The Greens, often labelled the fun police, want to formalise the tag by banning balloons throughout WA.

Balloons, drinking straws and micro-beads used in cosmetics and cleaning products are among a range of offending materials the Greens want banned alongside a Statewide crackdown on plastic bags to reduce pollution.

Mining and Pastoral Region MLC Robin Chapple put a private member’s Bill on the Legislative Council notice paper yesterday which would fine retailers $5000 for selling or supplying prohibited bags, balloons, beads, plastic straws and polystyrene or polyethylene packaging.

Mr Chapple said he accepted elements of the community could baulk at a balloon ban but denied the Greens were trying to outlaw fun.

“You can’t have much fun in the ocean if there’s no fish left,” he said.

A Statewide plastic bag ban, with the extra items tacked on, is looming as a major test of the Labor Government’s treatment of the Greens, whose four votes are needed along with crossbench support to pass its legislation in the Upper House.

Mr Chapple said WA, NSW and Victoria were the only States that did not have some restriction on plastic bags.

But the Greens could not nominate any jurisdiction in the world which had banned balloons.

The Bill’s penalties for sale or supply of prohibited items would target retailers and not individuals.

It contains exemptions for balloons used for medical or health-related purposes, such as condoms, and those used for “meteorological purposes” or for “carrying passengers”.

Biodegradable straws would be permitted.

“If our current rates of plastic production and disposal continue it is estimated that the volume of plastic in the ocean will outweigh the volume of sea life by 2050,” Mr Chapple said.

The Greens’ hope to debate the Bill in September but would need Government support to put it to a vote.

Environment Minister Stephen Dawson, who indicated his support for a Statewide plastic bag ban last month, said the Government was investigating the best way to implement it.

“The McGowan Labor Government has no current plans to legislate a Statewide ban on the release of balloons, however, it supports efforts to raise public awareness of the unintended consequences of releasing balloons during celebrations,” he said.