The Cook Government’s controversial State Development Bill has passed the upper house after a marathon Parliamentary session that ended at 2.55am on Thursday.
The upper house sat from 10am on Wednesday, where it also passed legislation to enable the Commonwealth’s Help To Buy housing affordability scheme, which was a last-minute addition to the agenda.
The WA Legislative Council.Credit: Ross Swanborough
The State Development Bill gives extraordinary powers to the Premier and State Development Minister of the day, allowing them to single out projects they deem crucial for the state and giving them powers to roll out the red carpet for proponents.
Industry has backed the laws, saying they would help reduce lengthy approval delays and improve investment attractiveness in the state, while opponents say they centralise powers too much and will be open to abuse by fossil fuel proponents.
At the heart of the controversy is a power called a modification order, which allows the State Development Minister to alter aspects of approval processes ascribed in more than 40 pieces of legislation, including environmental approvals, to speed them up.
Debate on the State Development Bill was stretched until 2.55 am as Greens MPs argued for a range of amendments to be introduced to the bill, but they were all shot down.
In a statement sent to media just after 3am Greens MP Sophie McNeill accused Labor and the opposition of ramming the laws through.
“Just a short note to let you know that the Cook Labor government were successful in ramming their State Development Bill through parliament at 2.55am,” she said.
“As per the deal the government did with the opposition, they accepted no Greens amendments – and in a particularly disgraceful move, the government refused to vote in support of a Greens amendment to exclude the fast-tracking of uranium mines or nuclear power plants under this act.”
The Greens were successful in negotiating a 5-year-review clause to be added to the laws, however, they were initially hoping for a 2-year-review clause.
The opposition’s lead on the Bill, Steve Thomas, successfully added some minor amendments to the bill, which now means the lower house must return next Tuesday to pass the bill to fulfil Premier Roger Cook’s wish of passing the laws before Christmas.
Cook was contacted for comment.
More to come.
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