The 2024 Vogel-McFerran Review formed the basis of sweeping amendments to WA’s Environmental Protection Act 1986 (EP Act).
The Review was withheld from the public for over a year, but has been the impetus for some of the most substantive legislative changes to the EP Act in recent history.
Its release only came after a protracted Freedom of Information (FOI) process by Conservation Council of WA (CCWA) and the Environmental Defender’s Office (EDO), with intervention from the Information Commissioner.
The FOI shows that the Vogel McFerran Review, which was announced by the WA government on 26 October 2023 as a “short, sharp review” and led to the most significant overhaul of WA’s nature laws in a generation, was submitted to the government by its authors Dr Paul Vogel and David McFerran on 3 November 2023 - just 6 business days later.
The Review, which is framed as “non-legal”, lacks citations and clear evidence for its conclusions.
There are almost no references to sources for its content, no citations of other research and, where the review relies on information or views from stakeholders, no references or quotes as to the source of those views.
The full Vogel McFerran Review runs only 43 pages long, and does not contain a reference list. One of the only sources, in a lone citation in the section on Environmental Impact Assessments, is a 3-page pamphlet of an international association of bureaucrats from 1999.
The Review appears to be based on the impressions of the reviewers from personal experience and speaking with industry stakeholders, and the terms of reference for the review confirm that there was no focus or consideration of environmental outcomes, which should have been a priority when considering changes to environmental legislation.
This review further calls into question the WA government’s self-appointed role as the arbiter of national environmental law reforms - which are repeatedly referenced by this review, which seems to premise its recommendations on an assumption about the implementation of Nature Positive and a national Environment Protection Authority.
The document reinforces concerns that the Environmental Protection Amendment Bill 2024, passed in September, is designed to fast-track industrial approvals at the expense of environmental protection.
WA's unique environments is facing multiple compounding threats.
Too many of Australia’s species, ecological communities and ecosystems are at risk of extinction, collapse or ongoing decline and degradation.
The long-term protection and resilience of Western Australia's globally significant and unique ecosystems, species, and landscapes is essential.
Conservation Council of WA, together with alliance partners and key groups, are calling on the WA Government to strengthen our environmental protection laws.
Read more on the series of environmental policy recommendations that are being developed here: A Protection Agenda for Nature.