2025-11-07
Climate emergency in East Pilbara, standing with firies and advocating for Palestine and against AUKUS
By Hon Sophie McNeill, MLC
It has been a busy couple of months as the year progresses. In Parliament, I was proud to chair the inaugural meeting of Parliamentary Friends of Palestine on 18 September. We are looking forward to hosting more incredible local heroes who have worked in Gaza to share their stories. Outside of Parliament, I’ve worked with stakeholders to show support and advocate for Gaza.
Newman and Punmu trip
In October, I had the great honour of visiting Martu country for the first time to stay overnight at the remote community of Punmu in the East Pilbara. I travelled to the East Pilbara to witness firsthand the experiences of communities at the coalface of the climate emergency, which include extremely high and rising temperatures and increasing prevalence of natural disasters.
These communities are still reeling from the destruction left by Severe Tropical Cyclone Zelia ‒ a category 4 cyclone that hit Punmu and the East Pilbara in February. Hundreds of kilometres of roads were washed away, and the roads remain in an atrocious state today. We drove 9 hours to Punmu ‒ mostly along corrugated and unsealed roads and it was both stunning and harrowing to see the dangers posed by the road conditions and the significant barriers that this creates for the people of Punmu in accessing medical treatment, education, groceries and upholding their family and cultural obligations.
Climate projections show that if we continue with business as usual, towns and communities in the Pilbara like Punmu, could go from having around 100 days a year over 40 - to nearly 200 days a year over 40.
And it is not inconceivable that in those conditions, parts of WA could become unlivable.
That is why this is a human rights crisis.
In addition to the climate emergency, Punmu is also facing a housing crisis. Residents live in dilapidated houses and no new houses have been built for 50 years. I advocated for urgent government action for cyclone recovery and housing in the October sittings of Parliament and will continue to do so until we see change.
We stand with our Firies!
WA’s firefighters are some of the bravest and hardest working people in our state ‒ they face life-threatening work conditions to protect our community. As Greens WA emergency services spokesperson, I have been proud to stand with our Firies as they fought the government for a fair pay deal. I visited Fremantle Fire Station with Tim Clifford in September, before taking our concerns to the Minister. In October, I gave a member’s statement in solidarity with our Firies ‒ because they deserve way more than the current base hourly rate of $37.15
Stop AUKUS and US militarism in WA
The Greens are staunchly opposed to the presence of AUKUS nuclear-powered submarines and infrastructure on our shores. The Australian Submarine Agency held a community information session at Fremantle Town Hall and I was proud to join Stop AUKUS to speak out against US imperialism and militarisation in our state.
Header photo: Sophie with Martu elder and artist Gladys Bidu