Dear Premier Cook,
I am deeply concerned about the climate crisis. Every day we see and experience more and more catastrophic effects. Where I live on the South Coast of WA I experience less rainfall, stronger wind storms and more and more terrifying extreme fire danger days. Yet Labor seems obsessed with approving fossil fuel projects which are taking us further and further away from meeting net zero targets and faster and faster to complete breakdown of human-safe climate conditions.

Woodside’s Burrup Hub plans, if approved, would lock in 6 billion tonnes of climate wrecking pollution for 50 years – up to 2070. Woodside’s Burrup Hub plans include the North West Shelf gas facility extension to 2070 and the Browse offshore gas field, which would include up to 50 new gas wells. The emissions from Woodside’s proposed Burrup hub is more than 13-times Australia’s annual emissions!

I first learnt about the rock art on the Burrup peninsula back in the 1980s when I was a tutor at UWA. A couple of students I tutored were doing Masters research projects into the then barely known (by non-Indigenous people) rock art. They were both from the UK and were passionate advocates for doing everything possible to look after the rock art which they saw as part of the great cultural heritage of humanity. It was shaming to hear about this significant WA site from overseas visitors. Mainstream disinterest in (or worse, discrimination against) Indigenous cultures in WA is part of the toxic mindset that has enabled the widespread exploitation of this land

Expansion of Woodside’s Burrup Hub would risk further damage to UNESCO World Heritage-nominated rock art on Murujuga from acid gas pollution.

The impact the Burrup Hub could have on Western Australia’s climate, natural environment, human health, the economy and our way of life is devastating. This decision will shape Australia’s emissions and climate future for decades to come.

I ask that you please support the rejection of the North West Shelf Extension and Browse gas field, and in doing so safeguard the future of WA’s environment and way of life.

These are two of the most important decisions that Labor will ever make on nature and climate, and I will strongly consider them come the next election.