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Is Australia the only country mad enough to use taxpayer’s money to fund people whose sole purpose appears to be trying to wreck the country’s prosperity?
Perhaps not the only one, but certainly the most determinedly demented.
Australia is the environmental lawfare “capital of the world”, according to the Menzies Research Centre, which is claiming climate lawsuits have cost the economy nearly $17.5bn and 30,000 jobs in the last two years.
Menzies Research Centre executive director David Hughes said Australia had the most climate lawsuits in the world on a per capita basis. Its report, Open Lawfare: How Australia became the Lawfare Capital of the World, to be released this week, showed activists had launched 127 climate lawsuits in Australia from the 1990s to 2022.
But while these shonky chancers are costing the rest of us a fortune, they’re busily lining their own pockets.
“Australia’s top 25 environmental activist groups had combined revenue of $113m in 2015,” Mr Hughes said. “In under a decade, revenue of these same groups more than doubled to $275m.”
And where is all this money coming from? No small sums from the mug taxpayer, of course.
The Menzies Research Centre attacked the Albanese government for helping fund “environmental lawfare groups”.
“The 2022 budget included $10m for the EDO and Environmental Justice Australia, which are responsible for the majority of environmental lawfare in Australia,” the report said. “The 2024 budget confirmed ongoing support for green lawfare funding.”
Dodgy green lawfare using even dodgier practices.
The report found activists were being encouraged to stymie projects by Australia’s “relatively low bar for launching court actions”.
“Groups like the Environmental Defenders Office have been found to ‘coach’ witnesses in order to block resources projects in the Northern Territory, deploying underhanded tactics that rely on Indigenous consultation rules as a back door to environmental lawfare,” the report said […]
The report warned Labor’s environmental reforms, including establishing the Environmental Protection Agency and a Nature Repair Market, threaten to make the issue worse.
The Australian
As we’ve seen in Western Australia, so-called “Indigenous consultation rules” are little better than a scam. Landowners have had to fork out small fortunes in “Indigenous consultation” to even so much as plant a tree on a large-ish block. Rival “Indigenous” groups have resorted to embarrassing, on-camera squabbling over who gets to pocket the lucrative fees for baloney “Welcome to Country” and smoking ceremonies.
Unscrupulous green activists exploiting fabricated claims about “Indigenous heritage” has a long and sordid career. The notorious Hindmarsh Island bridge affair being a textbook case. They’re still at it.
Santos has asked the Federal Court to allow it to see the communications between the Environmental Defenders Office and a star academic witness, who was later discredited by the ruling judge, as it widens its damages claim for the months-long delays caused on its $5.7bn Barossa project.
Santos earlier this year secured a vital victory against the EDO, which acted for Simon Munkara, who had sought an injunction against Santos’ plans to develop a 262km pipeline for new LNG wells. Mr Munkara argued that the pipeline would cause irreparable damage to First Nations people and their connection to sea country.
“Sea country.” Riiiight.
The judge wasn’t buying it, either.
When Justice Charlesworth rejected the application by the EDO, she said the actions of the applicants amounted to “confection” and the coaching of Indigenous witnesses […]
The EDO claims it was simply the legal counsel and should not be liable for claims. But should Santos find evidence it went beyond that brief, it is likely to seek claims from the legal group, which could cause substantial risk to the entity.
Good. Chalk one up for the taxpayer.
Even better, the troughers are in panic mode.
The Santos victory has already caused alarm within environmentalist groups, which had scored a spate of legal victories that had delayed not only the Barossa project but Woodside’s $16.5bn Scarborough project.
Environmental applicants had argued that the gas giants failed to adequately consult with Indigenous locals.
But after its victory, claims have subsided – a trend exacerbated by Santos’ aggressive attempt for compensation.
The Australian
No doubt the Albanese government will gallop to their rescue with yet more ‘environmental’ laws which do nothing for the actual environment, but line the pockets of activists, and wreck national prosperity. All while stiffing the taxpayer for the bill.
