MEDIA RELEASE: GREENS CORRECT THE RECORD ON WA LABOR’S SO-CALLED EPA REFORMS

18 October 2024

The WA Greens have rewritten Premier Roger Cook and Environment Minister Reece Whitby’s statement that attempts to defend WA Labor’s shameful EPA reform and lack of climate action. See below:

The most significant and damaging reforms to Western Australia’s environmental approval laws in a generation have passed Parliament, helping accelerate the state’s already rising emissions in a climate crisis major job-creating projects while trashing maintaining Western Australia’s already weak world-class environmental standards.

The Environmental Protection Act Amendment Bill 2024 delivers on the Cook Labor Government’s commitments in December last year to overhaul the State’s environmental approval laws in favour of industry and in response to the Vogel-McFerran Review; a copy of which has never been made publicly available despite requests from conservation groups and the Greens.

In the most significant reform under the new legislation, other Government regulators will be able to process and issue their own approvals before while the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) has assessed environmental and climate impacts assessments are underway.

Parallel approvals will undermine the independence of the EPA and put pressure on the agency to approve projects more quickly, even if their environmental impacts are untenable.

Under the new laws, the Environment Minister will provide the EPA with a Statement of Expectation, helping it to better understand the Government’s priorities; new gas. including the green energy transition, housing delivery, job creation and protection of WA’s unique environment.

The membership of the independent EPA board will be expanded to between five and nine members and can now include individuals with a background in fossil fuels or property development and no environmental expertise. who will be required to have skills or experience in specific disciplines important to the functions of the EPA.

We’ve already seen the controversial appointment of Darren Walsh – a former environmental consultant with Satterley Property Group and a former director of environmental consulting firm JBS&G that has donated more than $30,000 to the WA Labor party since 2021 – to Chair of the EPA last month.

The reforms also remove the public’s right to appeal against a decision made by the EPA not to assess a project, one of the few areas where WA’s environmental laws had been stronger than in other bringing WA into line with other Australian jurisdictions by reducing unnecessary appeals while retaining reasonable rights of appeal across the system.

Comments attributed to WA Greens MLC Dr Brad Pettitt in response to comments from Premier Roger Cook and Environment Minister Reece Whitby:

“These so-called reforms will undermine proper environmental assessment in Western Australia and are designed to pressure the EPA to approve new fossil fuel projects rapidly, including Woodside’s North West Shelf expansion, not protect our precious and threatened natural environment.

“The government claims they consulted widely on these changes, but the truth is they’re only listening to industry who want to fast-track new offshore gas projects, fast-track more mining in our northern jarrah forests and open up the Kimberley to dangerous fracking.

“The Premier talks about these reforms helping WA become a renewable energy powerhouse but the reality is that this Labor government is doing more to displace renewable energy and slow the transition, particularly in Asian markets that are buying our gas, than anyone else.

“These comments are particularly disingenuous in the context of Minister Whitby’s Tuesday announcement the Cook Labor government would effectively remove any last remnants of state-based climate regulation and shift all responsibility for assessing greenhouse gas emissions to the federal Labor government, which relies heavily on dodgy carbon offsets to achieve its climate targets.”

Comments attributed to WA Greens candidate and Fossil Fuels Spokesperson Sophie McNeill in response to comments from Premier Roger Cook and Environment Minister Reece Whitby:

“It’s deeply disturbing to witness the variety of complicated excuses this Labor government has created to justify its capitulation to the gas industry and the gutting of the EPA.

“As Western Australians suffer during a cost-of-living crisis, Premier Cook and Minister Whitby have this week gone out of their way to help billion-dollar fossil fuel companies like Woodside and Chevron save hundreds of millions of dollars – while the rest of us are left struggling to make ends meet.

“The Cook government are the climate pariahs of Australia – the only state with rising emissions, no 2030 target and now with no state-based incentive for massively polluting companies to reduce their emissions.

“What will it take for WA Labor to listen to the science? The WA community is sick of Premier Cook and Minister Whitby helping their mates at the big end of town rather than doing what is best for our planet and our kid’s future.”

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Tim Oliver – 0431 9696 25