State branded climate change capital as emissions swell
Official figures showing greenhouse gas emissions in WA increasing to near record levels confirm the state as Australia's climate change capital, a Greens MP says.
WA emitted 89.37 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2022/23, the latest available data shows, an annual increase of nearly four per cent on the previous year.
The figures are in the National Inventory Report 2023, recently submitted to the UN climate change secretariat under reporting requirements of the Paris Agreement.
The data, which spans 1989-2023, shows WA's highest emissions were 89.64Mt in 2009/10.
Greens WA leader Brad Pettitt said it "reinforces what we already knew - Western Australia is the climate change capital of Australia".
"WA's emissions have continued to rise under Labor in the critical decade for climate action, peaking again in 2023, almost 17 per cent above 2005 levels," he said.
"The Cook Labor government have also dumped their commitment to legislate a pathway to net zero by 2050 - the absolute bare minimum - and continue to use Woodside talking points about WA gas helping to decarbonise Asia - talking points that have been proven to be false and misleading," Dr Pettitt said.
Conservation Council of WA executive director Matt Roberts said it was "unfathomable" that Premier Roger Cook had indicated that he expected emissions to go up.
He said that "folks are really fired up to try and express themselves in a way that they feel heard," about growing concerns over emissions.
He was speaking after protests across the country on Wednesday targeting government MPs, as green groups pressure federal environment minister Murray Watt to consult the public and release the conditions of his approval to extend Woodside's North West Shelf gas project.
The approval, announced on May 28, would allow Woodside to extend the project's life from 2030 to 2070, subject to conditions about the impact of air emission levels from the expanded onshore gas plant at Karratha in WA's northwest.
Those conditions remain secret and a coalition of 80 groups and prominent individuals have written to Mr Watt demanding he publicly release them, and use his powers under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act to allow the public to be consulted.
Woodside still has to accept conditions around heritage and air quality at the project on WA's Burrup Peninsula, home to ancient rock art, before the approval is made official.
On Wednesday morning, conservation councils coordinated protests against the approval at government and MP offices in all states and territories.
Indigenous as well as non-Indigenous Australians "deserved to be heard" in light of recent information on climate, emissions and impacts from the facility on Murujuga rock art, Mr Roberts said.
Campaigners fear the extension approval brings Woodside a step closer to tapping the Browse Basin gas field, a vast reserve beneath the pristine Scott Reef, north of Broome.
"If the extension goes ahead, it will lock in polluting gas for decades to come, creating demand for new gas projects like Browse, bringing Woodside's toxic operations closer to Scott Reef, and setting back the clean energy transition in WA," Mr Roberts said.
Official figures showing greenhouse gas emissions in WA increasing to near record levels confirm the state as Australia's climate change capital, a Greens MP says.
WA emitted 89.37 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2022/23, the latest available data shows, an annual increase of nearly four per cent on the previous year.
The figures are in the National Inventory Report 2023, recently submitted to the UN climate change secretariat under reporting requirements of the Paris Agreement.
The data, which spans 1989-2023, shows WA's highest emissions were 89.64Mt in 2009/10.
Greens WA leader Brad Pettitt said it "reinforces what we already knew - Western Australia is the climate change capital of Australia".
"WA's emissions have continued to rise under Labor in the critical decade for climate action, peaking again in 2023, almost 17 per cent above 2005 levels," he said.
"The Cook Labor government have also dumped their commitment to legislate a pathway to net zero by 2050 - the absolute bare minimum - and continue to use Woodside talking points about WA gas helping to decarbonise Asia - talking points that have been proven to be false and misleading," Dr Pettitt said.
Conservation Council of WA executive director Matt Roberts said it was "unfathomable" that Premier Roger Cook had indicated that he expected emissions to go up.
He said that "folks are really fired up to try and express themselves in a way that they feel heard," about growing concerns over emissions.
He was speaking after protests across the country on Wednesday targeting government MPs, as green groups pressure federal environment minister Murray Watt to consult the public and release the conditions of his approval to extend Woodside's North West Shelf gas project.
The approval, announced on May 28, would allow Woodside to extend the project's life from 2030 to 2070, subject to conditions about the impact of air emission levels from the expanded onshore gas plant at Karratha in WA's northwest.
Those conditions remain secret and a coalition of 80 groups and prominent individuals have written to Mr Watt demanding he publicly release them, and use his powers under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act to allow the public to be consulted.
Woodside still has to accept conditions around heritage and air quality at the project on WA's Burrup Peninsula, home to ancient rock art, before the approval is made official.
On Wednesday morning, conservation councils coordinated protests against the approval at government and MP offices in all states and territories.
Indigenous as well as non-Indigenous Australians "deserved to be heard" in light of recent information on climate, emissions and impacts from the facility on Murujuga rock art, Mr Roberts said.
Campaigners fear the extension approval brings Woodside a step closer to tapping the Browse Basin gas field, a vast reserve beneath the pristine Scott Reef, north of Broome.
"If the extension goes ahead, it will lock in polluting gas for decades to come, creating demand for new gas projects like Browse, bringing Woodside's toxic operations closer to Scott Reef, and setting back the clean energy transition in WA," Mr Roberts said.
Official figures showing greenhouse gas emissions in WA increasing to near record levels confirm the state as Australia's climate change capital, a Greens MP says.
WA emitted 89.37 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2022/23, the latest available data shows, an annual increase of nearly four per cent on the previous year.
The figures are in the National Inventory Report 2023, recently submitted to the UN climate change secretariat under reporting requirements of the Paris Agreement.
The data, which spans 1989-2023, shows WA's highest emissions were 89.64Mt in 2009/10.
Greens WA leader Brad Pettitt said it "reinforces what we already knew - Western Australia is the climate change capital of Australia".
"WA's emissions have continued to rise under Labor in the critical decade for climate action, peaking again in 2023, almost 17 per cent above 2005 levels," he said.
"The Cook Labor government have also dumped their commitment to legislate a pathway to net zero by 2050 - the absolute bare minimum - and continue to use Woodside talking points about WA gas helping to decarbonise Asia - talking points that have been proven to be false and misleading," Dr Pettitt said.
Conservation Council of WA executive director Matt Roberts said it was "unfathomable" that Premier Roger Cook had indicated that he expected emissions to go up.
He said that "folks are really fired up to try and express themselves in a way that they feel heard," about growing concerns over emissions.
He was speaking after protests across the country on Wednesday targeting government MPs, as green groups pressure federal environment minister Murray Watt to consult the public and release the conditions of his approval to extend Woodside's North West Shelf gas project.
The approval, announced on May 28, would allow Woodside to extend the project's life from 2030 to 2070, subject to conditions about the impact of air emission levels from the expanded onshore gas plant at Karratha in WA's northwest.
Those conditions remain secret and a coalition of 80 groups and prominent individuals have written to Mr Watt demanding he publicly release them, and use his powers under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act to allow the public to be consulted.
Woodside still has to accept conditions around heritage and air quality at the project on WA's Burrup Peninsula, home to ancient rock art, before the approval is made official.
On Wednesday morning, conservation councils coordinated protests against the approval at government and MP offices in all states and territories.
Indigenous as well as non-Indigenous Australians "deserved to be heard" in light of recent information on climate, emissions and impacts from the facility on Murujuga rock art, Mr Roberts said.
Campaigners fear the extension approval brings Woodside a step closer to tapping the Browse Basin gas field, a vast reserve beneath the pristine Scott Reef, north of Broome.
"If the extension goes ahead, it will lock in polluting gas for decades to come, creating demand for new gas projects like Browse, bringing Woodside's toxic operations closer to Scott Reef, and setting back the clean energy transition in WA," Mr Roberts said.
Official figures showing greenhouse gas emissions in WA increasing to near record levels confirm the state as Australia's climate change capital, a Greens MP says.
WA emitted 89.37 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2022/23, the latest available data shows, an annual increase of nearly four per cent on the previous year.
The figures are in the National Inventory Report 2023, recently submitted to the UN climate change secretariat under reporting requirements of the Paris Agreement.
The data, which spans 1989-2023, shows WA's highest emissions were 89.64Mt in 2009/10.
Greens WA leader Brad Pettitt said it "reinforces what we already knew - Western Australia is the climate change capital of Australia".
"WA's emissions have continued to rise under Labor in the critical decade for climate action, peaking again in 2023, almost 17 per cent above 2005 levels," he said.
"The Cook Labor government have also dumped their commitment to legislate a pathway to net zero by 2050 - the absolute bare minimum - and continue to use Woodside talking points about WA gas helping to decarbonise Asia - talking points that have been proven to be false and misleading," Dr Pettitt said.
Conservation Council of WA executive director Matt Roberts said it was "unfathomable" that Premier Roger Cook had indicated that he expected emissions to go up.
He said that "folks are really fired up to try and express themselves in a way that they feel heard," about growing concerns over emissions.
He was speaking after protests across the country on Wednesday targeting government MPs, as green groups pressure federal environment minister Murray Watt to consult the public and release the conditions of his approval to extend Woodside's North West Shelf gas project.
The approval, announced on May 28, would allow Woodside to extend the project's life from 2030 to 2070, subject to conditions about the impact of air emission levels from the expanded onshore gas plant at Karratha in WA's northwest.
Those conditions remain secret and a coalition of 80 groups and prominent individuals have written to Mr Watt demanding he publicly release them, and use his powers under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act to allow the public to be consulted.
Woodside still has to accept conditions around heritage and air quality at the project on WA's Burrup Peninsula, home to ancient rock art, before the approval is made official.
On Wednesday morning, conservation councils coordinated protests against the approval at government and MP offices in all states and territories.
Indigenous as well as non-Indigenous Australians "deserved to be heard" in light of recent information on climate, emissions and impacts from the facility on Murujuga rock art, Mr Roberts said.
Campaigners fear the extension approval brings Woodside a step closer to tapping the Browse Basin gas field, a vast reserve beneath the pristine Scott Reef, north of Broome.
"If the extension goes ahead, it will lock in polluting gas for decades to come, creating demand for new gas projects like Browse, bringing Woodside's toxic operations closer to Scott Reef, and setting back the clean energy transition in WA," Mr Roberts said.
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Mr Steel stresses the situation is changing for the better under the Albanese government, instead pinning the blame on the previous coalition government for a "decade of underinvestment" in Medicare and general practice. Tuesday's ACT budget will include measures to boost frontline services too, such as payroll tax changes that incentivise bulk billing, intended to take pressure off hospitals. In exchange for a better funding deal, the territory government could help its federal counterpart control the spiralling cost of the NDIS by providing more foundational supports for young males, who are signing up to the scheme at a rate of more than one in 10. "But we also need the Commonwealth to recognise that beyond the NDIS pressures, the major pressure that governments face in this country is about pressure on our acute hospital systems, and that is something that has to be addressed," Mr Steel says. The ACT budget has a health problem. When Treasurer Chris Steel, fresh in the job after Labor's seventh straight election win, provided a mid-year budget update in February, he was forced to make an embarrassing admission. The territory's budget deficit had blown out to $971 million, more than 50 per cent higher than predicted just seven months earlier. The government's anaemic revenue stream is falling behind what's needed to meet the growing demand for health services of its ageing population. Health spending accounted for less than 30 per cent of the ACT budget in the 90s, Mr Steel says. Now it accounts for 36 per cent. "All of us are facing this massive fiscal challenge from the growth in demand and cost on our hospital systems," the treasurer tells AAP. "That is something that we want to address with the Commonwealth sitting down and getting underway with negotiations on a new five-year National Health Reform Agreement." The agreement lays out how much funding the federal government doles out to states and territories to run their hospital systems. The current agreement runs out on June 30 and the Commonwealth has only guaranteed funding for one more year in a stop-gap deal for 2025/26. While the interim agreement gives the ACT a 16 per cent funding increase from the current financial year, Mr Steel says it's not enough. "The extent of demand and cost in the healthcare system is not being acknowledged by the Commonwealth," he says. Current funding arrangements would result in the federal government contributing to 33 per cent of ACT hospital funding, when the Albanese government has promised to raise their contribution to 45 per cent by 2035. A spokesperson for the federal Department of Health said the Commonwealth was working on finalising negotiations by the end of 2025. Mr Steel stresses the situation is changing for the better under the Albanese government, instead pinning the blame on the previous coalition government for a "decade of underinvestment" in Medicare and general practice. Tuesday's ACT budget will include measures to boost frontline services too, such as payroll tax changes that incentivise bulk billing, intended to take pressure off hospitals. In exchange for a better funding deal, the territory government could help its federal counterpart control the spiralling cost of the NDIS by providing more foundational supports for young males, who are signing up to the scheme at a rate of more than one in 10. "But we also need the Commonwealth to recognise that beyond the NDIS pressures, the major pressure that governments face in this country is about pressure on our acute hospital systems, and that is something that has to be addressed," Mr Steel says. The ACT budget has a health problem. When Treasurer Chris Steel, fresh in the job after Labor's seventh straight election win, provided a mid-year budget update in February, he was forced to make an embarrassing admission. The territory's budget deficit had blown out to $971 million, more than 50 per cent higher than predicted just seven months earlier. The government's anaemic revenue stream is falling behind what's needed to meet the growing demand for health services of its ageing population. Health spending accounted for less than 30 per cent of the ACT budget in the 90s, Mr Steel says. Now it accounts for 36 per cent. "All of us are facing this massive fiscal challenge from the growth in demand and cost on our hospital systems," the treasurer tells AAP. "That is something that we want to address with the Commonwealth sitting down and getting underway with negotiations on a new five-year National Health Reform Agreement." The agreement lays out how much funding the federal government doles out to states and territories to run their hospital systems. The current agreement runs out on June 30 and the Commonwealth has only guaranteed funding for one more year in a stop-gap deal for 2025/26. While the interim agreement gives the ACT a 16 per cent funding increase from the current financial year, Mr Steel says it's not enough. "The extent of demand and cost in the healthcare system is not being acknowledged by the Commonwealth," he says. Current funding arrangements would result in the federal government contributing to 33 per cent of ACT hospital funding, when the Albanese government has promised to raise their contribution to 45 per cent by 2035. A spokesperson for the federal Department of Health said the Commonwealth was working on finalising negotiations by the end of 2025. Mr Steel stresses the situation is changing for the better under the Albanese government, instead pinning the blame on the previous coalition government for a "decade of underinvestment" in Medicare and general practice. Tuesday's ACT budget will include measures to boost frontline services too, such as payroll tax changes that incentivise bulk billing, intended to take pressure off hospitals. In exchange for a better funding deal, the territory government could help its federal counterpart control the spiralling cost of the NDIS by providing more foundational supports for young males, who are signing up to the scheme at a rate of more than one in 10. "But we also need the Commonwealth to recognise that beyond the NDIS pressures, the major pressure that governments face in this country is about pressure on our acute hospital systems, and that is something that has to be addressed," Mr Steel says.
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Australia is considering its next steps after one of its closest allies joined with Israel to bomb Iran, exacerbating volatility in the Middle East. After days of growing escalation, the US unleashed strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities on Sunday (AEST) as President Donald Trump declared "there will be peace, or there will be tragedy for Iran". The Australian government has urged all parties to prioritise diplomacy and dialogue since Israel first launched strikes in mid June. Though some have raised questions over whether Australia should do more to support its ally, former ambassador to the US Arthur Sinodinos said the government was unlikely to get involved in combat. "There's no way we would put troops on the ground," he told AAP. "I don't think the government or the political establishment here are suggesting that we just follow whatever the US is going to do. "I'd be very surprised if there's anybody saying that we, automatically as a result of what the US has done, are now part of that conflict." Australia has previously provided some resources around shipping lanes but during the recent outbreak of violence, the government has refused to even entertain the possibility of military involvement. When Foreign Minister Penny Wong revealed the government would deploy defence assets to assist evacuation efforts, she repeatedly emphasised that they were not there for combat purposes. And in the immediate aftermath of the US strikes, a government spokesperson said they "note the US president's statement that now is the time for peace" while continuing to call for de-escalation, dialogue and diplomacy. While the coalition has insisted it does not want war, acting foreign affairs spokesman Andrew Hastie said the opposition supported the US bombings and claimed it was a "necessary action to take". However, the American strikes have also been labelled as a "terrifying and catastrophic escalation" with the Greens warning further violence from Israel or the US would impact ordinary Iranian civilians. Former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Australia's respond to the bombings would be defining."Australia should welcome US bombing of Iran's nuclear program," Mr Downer said on X. "We've been a US ally since 1951 as well as a consistent supporter of nuclear non-proliferation." About 2600 Australians in Iran are seeking assisted departures from the region, alongside about 1200 in Israel as the government urges travellers not to venture to either nation. Staff from the Department of Foreign Affairs have been evacuated from the Tehran embassy and are helping Australians leave through the border in Azerbaijan. Mr Sinodinos warned the future of Iran was uncertain as strikes could lead to the collapse of the country's regime.
