Australia’s nature-positive laws at risk as WA drives ‘nature negative’

I live in the forests in the South West region of Western Australia. They are ancient, magnificent natural wonders. They are also under serious threat.

An American mining giant, Alcoa, is mining for bauxite in the northern jarrah forests. After clearing the forests and removing the bauxite, it is impossible to restore these ancient ecosystems. Once they’re gone, they’re gone forever.

The Water Corporation regards this mining as a major intergenerational risk and says that a contamination event of Perth’s drinking water is almost certain. WA’s water and environment regulator opposed Alcoa’s dangerous mining plans in their entirety, but last year the WA government granted a special exemption for Alcoa to keep mining regardless.

Alcoa bauxite mining operations in an area that was once jarrah forest in Western Australia.Credit: Getty/Nine News

Last month, it was revealed the WA environment regulator was diverting so many resources to monitoring Alcoa that the Department’s audits of Ministerial Statements were reduced by 75 per cent and their inspections of environmental licences were down 40 per cent.

This is not an isolated example of WA’s failing nature laws. Two years ago, WA’s Auditor General conducted an audit of compliance with mining environmental conditions and concluded: “I am concerned our environment is not currently adequately protected.”

And just this week, the WA government announced it is imposing a fee of $430 to lodge objections to mining proposals. Only two other states charge ordinary people like this, and their fees are many times less than the levy imposed on West Australians. This impost will act as an effective barrier to West Australians acting to protect places they value, including their own land, from mining applications.

Now the WA government is seeking to export this undemocratic vision to the rest of the country.

It is widely recognised that our state currently enjoys an outsized influence on federal politics as we head towards WA and federal elections, both likely early next year.

Unfortunately, the WA government is primarily using this influence to lobby for weaker nature protections to further advantage industry. They’re not doing it in our name.

This week, resources industry representatives poured into Canberra for Mineral Week. To kick it off, the WA Environment Minister announced that he was in Canberra on Monday to make sure that the federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek understands exactly what WA expects. Last week, the West Australian premier bragged at a business breakfast that he was confident that the federal government knew WA was “coming for it en masse”.

It comes as the WA government is currently legislating reforms to the EPA, the thin green line that defends WA’s nature, to further weaken our state’s environmental protections.

Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek is trying to get nature-positive laws through parliament, but it’s an uphill climb. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

WA is an incredibly special place. From the ocean, through the forests and woodlands to the arid centre, the landscapes and ecosystems are extraordinarily beautiful and biodiverse. We have turned out time and again to defend these forests, coral reefs and wetlands.

In 2021, 95 per cent of respondents to a WA government survey agreed that more of the beautiful West Australian forests we love should be protected. Three-quarters of West Australians agreed all native forest logging should end, and later that year we became the first state to ban native logging.

WA is just like the rest of the country, where 73 per cent of all Australians surveyed for the 2024 Biodiversity Concerns Survey said they supported strengthening environmental laws.

The West Australian government, and sections of our media, are presenting a false picture of what West Australian voters want to the rest of the country. I’m at Parliament in Canberra this morning with the heads of other peak environmental organisations to ensure the federal government hears the real story.

WA has an opportunity to benefit enormously from the transition to renewable energy, with the creation of thousands of good new jobs and sustainable industries. Rather than doubling down on polluting industries that can only thrive when nature suffers, we need policy and law frameworks that protect nature and prioritise the development of renewable energy.

The WA government is not just undermining nature protections. We are also the only state with rising emissions in the midst of an accelerating climate crisis.

Last summer was the longest, hottest, driest summer we have ever seen. The forests I live in and love were decimated by drought, with the resulting die-off christened a “forest collapse” the likes of which we’ve never seen.

Don’t believe that West Australian voters can be bought at the cost of everything that makes this state great.

It’s in our nature as West Australians to defend the places we love. It runs deep in our identity, and no one should try to pretend otherwise, however powerful they are.

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