Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] The WA community understand the urgent need to take action to address the climate crisis. We know that climate change is shaping our present right now. We also know that failure to act will condemn our communities across the state to struggle against the impacts of climate change for generation after generation. We understand that we are in many ways at the frontline of the work that needs to be done to address that climate crisis, because many of the corporations that have for so long dominated our state and its politics have used their influence to prop up industries which are dirty and polluting. We understand that the LNG industry in Western Australia in particular is one of the primary causes of our emissions as a state. We understand that many of the projects that have been put forward in the last few years, if they come to fruition, advocated as they are by big corporations, would amount to emissions, to impacts upon climate change, that would make it impossible to take action on climate change. We know that the Gorgon project alone, if allowed to continue, would amount to an emissions profile four times greater than the Adani Carmichael mine. We know that the proposed facilities for the opening up of the Browse and Scarborough gas fields in WA will alone account for 47 percent of WA's annual emissions. And we know that this is just not sustainable. It should not happen in a state where, overwhelmingly, people want action on climate change.

It is for this reason that the Greens in Western Australia, in the last sitting of the state parliament, brought forward a climate bill, a piece of legislation that would have begun the urgent work that was needed, and is needed now, to address the climate crisis, to bring down our emissions, to transition away from these dirty, polluting industries and to support communities in that transition. This piece of legislation was supported by over 30 scientists across our community and was incredibly well championed by our state MLC Tim Clifford, the WA Greens climate spokesperson. We intended to bring that legislation before the parliament to have a robust debate on it and, hopefully, to win the parliament's and the chamber's support for it. It was also an opportunity for Mark McGowan's Labor government to prove that the hundreds of thousands of dollars that the government has taken in donations from Chevron and from Woodside would not be front of mind and that the government would, in fact, support the community and support the environment by taking action and supporting this bill.

It has been made very clear to the people of WA over the past 12 months that, when the major parties decide that action is needed to address a crisis in our state, that action will be taken. We have seen extraordinary and, in many ways, transformative action taken in relation to the COVID crisis in our state, so people clearly know that when the government wants to act it can and it does. Yet, when the legislation was brought forward and the opportunity was given to vote on this bill, the government basically gagged the debate. The environment minister, Stephen Dawson, did not even turn up. Mark McGowan's Labor government in Western Australia was not even willing to vote on this piece of legislation, and the bloke whose job it is to turn up for these moments in parliament and talk to the government's position didn't even turn up for the debate. Many people in our community are frustrated with politics right now because of this disconnect, this disparity, this lack of action.

As a community, we have worked incredibly hard over the past 12 months or more to get on top of COVID in our state. We have worked together to support each other through a really difficult time. We know that what lies before us now is a project of recovery from the health impacts of COVID-19 on the general community. As a community, we want to recover from this crisis in a way that addresses the climate crisis. We have not done all this work for the last 12 months to have a gas powered recovery forced upon us by parties that are in the pockets of Chevron, Woodside and all the rest of the corporate titans that feel as though they have been able to run the state of Western Australia with impunity for the last hundred years or more. We want—the community of WA demand—a rebuild from this crisis that takes action on climate change, that protects our environment and that safeguards our old-growth forests. I must now mention as well the wonderful work of the WA Forest Alliance, currently campaigning, right now, to end native forest logging in Western Australia. Native forest logging is an industry which is not only destroying our precious natural places but also running down and turning into wood chip some of our planet's most effective mechanisms for drawing carbon down into the soil and redressing the chemical imbalances that are driving climate change. Our community is alive with the desire for action. We have sacrificed through this period to keep ourselves safe and to keep those we love safe, and we are rejoicing in the opportunity that we now have to embrace each other and to come back together ahead of Christmas.

As we look to the work that will need to be done in the next year and in the years ahead, we are ready for it. We are ready to get to work. We do demand, however, that as we do that work the parties of government join with us in ensuring those projects align with our goals of taking action on climate change and protecting our environment. In not allowing this climate bill even to be voted on, in failing to ensure that the minister for the environment turned up to the damned debate, the McGowan government have sent a clear message to the people of Western Australia that they are not serious about taking urgent action on climate change. It is clear to us in the WA community that if climate action is to be achieved there must be more Greens voices in the parliament after our state election in March. Only then it seems, with enough Greens MPs in there to demand proper action, will we see action taken in parliament within the critical time periods that we know exist in relation to the climate crisis.

I congratulate my good colleague and friend Tim Clifford on his work in crafting the bill and putting it before the parliament. I was disappointed in the extreme to see it so casually blocked, with not even a vote given. I look forward to campaigning with him and with the entire community in the run-up to the state election to ensure that Mark McGowan's Labor government is sent a strong message that our community demands action and that it will not accept any government of any colour wasting this opportunity for climate action or destroying our precious places just because they want a continuous stream of donations into their back pockets ahead of a state election and to keep the West Australian newspaper happy. Our community in WA deserves a hell of a lot better than that, and that is what the Greens will continue to deliver in Western Australia. I thank the chamber for its time.