Residents of the Pilbara town of Wickham woke up to a nightmare yesterday- there's no water to supply them. Karratha residents are being placed on harsh water restrictions in an attempt to stem the situation from worsening over a dry summer, with the local mayor pleading for help from the WA government. The government has relied on cyclones to recharge the water supplies, but an increasingly hotter and arid climate makes this less and less likely. Why? Because of climate change. The lack of action both federally from a Liberal government and statewide from a Labor government has caused this crisis.

We have a per capita carbon footprint that is 4 times higher than the United States', and nine times higher than China's. We have the capacity to switch to more renewable sources of energy that will not contribute to emissions warming up our planet, but none of our politicians from both sides of the aisle have the political will to do so. State and federal governments are subsidising the fossil fuel industry- tantamount to climate crime.

But politicians looked the other way. When this issue surfaced at the start of the year, our Labor government looked the other way. And now that Wickham has run out of water -- 2000 residents with no water, it's having to be trucked in- the Liberals are pointing the finger at Labor. No doubt Labor will do the same. But the solution to this crisis is not to back either major party. It's to back change.

Sure, the water reserves might be refilled, and it's vitally important to ensure that the communities of the West Pilbara have water, but this is a systemic issue. Even if this tragic problem is solved, the issue is not solved. Because without addressing the climate crisis, we will just keep having problems like this across the country. We need a new type of government to solve this issue, because the major parties have shown us they won't- only a vote for the Greens at the upcoming state election will deliver actual change and action on this, the most pressing issue of our times.