Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The northern jarrah forests of my home state of Western Australia are some of the most beautiful, diverse and vulnerable forests on planet Earth. The preservation of these forests and their continued contribution to action on climate change is paramount. They have indeed been identified as an ecosystem of particular risk due to the increasingly drying climate, which is a reality of climate change. It is places like this that I want to see protected. It is places like this and the contribution that they make to our planet and our community that call on us, among so many other things, to pass climate laws which take on corporations and actually tackle the climate crisis.

Corporations such as Alcoa have gotten away with far too much for far too long. Not only have they been clearing our forests; just last month it was revealed that they have built a pipeline carrying toxic waste across Western Australia, right over the top of a key water supply dam. Toxic waste is flying over the top of a drinking water reserve! This toxic waste contains forever chemicals, known to cause serious adverse health issues, including cancer and impacts on reproductive health.

This wasn't an unforeseen accident. This wasn't an unfortunate whoopsie. Alcoa made an application to build this pipeline. The application was under assessment, and Alcoa went ahead and built the thing anyway. You'd rightfully assume that such wilful disregard for human health and the law would result in harsh penalties. Significant fines and criminal charges strike me as appropriate. So what happened? Alcoa was forced to purge the pipeline and—nothing. That's it. That's all they were required to do.

This is, again, not something that went unforeseen. Alcoa knew that this was exactly how it would play out, just as Rio Tinto knew when they misplaced a radioactive capsule somewhere in the Pilbara, and the worst they faced was a $1,000 fine. In WA, mining companies know that it is better for business to ask forgiveness rather than permission. These corporations must be held to account, via climate laws, for their impact on the climate crisis.