According to Broome-based conservation group, Environs, the Kimberley resilience package fails to address the costs of climate change. Photo: Facebook/Premier Roger Cook.
Following years of catastrophic weather disrupting supply chains in the Kimberley, the Western Australian Government has launched a resilience program to help the region better respond to future emergencies.
The Kimberley Resilience Program will provide an initial $67.5 million to a range of projects, including new infrastructure for the Port of Broome, upgrades to airstrips, and a replacement of the single-lane Brooking Channel Bridge with a dual lane crossing.
Premier Roger Cook said the Kimberley would always be prone to flooding and cyclones, so it was vital the government put the region in the best possible position to bounce back from natural disasters if and when they occurred.
“Helping Broome to become a first port of entry will significantly reduce the Kimberley’s reliance on the road network, while opening up new trade opportunities for the state’s north,” he said.
The announcement comes after the Western Roads Federation (WAF) presented a 19-point plan to state and federal government agencies, calling for national coordination on tackling the multiple disruptions to interstate freight networks.
“West Australians may need to get used to the sight of bare shelves in supermarkets, as climate change increasingly disrupts Australia’s interstate freight networks,” reads the organisation’s statement.
“The latest three-week disruption to the Trans-Australian Railway is unfortunately yet another example of Australia’s increasingly climate vulnerable and unreliable interstate freight networks.
“Despite two federal parliamentary inquiries and with no sign of any national action plan, WA’s peak body for transport and logistics industry has taken the lead.”
WAF and the Northern Territory Road Transport Association have called for a national meeting to address recent interstate freight disruptions. Photo: WAF.
Under the program, $6 million will go to developing the Port of Broome so it can be a first point of entry and sustain import capacity during times of emergency.
The Aboriginal Community Airstrip Renewal Program will receive another $8 million for adapting 34 airstrips in remote communities to the future threats of climate change. It will be allocated based on the outcomes of planning work identifying airstrips of highest priority, which last year’s state budget dedicated $750,000 to.
The replacement of Brooking Channel Bridge with a dual lane crossing will cost the state $53.3 million, with the aim of ensuring supply chain resilience to the Fitzroy Valley region, which successfully replaced its Fitzroy River Bridge for $250 million.
Further projects are being considered for the program. The State Government said it would consult the Commonwealth for support on funding.
Environs Kimberley said the government’s resilience package did not address the immense costs worsened by climate change.
The Broome-based conservation group referred to the State Government’s mid-term performance review from December, which revealed the region’s January 2023 floods cost taxpayers more than $869 million. It said the program’s extra $67.5 million would bring the total costs from climate change in the past year to nearly a billion dollars.
Director of strategy Martin Pritchard said even as the impacts of climate change worsened, the Cook Government was sleepwalking the Kimberley into one of the biggest polluting industries in the world – oil and gas fracking.
“Climate change scientists have estimated that if the oil and gas fracking industry in the Kimberley takes off, it could unleash three times Australia’s emissions of climate-changing CO2 into the atmosphere than our estimated emissions budget under the Paris Agreement,” said Mr Pritchard.
