Ahead of the government’s introduction of the Environmental Protection Amendment Bill 2024, Conservation Council of WA (CCWA) and other environmental organisations participated in limited workshops with the Department of Premier and Cabinet (DPC) and the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (DWER).
These sessions were held without access to the Vogel-McFerran Review or detailed information about the amendments, including draft wording of the Bill.
Despite this, CCWA engaged in good faith and raised substantial concerns.
But it soon became clear that the workshops were not genuine consultation exercises. There is no evidence that feedback from the environmental sector had any influence on the drafting of the Bill.
Conservation groups launched a novel advertising campaign 'Defend WA’s Nature' in response, to reflect the broad community’s concerns about the future of WA’s wildlife and natural environment and to demonstrate that Western Australians want strong nature protection laws.
The first wave of advertising ‘Animal Defenders’, shows highly realistic, AI-generated, iconic Western Australian wildlife species using nature-inspired weapons to square up to excavators that are clearing the landscape around them. While each animal’s response is clearly fantastical, the scenarios they are shown in represent real threats facing animals like the numbat and sea turtle featured in the images. The campaign imagery effectively illustrates the general plight of animals that are defenceless against habitat destruction and rely on state and federal nature laws for survival.
The alliance is continuing to work together as WA's Nature Alliance to advocate for strong nature laws to protect our state’s outstanding environment.