2024-09-02
Environment issues predominate – waiting to debate the Climate Change Bill, addressing adverse changes to the Environmental Protection Act and still battling Burrup Hub. But planning more community events in the run-up to the 2025 election.
By Hon Brad Pettitt, MLC, Member for South Metropolitan
After a long winter break, we’re now back into Parliament for the last 9 sitting weeks of this term before the State Election. For all of us, this is a period of increasing campaign activity but, for the WA Labor government, it’s apparent that the remainder of the 41st Parliament will be a period of increasingly strange and divisive legislation that doesn’t meet the needs of the community.
After a very intense start to the Parliamentary year, it was good to be able to slow down a little in the winter break. I flew to Victoria for a week to hike in the Grampians with some friends, which was a nice chance to disconnect and take a proper mental break. After catching the bus back into Melbourne to come home, I went to check out the Nightingale Village in Brunswick. The Village is a collection of six neighbouring buildings, each designed by a different award-winning architect using the social, environmental and financial sustainability principles of the not-for-profit housing model championed by Nightingale.
The Winter break was also a useful time to catch up on stakeholder meetings and briefings on upcoming legislation for the second half of the year, and to do some much-needed long-term planning for the campaign as it ramps up over the second half of this year.
We met with the Environmental Protection Authority’s Appeals Convenor to discuss Woodside’s Burrup Hub for a second time. Because the former Appeals Convenor had resigned before a decision on the appeal against the Burrup Hub had been made, the entire process had to begin again which meant an opportunity to give more up to date and new evidence. But, what it also highlighted was the many procedural issues that plague our environmental approvals system here in Western Australia that are geared towards helping big corporations – like Woodside – to push through massive projects, not protect our unique and precious environment.
We had a great team planning session in July and, as a result, will be heading off on a 5-day South West Road Trip in October visiting Denmark, Albany, Margaret River, Bunbury and a few places in between. I’m keen to get out there, meet stakeholders and community members and talk about the issues that matter to you. Keep an eye out on Green Announce and the events page of the website for more details about the trip and how you can participate in the coming days and weeks!
My office is also looking to host more community events in Perth. We’re hosting events in Cafes over the coming weeks and are looking to expand these out to community BBQs and dinners over the next few months. Please reach out if you’d like to get involved as we’d love to get a crew of volunteers that can help to run these events in the future!
On the legislative front we are STILL waiting for the climate change bill to come on for debate and the bill to abolish the gender reassignment board, which was promised by June 30, has now been pushed back to September with the government prioritising other law and order bills. This last week we’ve been working with environmental and conservation groups to draft amendments to the government’s Environmental Protection Act reforms which will strip public appeal rights and make it easier for big corporations to rush through environmental approvals. These new laws are terrible for WA’s nature and given the summer we just had that saw our forests drying out and dying off, we must push back against them in every way we can.
Finally, news leaked via Peter Milne at WA Today last week that Woodside’s Browse project would be rejected, which is huge news for the Burrup Hub. The Burrup Hub project is what Woodside calls its plan to drill the Scarborough gas field (which is already well under construction), drill the Browse gas field underneath Scott Reef and extend the life of a massive gas plant called the North West Shelf LNG Plant, which processes gas for export.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean that Browse will necessarily be rejected by the Minister but it is another win for the movement. We’re also expecting to see a decision on the appeal for the North West Shelf – the final stage of the Burrup Hub – very soon.
Header photo: At a Hilton cafe catch-up at the end of August