Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to speak to note about an issue that has captured the imagination and attention of an increasing number of Western Australians, and that is the impending debacle of a new 500-berth marina project at Point Peron in the southern metropolitan area of Perth. What we have seen in recent months, and I am presuming Senators from across the country have caught this, is that the environmental approvals process in Western Australia is profoundly broken. We have very recent revelations that 25 projects approved by the West Australian EPA over the last decade are linked directly to conflicts of interest on the board. Originally the Labor government, and more recently the Barnett government, was appointing people who were deeply conflicted on the proposals that they signed off on but who were meant to be holding on to the public interest. They are not declaring that conflict of interest and they are letting projects go ahead. It is a huge debacle and it has fatally undermined confidence in the environmental approvals process in Western Australia.

Instead of moving to fix this and restore the integrity of, and confidence in, the system, the Barnett government has rushed through retrospective legislation to say, 'Look, don't worry about all these mining projects and other projects across Western Australia. There's no conflict here; there's no corruption here. Let's just pretend that nothing happened.' Legislating retrospectively in that regard is absolutely unforgivable. My state MLC colleagues Lynn MacLaren and Robin Chapple have called for the dismissal of EPA board members and a structure that prevents this kind of corruption and conflict of interest, particularly on large industrial projects where the environmental, social and economic impacts can be absolutely profound.

The Roe highway stage 8 extension that the federal government has blindly dropped hundreds of millions of dollars on, even though the state government appears in complete chaos as to whether it is going to go ahead or not, and the destruction of the Underwood Avenue bushland are two projects that have been strenuously fought by surrounding communities who adore those bits of bush and do not want to see them go under bulldozer blades. They are two projects that have been caught up in this EPA conflict-of-interest scandal. One that has not yet, but which is nonetheless emitting increasing amounts of stench, is the proposal by Cedar Woods and Landcorp, the state government land development agency, to dump this canal development on Point Peron. This is part of the Perth metropolitan area and a really precious coastal area. I can remember going down there as a kid; I could not believe it afterwards when the locals were telling me that this was the impact area that was supposed to be smashed up by this canal development.

A 1964 agreement signed by the prime minister of the day and the premier of the day, saying that this precious block will remain in public hands, in reserve until the end of time, has been violated by both parties. I have been told by Senator Cormann, who is now the responsible minister, that it is not worth the paper it is printed on. Well, a deal is a deal, and that is what the community is saying. There is no business case and yet the proponent is allowed to claim there will be a $1.3 billion benefit to the area. The water data on groundwater modelling is completely false or absent and this is absolutely crucial, because a similar development not too far away is salinising people's bores. It is for this reason I want to congratulate our Commonwealth environment minister, Minister Hunt, for doing something somewhat unusual this week, and that is stopping the clock. That is an acknowledgement that there is something wrong with this proposal. I want to encourage Minister Hunt, now that he has actually given himself time to make the right decision—and I congratulate him for doing that—to save Point Peron, this precious park and this precious wetland bit of coast that means so much to so many people, for ever.

More than 10,000 petition signatures to date were tabled by Lynne McLaren MLC. We collected 520 signatures in one day at a picnic and rally held just the other weekend attended by more than 700 people. We have more than 200 postcards which I will be personally delivering to Minister Hunt this week. This is a campaign with very strong community momentum, backed by good science that has utterly demolished the economic case. We have a $2 shell company now claiming to be able to carry the development out, which to me smells like exactly the same kind of disaster as has occurred at Port Geographe in the south-west, where the Western Australian taxpayer has just picked up a $30 million tab    for cleaning up the rotten seaweed that was washing up because of the damage they did to the coastal ecosystem.

I met a girl called Kasumi at the rally and she gave me this hand-drawn picture of the beach and Lake Richmond, a freshwater lake that is threatened by this proposal. She said to me, 'I made this drawing to save Point Peron.' Minister Hunt, that is what you need to do.