State of the environment reporting in Western Australia: law, land and beyond

ABSTRACT

State of the environment (SoE) reporting has been in place in the majority of Australian jurisdictions since the early 1990s. Over the past decade, the process has stalled in Western Australia (WA) and, at present, shows no sign of reappearing. This is all the more serious since the degraded condition of the state’s environment calls out for regular review, analysis and action. We place this in a wider framework by (a) considering the significance of SoE reporting as a matter of collective responsibility, (b) mapping out a program of necessary legislative reform for WA and (c) outlining the challenges confronting SoE reporting as an act of public communication. Our thesis throughout is that SoE reporting combines ethical, democratic and environmental dimensions, and that the significance of WA’s withdrawal from the process can only be understood in this context.

KEYWORDS:

• Transparency
• accountability
• public communication
• legislative reform

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.