Alcoa Public Comment Period: What’s Next?

It’s official: Together, we’ve broken the EPA record, with more than 59,000 submissions on Alcoa’s forest mining. 

Thank you to everyone,  each and every person who made a submission and was part of the campaign. 

To all those who attended the End Forest Mining Sundowner, we hope you enjoyed getting to know others in the movement, catching up with old friends, and relaxing after months of hard work. 

From May – August, more than 1000 people attended town hall events across the Northern Jarrah Forest region and beyond, hearing about how they could have their say on Alcoa’s destructive forest mining for the first time in 60 years. Thank you to all of our speakers who contributed to our town hall series by sharing their expertise and knowledge.

Many of you joined Ricky on the Bibbulmun track for part or all of the Big and Little (Big) Jarrah walks, and more than 2000 joined Ricky on the last leg of the 270km walk from Dwellingup to Parliament House. What an incredible turnout, despite a cold and rainy day!

You might have seen some of our ads in your local paper, the West Australian, online or on social media. These ads are possible because of all of your generous donations, and have helped us spread the word about Alcoa’s destruction far and wide.

Many articles were also published about Alcoa’s mining and the public comment period across different news outlets.

Out of the 59,000 submissions received by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), nearly 6,000 of those submissions were unique, which demonstrates an additional level of commitment.

Thank you so very much to every person who has signed on or made a personalised submission to End Forest Mining. You make this campaign, and without you, we wouldn’t have gained so much momentum and community support. 

It’s not over yet, though. The decision now lies with the EPA, State and Federal Ministers to make a decision that places nature ahead of industry.

So what’s next?

• Alcoa will provide the EPA with a response to all our comments. 
• The EPA will then finish their assessment and release recommendations to the Minister in the first half of 2026. 
• We will then have the chance to appeal the recommendations
• The appeals convenor will then make recommendations to the Minister
• The WA Environment Minister will then review all recommendations and publish a decision on both the expansion and current mining.
• The Federal Environment Minister will then receive the state’s report on Alcoa’s expansion and make an “accredited assessment” and publish a final decision. We can expect this mid-late next year.

It’s important that we keep the pressure on as a community and show the Cook and Albanese Labor Governments that Alcoa’s expansions cannot go ahead. 

We’ve made it easy to get in touch with relevant ministers who will be making the final decision to reject Alcoa’s plans by email. Use the form below to send an email  to call on key decision makers to reject this proposal when it reaches their desk.

We encourage you to meet with your local member, and we will host workshops to help you do so, but if you’d like advice on how to do so, please be in touch with us at forests@wafa.org.au for advice. 

You can also help us keep the momentum going by putting up a sign, sticker, poster, or social media post.