2020-11-03
Taking climate action and on the campaign trail
By Hon. Tim Clifford, MLC for East Metropolitan
A Climate Change Act for WA
It’s nearly upon us. The culmination of almost a year’s worth of research, planning, community and stakeholder engagement and campaigning: the parliamentary debate on our Climate Change Bill.
Backed by some of WA’s leading scientists and academics, this Bill represents the direction WA must take to reduce our impact on the climate crisis and ensure all West Australians -- particularly First Nations, farmers and our most vulnerable -- are protected.
The journey of the Bill has been quite an experience for my office. We worked for months with a range of wonderful stakeholders to develop it and when we finally read it in, in March, the COVID restrictions were imposed not long after. This effectively limited our capacity to campaign as the focus shifted to responding to COVID-related bills in parliament. However, once the initial restrictions were eased and people started to look forward, we soon realized the COVID issues had not erased the expectation within the community that all levels of government need to take bold action to address the climate crisis. This expectation and support from the community, along with the hard work of Greens members and my office has helped get the climate campaign back on track and allowed us to continue to rebuild the initial momentum we had when we first read the Bill back in March.
In previous debates regarding climate change, the conversation has regrettably turned towards whether the crisis is real or not, and that if it is real then it is the responsibility of the Federal Government. By introducing this Bill, we hope to shift the debate into something constructive: how we tackle WA’s rising greenhouse gas emissions and how we make climate change a key consideration of all government decisions.
The Bill debate will kick off at 10.15am on November 5th and I can guarantee you it will be lively -- so please tune in. This is being preceded by a rally on the steps of Parliament House to demand action on climate change and parliamentary support for this Bill. Visit my Facebook page for more information or contact my office on (08) 9874 8484.
East Metro campaign
I have had such an amazing time working with so many good people who have contributed so far to the East Metro campaign team. Even though it is early days in the campaign we have managed to on-board many new candidates and volunteers who are looking to not only retain the East Metro upper house seat but to also continue to build a positive movement towards addressing many of the issues we know have not been addressed by the current state government.
Yes it has so far been a challenge to pull together the campaign team but it’s early days and I’m so proud of the fact that we have managed to make East Metro an open door to many people regardless of whether it’s your first or twentieth campaign. Yes working towards electoral success is important but we can’t lose sight that every part of what we do during this and beyond this campaign will continue to ensure that Greens WA are the party fighting to ensure that many injustices are addressed.
I would like to thank all East Metro volunteers, candidates and our new campaign manager Mark Cooper for all your hard work.
Can’t wait to see you on the campaign trail.
Header photo: East Metro Campaign meeting