Perth Voice Interactive

WA’s GREENS are calling for an environmental review of AUKUS’s impact on Cockburn Sound. 

The Greens and the Conservation Council of WA say there have been no assessments of the impacts of dredging WA-controlled waters to take Australia’s proposed fleet of nuclear-powered submarines and visits from US and UK vessels.

The Department of Defence is currently getting community feedback to feed into an assessment of the AUKUS expansion by the federal climate change, energy, environment and water department, but the Greens say this only covers Commonwealth waters.

Seagrass

In a letter to federal environment minister Tanya Plibersek at the end of last year, the CCWA said the sound is home to a “critically endangered” community of conifer trees, as well as seagrass meadows which have already suffered an 80 per cent loss. 

The CCWA says dredging will also “pose a high risk” to the little penguins of Garden Island, including the restriction of prey and foraging which could impact their breeding and fledging periods. 

Due to the Island’s isolation from the mainland, the protection of its species’ gene pools is of “evolutionary importance”, including 115 species of birds, 3 species of snake, and a wallaby. 

Greens upper house candidate Sophie McNeill said Defence’s consultation process was “fast-tracked and flawed” and a state-based review by the Environmental Protection Agency should be ordered. 

“It needs to happen anyway, and it should have already happened,” Ms McNeill said. 

“It’s a massive project, and a decades-long agreement that [the federal government] have already agreed to… and they haven’t finalised it. We want to try and influence that.” 

Ms McNeill said lack of a local environmental review was a “massive failure”.

“The Labor Party has not stood up and advocated for this gorgeous environment’s rights against the federal government and the Department of Defence,” Ms McNeill said. 

“The state waters are what’s primarily impacted and the federal review has been broken up into little parts of the project and is only looking at Commonwealth waters… we need a review of the overall impact of this massive project because there’s so many different elements to it.”

by KATHERINE KRAAYVANGER