2024-11-04
By Hon Brad Pettitt, MLC, Member for South Metropolitan
The final weeks of the 41st Parliament of Western Australia draw nearer, and the Cook Labor government is no closer to passing urgently needed climate change legislation that has been sitting on the notice paper in the Legislative Assembly for a year.
In fact, in the last few weeks we have seen a policy regression that puts our climate and our environment at even greater risk!
In October the Cook Labor government passed “reforms” to the Environment Protection Act that are the first tranche recommended by the Vogel-McFerran review. If you don’t know about the Vogel-McFerran review, here’s a great summary by the Environmental Defender’s Office.
There “reforms” have stripped power from the EPA in favour of streamlining approvals processes, making it even easier for big projects to get the green light. They’ve also stripped away some fundamental public appeal rights from the community, meaning there are less avenues for grassroots community groups to protest environmental destruction through official channels.
On top of that, the government has also increased the fee for objecting to mining activity through the Warden’s Court of Western Australia from $10 to $430 – a 4,300% increase that makes WA the most expensive state to do so in the whole country.
And, worst of all, Climate Minister Reece Whitby last week announced in Parliament that the Cook Labor government would be directing the EPA to no longer apply any state-based emissions controls to any current and future projects they are assessing, effectively making all of WA’s emissions a problem for the federal government under the “Safeguard Mechanism” – national legislation designed to help Australia achieve net zero by 2050.
The reality of this decision is monumental – projects like Woodside’s North West Shelf expansion will no longer be subject to any state-based emissions controls. The safeguard mechanism works by retrospectively allowing companies to buy offsets for their emissions. Good offsets – such as planting trees – are important but they take years or even decades to effectively offset carbon emissions and, many offsets that are legal under the safeguard mechanism have been shown to be dodgy! Here’s a great article by the Australia Institute explaining why: 23 times carbon offsets were found to be dodgy.
It’s clear the Cook Labor government have colluded on these policies with big gas corporations like Woodside, and with companies like South 32 and Alcoa who are destroying our beautiful northern Jarrah forests. We are less than 6 months out from an election where we urgently need action on climate change and yet Western Australia is going backwards under the Cook Labor government.
But, that’s enough of the negative things that have happened in the last couple of months!
In the first week of October I went on a fantastic road trip through the South West and met with hundreds of members, supporters, stakeholders and community members to talk about regional issues that are impacting their communities. We stopped in Denmark, Albany, Walpole, Margaret River and Bunbury and had conversations with hundreds of people, including some old faces and lots of new people!
At various stages of the weekend I was joined by our incredible team of state and federal candidates including Tim Clifford, Jess Beckerling, Diane Evers, Clint Uink, Julie Marsh, Georgia Beardman, Giz Watson, Mia Krasenstein and Patricia Perks. Thank you so much to all of you for contributing to the great conversations and for making my team and I feel welcome.
While I came home feeling energised by all the conversations I’d had and new people I’d met, it was clear that folks are really worried about the impact of the cost of living and housing crisis on their communities.
They’re seeing firsthand the impacts of climate change on the oceans and forests this beautiful region is known for, and on the livelihoods of folks who live there. The last four years of this Labor government have been devastating for our environment, our climate and for our community, with the price of groceries and rents going through the roof.
With just three sitting weeks of Parliament left for the 41st Parliament, we’re getting close to crunch time for our campaign. If you haven’t already, I would urge you to get involved with your local campaign whether that’s in Perth or out in the regions!
Header photo: Yakamia Forest protest in Albany (Diane Evers, Julie Marsh and Mia Krasenstein in photo along with Brad). Tim Oliver