The WA premier has declared he has “industrial FOMO” and wants to take every opportunity to bring big projects to his state, while denying proposed new laws were incompatible with environmental protection.

It comes as WA’s peak legal body penned a strongly worded letter to Premier Roger Cook to flag serious concerns about the scope and power of the planned laws, which are aimed at fast-tracking development.

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In September the premier announced plans to introduce the State Development Bill, declaring this would cut red tape for “strategic projects” in energy and defence.

The bill gives the State Development Minister, which is currently Mr Cook, the power to remove portions of approval processes to speed things up.

The current Labor government, under both former premier Mark McGowan and Mr Cook, has maintained close ties with the business community and made no secret of its desire to make it easier to do business in WA.

But it has attracted criticism from environmental groups and now the state’s top legal minds.

‘Shiny, job-creating projects’

Speaking at a business breakfast in Perth this morning, the premier made no apologies for his ambitions.

Roger Cook (left) attended a business breakfast on Thursday morning. (ABC News: Briana Shepherd)

“When it comes to the next wave of job-creating projects in Western Australia, I don’t want to let a single ball go through to the keeper,” he told the event.

“If there’s a ball to be hit, I want to knock the cover off it.”

It was part of what Mr Cook described as a case of “industrial FOMO”, or fear of missing out.

“The symptoms include an obsession with big, shiny, job-creating projects, an insatiable desire for even faster approvals and perhaps a bit of a rash for over-competitiveness when it comes to beating other states,” he said.

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He said his hunger for the government playing a bigger role in bringing projects to the state was in part sparked by Fortescue deciding to take an electrolyser processing facility to Gladstone in Queensland, rather than WA.

But the premier suggested those industrial ambitions were not at odds with action to address climate change.

He said renewable power “consistently” contributed to more than 80 per cent of generation in the state’s main power grid in recent weeks.

“We have achieved this without virtue signalling or bumper stickers, just rolling up our sleeves and getting on with the job,” he said.

It was a theme Mr Cook addressed multiple times in his speech, calling on business to continue working with government to grow the state’s economy in the face of global instability.

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“If business and government can lock in on the same line, synchronise our paddling, then there’s a good chance we can turn this global chaos into unstoppable momentum for Western Australia.

“Becoming a renewable energy powerhouse, making more things here, remaining the strongest economy in the nation so there’s no better place to do business and no better place to get a quality job.”

‘Extraordinary powers’

In a letter to the premier, seen by the ABC, the Law Society of WA said the State Development Bill gives “extraordinary powers to the executive arm of government” and would allow ministers to “override conventional environmental protection safeguards”.

The letter, signed by Law Society president Gary Mack, said while the Society supported parts of the bill, it was concerned about “ad-hoc, special rules for priority projects and highly discretionary regime”.

Law Society of Western Australia President Gary Mack. (ABC News: Cason Ho)

“The bill places a significant decision-making discretion … in the hands of the state development minister and the premier, which is currently one and the same person,” the letter stated.

Mr Mack, who is also mayor at the Town of Cambridge, argued that without some objective criteria, the law would likely lead to “a long line of proponent requests for special treatment with no consistent way to assess merit or priority”.

“The impact could, in effect, be a new, unneeded approval step, a new bottleneck, and a new source of potential legal challenge,” he wrote.

The Law Society requested that the bill be referred to parliament’s Standing Committee on Legislation for further review.

Long line of critics

WA Greens leader Brad Pettitt said the Law Society was just the latest in long list of voices raising concerns about the bill, which has also drawn criticism from former WA Labor premier Carmen Lawrence.

WA Greens leader Brad Pettitt says the laws have “no boundaries”. (ABC News: Lauren Smith)

“Labor have said that they don’t intend to use it for anything other than AUKUS and renewable and energy projects, but laws don’t end with a government they continue in perpetuity,” Mr Pettitt said.

“A future government could use this to approve uranium mines, for fracking, for fossil fuel projects.

“That is the risk of this — it has no boundaries. It can be used for absolutely anything that the premier wants it to be used for.”

Roger Cook, pictured here in parliament, is both the Premier and the State Development Minister. (ABC News: Jake Sturmer)

A state government spokesman said the Law Society was welcome to seek a meeting with the premier about the legislation.

“The bill also includes checks and balances to ensure effective environmental, planning and heritage protections are maintained,” he said.

“It does not infringe on the independence of government agencies like the EPA or the Cultural Heritage Committee, which cannot be issued with due regard or joint decision notices.”

The ABC understands the bill is likely to pass parliament by the end of the year with the support of the Liberal Party.

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