Barnett Govt 'conservation record poor'

A strong Green voice in the upper house will be particularly important if the Barnett Government is returned in the lower house at the weekend, senior Greens MLC Giz Watson said today.

Ms Watson, who has put her own parliamentary future in jeopardy by switching from the North Metropolitan region to contest the South West, said the Barnett Government had a poor attitude to conservation.

"Just today information is coming out about the Barnett Government cutting funding to the Conservation Council," she said.

"With that sort of attitude to the conservation of the State, it's even more important that the Greens are there to be a watchdog and a check and balance."

The Greens currently occupy four of the 36 seats in the Legislative Council, and Ms Watson said the party was also looking "very competitive" in the Legislative Assembly seats of Fremantle and Kimberley.

Federal Greens Leader Christine Milne joined her WA colleagues today to urge West Australians to vote for the minor party.

She complained that the Barnett Government had not sent any bureaucrats to appear before a Perth leg of Greens-initiated Senate inquiry into extreme weather events today.

"We need the Greens to be returned here in WA in the State election because in the State Parliament it is the Greens who have been running very hard on not only mitigating climate change but getting ready to adapt," she said.