Does our government care at all?

US mining company Alcoa’s strip-mining of Western Australia’s jarrah forest is under further investigation after its “deliberate repeat breach” of environmental laws that destroyed habitat for protected species – including black cockatoos, quokkas and numbats – and cost it $40m to avoid prosecution.

News of another federal investigation piles more pressure on Alcoa’s bauxite mining in south-west WA, which threatens Perth’s water supply, has destroyed about 280 sq km of jarrah forest, none of which the company has rehabilitated in 60 years, and when refined into alumina, results in mercury-laden emissions, contaminated groundwater and millions of tonnes of unstable toxic bauxite residue.

Alcoa is pushing the WA and federal governments to approve an expansion of its northern Huntly mine, much of it around Perth’s largest drinking water dam, the Serpentine.