In this first installment of The West Weekly:

• We're all obsessed with Basil Zempilas.
• No one knows who our premier is – will free zoo tickets help?
• Man the battle stations! Seven West's cold war against nature laws has turned hot.

Head to www.lastplaceonearth.com.au for reportage, opinion, analysis and more.

Email subscribers to The Last Place On Earth will be the first to know when a new podcast episode drops.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Newly independent Senator Fatima Payman is currently travelling through regional Western Australia on a 'listening tour' to meet with voters and hear their concerns.

The Last Place on Earth sat down with Senator Payman last week in the Pilbara town of Karratha, where she spoke about:

• Feeling constrained in the Labor party
• Meeting with angry students from the Curtin Uni pro-Palestine encampment
• Labor's Future Gas Strategy
• How genocide in Gaza will shape the next Australian federal election
• What she's hearing from voters in the regions

For more on power and politics in the west, and what it means for the rest of the country, visit www.lastplaceonearth.com.au

You can subscribe to get our stories straight to your inbox, and become a paid supporter to help us keep going.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A storm of controversy is swirling over offshore wind in the Western Australian town of Bunbury.

As the world attempts to transitions to renewable energy, grassroots groups are voicing their opposition to wind developments.

In South West WA, community group Save Our Beloved Geographe Bay has formed to oppose the federal government's proposed Bunbury offshore wind zone.

But are there nefarious forces at play?

How legitimate are environmental concerns about wind turbines?

Where's the money coming from to support local anti-wind groups like Save Our Beloved Geographe Bay?

Why do anti-wind activists hate environmental groups like Greenpeace so much?

And how does anti-wind sentiment fit into the murky worldviews of anti-vax, sovereign citizen, freedom-loving conspiracy theorists?

In this episode, you'll hear interviews with:

• Bunbury resident Rodney Peterson
• Curtin University marine scientist Professor Christine Erbe
• Save Our Beloved Geographe Bay campaign co-coordinator Martine Shepherd
• Busselton resident Darren Glover
• Independent MLC Sophia Moermond

Since this episode was recorded, a coalition of environmental orgs, including WWF and Greenpeace, released a statement on renewables and nature:

"Of course, every renewable energy project must be assessed for its environmental impact, which will mean avoiding some locations.

"Stronger and clearer laws would guide all projects, give the community and industry certainty, set limits of acceptability, be designed to protect species and prevent extinction and in doing so create momentum for the necessary big renewables build. Moreover, any development in the oceans must consider the impacts on marine life and follow strict regulatory controls."

Read more about opposition to offshore wind in the South West from The Last Place on Earth: 'The anger is blowin' in the wind'.

Subscribe and support our work for $5 a month.

Links:

'Reviewing the ecological impacts of offshore wind farms' - Scientific paper

Greenpeace statement on proposed Bunbury offshore wind zone

'Against the Wind: A Map of the Anti-Offshore Wind Network in the Eastern United States' - report by Brown University Climate and Development Lab

'The network of conservative think-tanks out to kill the switch to renewables' - Renew Economy

Doppelganger by Naomi Klein

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.