The Greens (WA) have warned the State Government against caving to the wishes of federal Labor leader Bill Shorten to open land up for fracking.
Environment spokesperson Robin Chapple MLC said that there was a real risk that Labor would open up WAs North to fracking due to pressure from corporate lobbyists as well as Bill Shorten.
“Bill Shorten has joined a chorus of big business lobbyists calling on parts of Australia to be opened up to fracking. The NT Labor Government just opened up half the Territory to fracking, and Bill Shorten is now calling on the Victorian Government to reverse its fracking ban.
“The WA Government must resist pressure from lobbyists and their federal colleagues, and commit to a total moratorium on fracking in WA.
“The community will not put up with a halfway measure similar to the NT, and we will not allow groundwater to be poisoned in the name of extra cash for big companies.
“There is no future for fracking in WA. Submissions made by Buru Energy saw that there was no plan to properly manage waste from this toxic industry.
“We simply cannot allow an industry like this to operate if we wish to mitigate climate change and keep to our Paris commitments. Climate change is already affecting WA, and for the State Government to rip open WA for fracking would be tantamount to giving up.
“WA has huge potential for solar energy, which is clean, renewable and affordable. The Government should be investing in renewable energy rather than bowing to the pressure of lobbyists and federal Labor.
“Communities are waiting with baited breath to see the outcome of this scientific inquiry, and to see if the WA Government will commit to protecting the land by banning fracking across WA.
“The Greens are backing the communities, farmers and action groups that are firmly against fracking. We are calling on the State Government to join us and commit to a total ban on fracking.”
The Greens (WA) have reiterated their longstanding opposition to damming the Kimberley's Fitzroy River and backed calls to fix existing barriers to threatened sawfish migrating up the river.
"The Fitzroy, which drains a vast area of the Kimberley, is considered the most important nursery for critically endangered freshwater sawfish, which migrate up to 400 km inland as young," Greens Mining and Pastoral MLC Robin Chapple said.
"Apparently this means little to pastoralist Gina Rineheart, who reportedly told an American Chamber of Commerce dinner recently that 99 per cent of the river's water is 'wasted'.
"The Greens have staunchly opposed moves to dam the Fitzroy for the past 15 years and we welcome the McGowan Government’s resistance to moves to dam it for large-scale irrigation this time.
"We also support calls by scientists to for fishways to be built on Camballin Barrage and urgent implementation of a catchment management plan for the Fitzroy in collaboration with Traditional Owners.
"To say that the Fitzroy's water is 'wasted' when it goes out to sea reveals a low level of knowledge about the region.
"Any alteration to freshwater outfall has a corollary effect downstream – for example, on fish stocks and small fry prawn populations in King Sound."
