Kate Chaney, the independent member for Curtin, argues that Western Australia must make a decisive shift towards clean energy if it is to secure its long-term prosperity, energy security and place in emerging global export markets.
In her latest policy publication, Clean Power: Securing WA’s Future Prosperity, Chaney says WA is central to Australia’s ambition to become a renewable energy superpower. The state produces almost half of Australia’s exports and is a global leader in iron ore, lithium, alumina and LNG. At the same time, it is the only Australian state whose total greenhouse gas emissions have increased since 1990.
Chaney warns that WA is also highly exposed to energy security risks because its mining, transport and agricultural industries depend heavily on imported diesel. She criticises recent federal measures focused on securing supplies of refined fuels, as well as a $4 million study into a potential new WA oil refinery, arguing these investments reinforce dependence on fossil fuels instead of accelerating electrification and domestic clean-fuel production.
She frames WA’s choice as one between becoming a “petrostate or electrostate”, arguing that attempting to pursue both futures indefinitely will undermine progress.
“If Australia is going to earn export income from decarbonisation rather than merely spend money on it, much of that has to happen in the West.”
Chaney’s office developed the report after consulting more than 50 industry leaders and energy experts and surveying 2,300 Western Australians. She says both federal and state governments support clean-energy exports but continue extending the fossil-fuel economy through gas expansion, fuel stockpiles and proposed refinery investments.
She points to China’s dominance of electric vehicles and battery supply chains as evidence of the risks of delaying strategic decisions. While China committed early to electrification, Japan and Europe hedged between old and new technologies and are now trying to catch up.
Chaney identifies four priorities for WA and the Commonwealth. First, governments should support renewable electricity development at export scale, including regional WA, where large mining operations often sit outside the National Electricity Market. Second, energy security policy should focus on replacing imported fuels through electrification and sustainable domestic fuels rather than merely stockpiling diesel.
Third, governments should help promising green iron, hydrogen, ammonia and biofuel projects reach final investment decisions by accepting more early-stage risk and using public investment strategically. Chaney argues taxpayers should share in the financial upside when public money carries early risk.
Fourth, she calls for tax reform to ensure Australians receive a greater return from publicly owned resources. She cites WA’s LNG industry as a warning, noting that in 2023-24 only 15 per cent of industry profits were returned through the petroleum resource rent tax and company tax combined. Reforming the PRRT and Diesel Fuel Tax Credit, she argues, could help fund the transition while removing incentives that favour fossil fuels.
For Chaney, decarbonisation is not an economic sacrifice but an opportunity to lower energy costs, create jobs, strengthen sovereign energy security and build new export industries.