/Greens
The South West Region is a beautiful and broad landscape, and being a Green voice for the issues that affect regional and rural communities requires tireless effort. I was excited at the beginning of September to be catching up with friends, including Senator Jordon Steele-John, as I headed down to Bridgetown to join the Forrest and O’Connor Greens for training sessions and workshops. We also held our Forrest-O’Connor Greens Annual General Meeting, where it was decided we will continue as one regional group! Getting the group back together will give us the opportunity to have a more inclusive group, with more people coming together from each electorate.
Speaking of the WA Greens, I’d like to congratulate some friends on becoming candidates for the upcoming state and federal elections. I have had the pleasure of knowing Nelson Gilmour, the WA Greens candidate for Albany, and Dorinda Cox, WA Greens’ next candidate for the Federal Senate, for a long time. Nelson is a staunch defender of our natural environment and is always ready to lend a helping hand to someone in need, while Dorinda is a proud Noongar Yamatji woman who is the ideal person to follow-on from the incredible work done by the outgoing Senator Rachel Siewert. To Nelson, Dorinda and all the exciting WA Greens candidates announced for the South West Region and beyond, I look forward to joining you in the excitement of the campaign!
In October I connected with some of our younger visionaries when I held Youth Forums at headspace in Mandurah and Bunbury, to listen to their vision for the South West and what we can do to make it a reality. It was great to learn that the participants love where they live, but acknowledge key local shortcomings in education, transport and social amenity. I will continue to do all I can to encourage their leaders to work to enhance what makes the South West Region great and amplify their voices to see that they are heard.
State Budget
Young and old, the WA Labor Government has a responsibility to ensure Western Australians have what they need to live a good life. The strength of Western Australia is in the shape of its economy, not just the size, and with a budget surplus and historically low interest rates, now’s the time to be bold and invest in our future. In the midst of a pandemic – and now the worst recession in decades – many of us are doing it tougher than we ever could have imagined. October’s State Budget was a critical opportunity to turn that around.
The Government’s top-down response to the COVID-19 pandemic so far has been effective, but also lucky. In the State Budget I had hoped to see the Government ensure people are looked after, substantially address climate change and develop further on regional Western Australia’s infrastructure and renewable energy potential. However, the Government’s approach to the state’s finances has utilised a very narrow risk assessment, with the pandemic arguably only one of many possible damaging crises to impact on society in the coming years. More needs to be done to invest in our future.
I was disappointed in the lack of significant budget for environmental management projects, such as increased funding for on-ground environmental works, serious development of Ranger programs for our southern forests, increased funding for fire preparedness and volunteer fire brigades as well as substantial increased investment in regenerative agriculture development to draw carbon from the atmosphere back into soils.
Western Australians deserve bold government investment in social housing and homelessness prevention so no one has to spend a single night sleeping rough. We deserve investment in education to make sure young people are prepared for their future. We deserve investment in our mental health and disability support sectors to give everyone the best possible quality of life. If the economy doesn’t work for all of us, it doesn’t work.
Regional Development
One thing the Government has announced, however, is that it will take further steps to maintain its commitment to the recovery of Tier 3 rail lines. A business case is to be prepared to attract federal funding towards renewal of these regional grain lines, following pressure from continued community campaigning to improve our regional transport infrastructure. I tabled a petition in Western Australian Parliament in late September in support of reopening Tier 3 lines and to reverse the decades of neglect that has left century-old rail networks, which could perform much of the freight need more sustainably, to be left to deteriorate in private hands.
State and federal governments spend vast amounts on road infrastructure, while these rail networks that could perform much of the freight task, have been neglected. The southern wheatbelt region has the highest road toll in all of Australia and with intrastate regional road travel likely to reach the highest levels in history as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has never been a more important time to understand road safety and separate the freight task from the tourists and local road use.
Native Forests
Continuing to fuel my work has been the encouragement that rarely before have our native forests been on the statewide agenda as much as they have in the past few months. Now is the time for WA Labor to end logging of native forests and I am continuing to push as strongly as possible for a commitment from the Government to protect this vital natural asset. The WA Government is losing money logging our South West native forests for woodchips and charcoal – and we need to protect what’s left. This is why I put out the call in September to over 41,000 people across the state, asking to help protect our native forests by writing to the Premier and his Ministers. This follows on from the Forest Products Amendment Bill I read in to Parliament in August.
I’d also like to thank all those in the South West and beyond who have continued to campaign for awareness and change, especially the local grandmothers who stopped logging in McCorkhill and Helms forests over two separate days of action in September! Our native forests need to be protected in perpetuity for future generations, for climate and for biodiversity.
Climate Action
Finally, I’d like to say well done to The City of Albany! To the young activists who have driven local action and to a council that listened, it is so exciting to learn that another local government has taken climate change action by endorsing the City of Albany Climate Change Action Declaration. Efforts to stop the climate crisis are ramping up across the state and this is the type of leadership we need to see at a state and federal level, which is why WA Greens and Tim Clifford MLC will be introducing a Climate Change Act for WA on November 5. I look forward to joining Tim and many supporters of his Bill at the Rally for a WA Climate Change Act at Parliament House on the morning of the legislation’s introduction.
I am proud to be a voice for all of those who care about the environment, their communities, their futures, and for the South West in WA Parliament. Collectively, our Greens movement can change government policies. Now as always, is the time for action.
Header photo: Diane with Jane Fuchsbichler of the Wheatbelt Railway Retention Alliance, prior to tabling a petition in Parliament to support reopening Tier 3 lines on September 24.