Decision to place restrictions on environment groups that can bring legal action comes after federal court overturned approval for the Queensland coalmine

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

The government will remove the right of most environmental organisations to challenge developments under federal laws unless they can show they are “directly affected” – a direct response to the federal court decision this month on Adani’s Carmichael coalmine.

George Brandis: vigilante green groups destroying thousands of mining jobs Read more

Attorney general George Brandis took the plan to cabinet “under the line” on Monday and it was approved by the Coalition party room on Tuesday, where Tony Abbott said he wanted to use the issue to prove Labor was “torn between workers and greens”, whereas the Coalition was always on the side of the “hard-working and decent” workers.

Brandis said the government would seek to repeal section 487 (2) of the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Act and “return to the common law”. The government says “vigilante” green groups have been “sabotaging” development, jobs and growth by “lawfare” – unfair and improper use of the courts.

“Section 487 of the EPBC Act provides a red carpet for radical activists who have a political, but not a legal interest, in a development to use aggressive litigation tactics to disrupt and sabotage important projects,” Brandis said in a statement, promising to take the amendments to parliament by the end of the week.



“The activists themselves have declared that that is their objective – to use the courts not for the proper purpose of resolving a dispute between citizens, but for a collateral political purpose of bringing developments to a standstill, and sacrificing the jobs of tens of thousands of Australians in the process,” Brandis said.

“It is now for the federal Labor party to show that it cares more about jobs than inner-city greens.”

Speaking during question time, Abbott said he wanted “the highest environmental standards to apply to investments in this country” but “some green groups are doing their best to sabotage investment and jobs.”

He said the Carmichael mine was “good for jobs, good for global development and good for the environment because Australian coal is better than the alternatives”.

Future of Carmichael mine hinges not on skinks or snakes, but its business case Read more

Sections 487 and 488 extend the meaning of the term “person aggrieved” – and therefore able to take action – to include “individuals and organisations engaged in the protection, conservation or research into the environment within Australia and its territories”.

Brandis said the current act allowed environmental groups based anywhere in the country to take legal action. Asked who would have standing to take legal action in the interests of an endangered species once the legislation had changed, he said that would be determined by the normal provisions of the common law.

Abbott repeated the claim that the Adani mine would bring 10,000 jobs to Queensland even though the company’s own financial officer told a court this was not true and only 1,464 jobs would be created.

He told his party room “green activists” were “sabotaging” projects that could be bringing growth and jobs to Australia.

Tony Abbott's defence of the Carmichael coalmine is passionate but baseless Read more

The approval of the $16bn Carmichael mine, to be located in Queensland’s Galilee Basin region, was set aside earlier this month following a legal challenge by the Mackay Conservation Group.

The federal environment department said it would take six to eight weeks to reassess the project after it emerged the environment minister, Greg Hunt, had not properly considered the mine’s impact on two vulnerable species – the yakka skink and the ornamental snake.

The Queensland Resources Council said the situation was “preposterous” and called on the government to “step up and close the loopholes” that allowed activists to stymie large mining projects.

Initially the government was considering ways to make the environment minister immune from legal challenges if he or she ignored conservation advice provided by the department, but has now settled on restrictions to the groups that can bring legal action.

Separate amendments to the EPBC Act have been held up in the Senate since last year.

The government’s plan was on Tuesday attacked by farm groups protesting against coalmines and CSG wells.

“If George Brandis has his way, local landcare groups like ours would have no right to challenge the federal approval of a devastating coalmine like Shenhua,” said Nicky Chirlian, a member of the Upper Mooki Landcare Group challenging the NSW approval of the Shenhua Watermark coalmine.



“I won’t be directly affected by the Shenhua mine, but my regional environment and my entire community will be. If these changes go ahead, it will undermine basic justice and fairness for rural communities who are facing off against the biggest mining companies in the world” she said.



“The Carmichael mine was rejected because the minister made a mistake. Now the government are using this error to cut Australians’ rights to protect the environment,” said Greenpeace chief executive David Ritter.

“Australia’s environment laws aren’t very restrictive; they allow you to mine coal in prime farm land and are even failing to protect world heritage areas like the Great Barrier Reef … but today the government have announced that they are going to gut them to prevent local communities from objecting to mega mines like the Carmichael coal mine in Queensland.



“They’re seeking to legislate special treatment and fast tracking for an industry in decline that causes significant environmental and economic damage,” Ritter said.



The Minerals Council of Australia has attacked the Adani decision in similar terms to the government.



“The gaming of the environmental approvals processes by a handful of protest groups now borders on the farcical. The inevitable dividend from continuing green sabotage is fewer jobs, lower real wages and lower living standards,” chief executive Brendan Pearson said.

