WA public has every reason to be sceptical about a bill that concentrates vast power in premier’s hands

A year ago, along with others, I warned about interference from the Cook Government - on behalf of industry – to stall federal Labor’s flagship nature law reforms.

When the bill was abandoned, the premier was keen to take credit, telling a room full of mining industry executives that his government “hunted in packs” with miners to force the federal government to scrap their proposed nature positive reforms.

WA Premier Roger Cook will be granted vast powers under a new bill soon to be debated by parliament. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

It was allegedly a phone call from Cook that spelled the end for Tanya Plibersek’s nature-positive reforms that, until days earlier, had looked set to pass the Senate with support from the Australian Greens.

Now, Premier Roger Cook is quietly planning to further weaken state protections and increase his own powers to fast-track approvals in WA.

The new State Development Bill concentrates power in the premier’s hands, giving him and his successors the authority to override and modify major pieces of WA legislation to give the green light to projects he deems necessary for strategic or economic reasons.

These extraordinary powers – known as modification orders – allow the premier alone to amend or exclude the operation of provisions on up to 40 specified acts for projects designated as priority.

And yes, this includes WA’s Environmental Protection Act. Analysis by law firm Clayton Utz, who have often represented big mining interests, found modification orders “ultimately rests on the premier’s opinion” and there are no criteria in the act to guide these decisions.

Cook is asking us to trust that he will only use his extraordinary new powers for good, and the premier, and Energy Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson, have claimed that they are necessary to decarbonise WA’s economy and to give certainty to investment in new green energy projects.

But does that claim stack up?

The premier has not taken West Australians into his confidence about the projects he wants to prioritise under the State Development Bill.

If these new powers are so essential, then the public is entitled to hear the arguments and consider whether voiding the effect of so many laws can be justified.

There has been no public debate, and we have every reason to be sceptical; the WA government already has a dismal record on environmental protection and their enthusiasm for climate-damaging LNG projects flies in the face of a mountain of evidence.

If WA Labor believes more fossil fuels will reduce emissions, can we trust them to make careful and informed decisions which protect our already degraded environment?

For instance, last month’s $13 billion critical minerals deal between US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Albanese thrust a new gallium refining project in WA into the spotlight.

If you haven’t heard of this project (or gallium) then you’re not alone – it was announced by Alcoa within hours of the US-Australia deal being struck.

The gallium project is linked to Alcoa’s plan to expand forest mining, a project that risks contamination of Perth’s drinking water, further clearing of the world’s only jarrah forest, and the release of more than 1.3 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions over the life of the project.

Meanwhile, the clean energy sector says it is the lack of a legislated renewable energy target – WA is the only state without one – that is holding up the green boom here, not an issue with the state’s approval process.

And even if you ignore this evidence and decide we can trust this premier, the State Development Bill is so broad that future premiers will have all the power they need to fast-track new uranium mines or coal projects without any scrutiny by the parliament or the people.

Of course, we need a green energy transition, but we don’t need to remove environmental protections to achieve that – quite the contrary.

We need strong nature laws, clear targets for renewable energy and emissions reduction, strategic plans that give industry certainty about where development can and can’t occur, and government investment into clean, sustainable industries.

The State Development Bill would take us in the wrong direction, and it should not be allowed to pass in its current form.

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