Understorey: Democratic Deficit, Done Dirt Cheap

As people urgently readied themselves for Western Australia’s surprise pandemic lockdown on Sunday 3rd February, the Environment Protection Authority quietly posted on its website several contentious gas emission approvals, without fanfare or press release from the Minister for Environment’s office.  The Minister charged with responsibility for addressing climate change and species loss, Stephen Dawson MLC, had waved through projects including the Waitsia onshore gas development in the Mid-West, potentially opening the way for fracking, and a new gas-fired power station for FMG.  Apart from the fugitive emissions and carbon costs of these projects, the end-use emissions will add up to the release of almost 50 million tonnes of carbon.  If Western Australia hopes to reach its promised target of zero emissions by 2050, it won’t be through these announcements, it seems.  Understorey’s Adrian Glamorgan speaks with Conservation Council of WA’s director, Piers Verstegen, about the environment sector’s relationship with the Minister for the Environment; how campaigners’ are now resorting to expensive court cases (with all their limitations); and the lost opportunities for job-creation in sunrise industries.  It’s a tour of the peculiar processes that are Western Australia’s democratic workings, where the evidence of scientists, farmers, environmentalists and the government’s own policies can be easily swept aside by a Minister’s decision.