Our request for the Premier to step in and save Lemnos St. Bushland has been ignored. Mark McGowan has refused to meet with us to discuss the issue. His reasons? He is too busy.

I am utterly devastated. There is no reason why any of part of Lemnos St. Bush should be cleared. Yet LandCorp, the Department of Planning, WAPC and key Ministers insist that clearing is necessary to achieve a “balanced outcome”.  They are wrong.  Arbitrary infill development targets could be met without any clearing.

In a last-ditch attempt to speak with our government, I wrote the new Minister for Lands, the Hon Ben Wyatt MLA, to request a meeting. He too has refused using the exact same rhetoric about “balance outcomes”.  I cannot tell you how frustrated I am.

The sad truth is our laws are inadequate to protect our environment. Planning laws facilitate the clearing of urban bushland and have convenient loopholes to get around scant environmental protection laws. Lately, subsequent governments have done little to improve, and in some cases have even made worse, legislation designed to protect WA’s unique environment.

Although clearing has commenced, it is still not too late to stop the process. Lemnos St Bush and the entire linkage could still be saved and restored. But sadly, the only ones that can step in and do what is right- our politicians - will not.

This destruction has been a bipartisan decision. Please continue to write and call your local and state representatives, even just to vent your frustration. We cannot change things if we remain silent.

I am sickened by this development, a development driven by short-term greed and so typical of what is happening throughout Perth.  It has left me utterly empty and heart broken.