State Development Bill debate exposes ‘unholy’ alliance from Greens and One Nation over project approvals

Rita Saffioti has urged critics of Labor’s State Development Bill to be “real,” as debate over the news laws to fast-track approvals for major projects heats up during the last days of Parliament. MPs have agreed that the Legislative Council will start early at 10am on Wednesday in a bid to pass the legislation, and could sit as late as 10pm. The Legislative Assembly will then need to be recalled to rubber stamp the law’s final version, on December 16. Labor has agreed to some Opposition amendments to secure its support for the bill, which would provide a new framework to co-ordinate, facilitate and promote projects that have strategic or economic importance for WA. “We hope it can get through as soon as possible,” the Deputy Premier said on Tuesday. “We have to be quite real in this State. We have had — and continue to deliver - a very good balance between development and environmental protection, but we need to keep that balance going.” About 50 activists held a snap action outside State Parliament on Tuesday to protest the legislation. Conservation Council WA executive director Matt Roberts said provisions that would give Premier Roger Cook, as State Development Minister, the power to declare priority projects and enforce decision-making time frames amount to an “unprecedented and unnecessary power grab”. As debate got underway inside Parliament, Animal Justice MLC Amanda Dorn accused the Opposition of lacking courage, after Opposition MPs criticised the legislation then agreed to wave it through. Ms Dorn called the proposed Bill a “disaster.” “When you centralise decisions like that, you don’t get innovation, you get gatekeeping,” she said. “You get a bottleneck disguised as progress.” Liberal MP Steve Thomas said an “unholy alliance” between the Greens and One Nation was blocking the progress of key State projects by trying to delay the bill’s passage through Parliament. “The world has gone slightly mad, when the Greens and One Nation are in bed together in an alliance to make sure that this bill takes as long as possible,” he said. “But they’re doing it for two completely different reasons. The Greens don’t want any project to be approved that isn’t renewable energy, and One Nation doesn’t want any renewable projects approved.” The Opposition has agreed to a five-year review clause for the laws, but Greens MP Brad Pettit is arguing for a review after two years and has rejected the Government’s claim it needs the changes to fast-track renewable energy projects. “If we’re serious about fast tracking renewables, we’d get on with doing transmission, we’d have renewable energy target,” Mr Pettit said.