While all eyes are on Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton as they “duke it out”, both with claims the country’s economic and political future would be better off under their respective Labor and Liberal parties, neither are proposing any serious shift to stop runaway climate change or address the calamitous lack of secure housing.
Meanwhile, many continue to struggle with the rising cost of living, unable to pay for the basics.
The Western Australian election on March 8 will be an opportunity to assess the major parties, as well as those offering progressive solutions, such as the Socialist Alliance and the Greens.
WA polls show Labor is significantly ahead of the Liberals, with incumbent Labor Premier Roger Cook also preferred.
A Newspoll, taken between January 29 and February 4, showed Labor with a 56–44 lead, with 42% saying they would vote Labor one. The Liberals received 32%, the Nationals held 3%, the Greens gained 12%, while 4% went to One Nation and 7% to all others.
Compared to the 2021 WA election, such numbers indicate there is still strong support for Labor, but with a swing of 14% to the Liberals.
In the 2021 election, after the worst of the pandemic, Labor picked up a stonking majority of lower house seats (53 of 59). The Newspoll results suggest many of these would be lost, but that the party would retain a majority in the lower house without much difficulty.
The same poll indicated that Cook is the preferred leader, with an approval rating of 18, compared to Liberal leader Libby Mettam’s negative 2 rating. Cook was perceived as a better premier at a rating of 54 to 34.
However, how Labor’s track record of cosying up to the resources sector over protecting the fragile coastal and wetlands environments (as evidenced by attempts to kneecap the Environmental Protection Authority’s ability to do its job) is yet to be seen.
In one area where Labor’s prioritisation is most obvious — its support for liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects – the benefits are minimal.
WA exported $111 billion worth of LNG in the past four years to 2024 — with The Australia Institute saying that if the state counted as a country, it would be the third largest exporter of the gas, after the United States and Qatar.
Yet royalties from these exports make up just 1.5% of the state’s revenue, with no royalties paid on 73% of the exports and projects, such as Chevron’s Wheatstone and Gorgon LNG, Woodside’s Pluto LNG and Shell’s Prelude LNG, also among those contributing nothing.
Alternative voices
Felicity Townsend, the Greens’ candidate for the WA seat of Fremantle and Josh Last, Socialist Alliance candidate for the federal seat of Fremantle, said an alternative approach to environment and energy issues is possible.
“WA Labor’s environmental record over the last 8 years in government is shocking,” Townsend told Green Left.
“We’ve heard allegations that [former premier] Mark McGowan interfered with the EPA to get concessions for the resource industry when he was Premier.
“And, under Cook, we have seen WA Labor weaken the EPA and scuttle the federal Nature Positive Laws that The Greens and the federal environment minister had been working on.”
WA Labor has allowed the clearing of jarrah forests for mining, Townsend said, and given the go-ahead to energy corporation Woodside’s northwest shelf expansion.
It has spruiked up plans for AUKUS, despite concerns that had been raised about its impact on Cockburn Sound, south of Perth.
“I have been involved with Go Beyond Gas in Fremantle for several years due to my concern over climate change and have met with local Labor MPs Simone McGurk and Josh Wilson, urging them to listen to climate scientists and our community and stop approving fossil fuel projects,” Townsend said.
“However, they are less interested in the concern of their constituents than the interests of corporations. They won’t change their ways unless The Greens start to take their seats.”
Last was also critical of WA Labor, telling GL that “its environmental record is one that has always lagged far behind the science”.
“Now, when governments have blown past global warming milestones, and made a mockery of climate commitments, they are again expanding fossil fuel projects and ignoring our scientists at the EPA,” Last added.
He said the progressive movement had been championing responsible climate action. “Now, as the climate crises pile up, there has never been a more important time to vote for a party that acts on scientific evidence and acts responsibly for future generations.”
Housing crisis
Despite the dearth of affordable housing, there appears to be little appetite to address the problem in WA even though Boorloo has the highest rents.
Townsend said the situation reflected Labor’s unwillingness to act.
“WA has become the epicentre of the housing crisis,” Townsend said. Labor has not addressed this “despite it having a super majority government and billions of dollars in surplus”.
“There is so much to be done: In Fremantle, there is so much cleared land Labor is just sitting on. It is moving people out of state-owned public housing and demolishing it — in the middle of a housing crisis while families are living in their cars!”
She said the Greens would introduce a two-year freeze on rent rises and a permanent cap on these at CPI plus 10% (as per a model introduced in the ACT). It would also scrap no-grounds evictions and ensure minimum standards for all public and private rental properties.
Last said there are a number of things that can be taken to rectify the housing affordability crisis.
“It’s the biggest mess created by the Liberal and Labor parties’ greed, over decades.
“Socialist Alliance supports scrapping negative gearing and capital gains tax exemptions to stop incentivising corporations to enrich themselves on the housing market.
“We don’t have a shortage of houses: there are plenty of vacant houses. We need to put a tax on real estate that is left vacant, to increase the available housing stock.
“We also need to criminalise rampant fraud committed by landlords, who use the rental bond system as a personal piggy bank,” Last said.
“We need to supercharge the consumer protection ombudsman to properly regulate the real estate industry and provide a transparent and publicly available list of actions taken against property managers who have broken the law.”