Sustainability issues now dominate WA politics

[Peter McMahon]

The recent report on global warming by the Climate Commission has very
bad news for WA, predicting further rainfall decline, sea level rises
and storm damage. This report was intended to put ongoing debate about
the science of global warming to rest so the nation can focus on
dealing with it. However, the Liberals, including Premier Barnett,
show no real interest in either remediation or mitigation of global
warming.
Furthermore, growing concern about declining Chinese growth, a US
economic meltdown and rising oil prices are causing growing concern
among investors. It very much seems that the great ride WA has had
over the last two decades, excepting of course the global financial
crisis of 2008-9, is coming to an end. And the question must be asked
- who has got what out of the boom so far?
And finally, water, energy and transport are all now hot button
topics, with the WA Government on the back foot on all of them.
Depending on how fast things move, the next WA election could be much
more interesting than many people think.