From the magnificent Karri forests of the South West to the pristine waters of the Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia’s natural places are like nowhere else in the world.

We rely on our environment for so much: to store the carbon we pump into the atmosphere, supply us with the clean air we breathe, and provide the safe habitats our native fauna need to thrive.

But our precious places have been devastated by decades of uncoordinated growth, land clearing, overfishing, unsustainable agricultural practices and large-scale mining – all signed off on by successive governments acting in the interests of their corporate donors.

Without a healthy environment, we have nothing. The Greens have a plan to protect, rehabilitate and reconnect WA’s forests, bushland, wetlands and waterways, ensuring our precious places are preserved for all Western Australians now and into the future.

The Greens will:

Legislate a ban on nuclear power in WA

Nuclear power generation has been banned in Australia for almost 30 years – and for good reason. Developing nuclear power capacity in WA would take decades, cost many billions of dollars in taxpayer funds, and pose an unacceptable risk to human health and the environment.

Attempts to revive the debate over nuclear power as a solution to the climate crisis are as reckless as they are disingenuous. Renewables already exist and can produce power to scale – and they’re cheaper, cleaner, faster and quicker to deploy. Nuclear power is not the answer, now or ever.

The Greens will introduce legislation at the state level to ban nuclear power in Western Australia, and defend existing laws that prohibit the storage of nuclear waste in our state.

End mining in forest and woodland areas

WA is home to some of the most beautiful and biodiverse forests on earth. But over the past few decades, bauxite mining has flattened more than 33,000 hectares of our native forest – an area equivalent to 80 times the size of Kings Park.  

More than a third of that area was cleared in the past ten years alone – largely under the watch of the WA Labor Government, which also allowed Alcoa to continue operations after it was revealed the mining company knowingly risked contaminating Perth’s drinking water supply.

Despite industry claims of successfully rehabilitating cleared areas, the science is clear: restoring a jarrah forest after bauxite mining is impossible. 

Logging in native forests has already been banned in WA. It’s time to go one step further and ensure mining is off limits, too.

The Greens will:

• Ban all mining operations in WA’s forest and woodland areas
• Permanently exclude mining from Reservoir Protection Zones 
• Create mining exclusion zones to protect critical habitat and other high conservation value forests 
• Develop and implement a plan for a just transition for all workers in the sector

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Stop Westport

Fremantle’s historic port is now the biggest and busiest in the state, contributing significantly to the town’s cultural identity, economy and history. But the WA Labor Government has a plan to permanently close it down and move container trade to a new, yet to be constructed location near Kwinana. 

Westport would be an economic, environmental and cultural disaster, set to cost billions of dollars, threaten precious marine life – including Penguin Island’s already vulnerable Little Penguins – and divert jobs away from Freo’s vibrant town centre. And with WA Labor’s rationale for Westport based on flawed and inaccurate modelling, there is simply no reason for it to go ahead.

The Greens will heed the calls of port workers, maritime unions and the broader Fremantle community to stop Westport and ensure Freo’s port remains the thriving centre of WA’s cargo trade well into the 21st century.

Strengthen WA’s nature laws

Western Australia’s nature laws are broken. Pollution, deforestation and corporate greed are pushing our precious places to the point of collapse, driven by successive governments that have systematically dismantled environmental legislation under pressure from powerful vested interests.

While the WA Labor Government claims to have done more for our natural places than any other government, the reality – as well as the expert consensus – indicates otherwise. The decision last year to gut the independence of our environment’s most robust safeguard, the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), does more to threaten nature in WA than almost any other single piece of legislation in recent memory.

As we confront the realities of a changing climate, strong laws protecting our environment are more urgent than ever. The Greens will strengthen WA’s nature laws, starting by restoring the independence and authority of the EPA.

Expand protected areas in partnership with Traditional Owners 

Western Australia is home to some of the oldest sites of human existence in the world, holding sacred connections to Country, culture and songlines for First Nations people.   

While many of these areas are formally recognised for their cultural, historical, social, spiritual and scientific significance, they remain under threat. Under the WA Labor Government’s weak cultural heritage laws, the legal destruction and desecration of these significant First Nations sites is too easy, and doesn’t guarantee Traditional Owners the right to decide what happens on or to their Country.  

In line with our commitment to protecting First Nations culture and heritage, the Greens will work in partnership with Traditional Owners to expand Aboriginal protected areas in WA.

Overhaul WA’s prescribed burning practices

Fire mitigation is an essential practice in Western Australia, where around 93 percent of the state is classed as bushfire-prone and the climate crisis is worsening conditions.

But research conclusively shows the current program of prescribed burning used in WA is not grounded in the latest science – and actually increases the risk of bushfires. Even worse, the WA Labor Government has ignored expert calls for a review for more than a year, putting our communities and biodiversity at unacceptable risk. 

The Greens will overhaul WA’s outdated and dangerous program of prescribed burning to bring the practice in line with current science. We will:

• Push for an independent expert inquiry into prescribed burning as recommended by the EPA in 2023
• Apply the recommendations of the review to overhaul WA’s prescribed burning program 
• Implement a zoning approach to protect high risk areas
• Increase funding for rapid suppression as well as full safety equipment for all frontline responders

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Protect our precious groundwater 

WA’s groundwater supply is under threat. The climate crisis, poor government regulation and unchecked industrial growth have all driven a critical decline in our precious groundwater levels, risking our urban green spaces, wetlands and other deep-rooted ecosystems that rely on it to survive.

But after 18 years in the works, the WA Labor Government last year abandoned critical water law reforms that would have prioritised water for environmental use over industrial license holders. As one of the few states and territories reliant on groundwater over surface water supplies, WA needs a sustainable approach to groundwater management that will safeguard supplies for the future.

The Greens have a plan to protect, manage and regulate WA’s groundwater supplies. We will limit water licences to sustainable levels, and ensure groundwater allocation limits are reviewed regularly to reflect the changing volume of sustainable yield.