WA to continue EDO funding

Western Australia will not cut funding to the Environmental Defenders Office, despite concerns over its conduct flagged in the Federal Court’s recent judgement on Santos’s Barossa project.

The EDO represented Tiwi Islander Simon Munkara in a recent case against the Santos gas project off the Northern Territory coast, which has been stalled for 16 months as a result of legal appeals relating to cultural heritage.

In a 294-page judgement in Santos’s favour earlier this week, Federal Court judge Natalie Charlesworth flagged concerns over the conduct of EDO’s lawyers and experts in consultation with Tiwi Island Traditional Owners.

That included an EDO lawyer drawing a line on a map, which the judge deemed to misrepresent the view of a traditional owner on the area of cultural heritage.

Questions were also raised over the independence of expert Mick O’Leary, who assisted EDO during a cultural mapping process.

It has since been revealed the EDO lawyer who drew the line on the map had left the organisation this month.

Late last year, an EDO-backed appeal over seismic testing at Woodside’s Scarborough project was successful in having a regulatory approval overturned, causing a delay to work while applications were resubmitted.

A non-government organisation, the EDO’s mandate is to assist legally in the protection of wildlife, culture, community and climate.

It receives funding from a number of state governments, including Western Australia, and recently had financial support reinstated by the federal government.

WA Liberal Leader Libby Mettam said the Santos verdict was evidence that EDO should not receive government funding on a state or federal level. 

“The Cook and Albanese governments cannot in any conscience continue to provide funding to the EDO in the face of the scathing criticism levelled at it by Justice Charlesworth,” Ms Mettam said.

“It is extraordinary in the first place that taxpayer funds are used to pay for an activist organisation to challenge government decisions in the courts, but to continue that funding in light of the finding in the Santos case is astounding.

“The EDO receives millions of dollars in government funding, money it is using to mount what have been shown to be vexatious and fabricated claims.”

Speaking to media today, Premier Roger Cook conceded “environmental lawfare” was a modern reality of project approvals but said the state was not about to withdraw EDO funding.

“No, we won’t,” he said.

“The funding arrangement for the Environmental Defenders Office ensures that all voices are heard in a very complex and difficult and sometimes expensive process.”

Mr Cook said the finding would be an opportunity for the EDO to review the strategies and approaches undertaken in the Santos case. He declined to comment on specifics when asked whether appeals were being lodged with the intent of delaying projects without a prospect of legal success but acknowledged the need for policy to adapt to new challenges.

“I think environmental lawfare is a modern reality of those complex projects, and that needs to be taken into consideration when you look at all the regulatory regimes that oversight any sort of development proposal,” Mr Cook said.

“This is just another part of the process, and obviously, we’ll need to continue to adapt.”

Speaking at a Business News event in December where he announced sweeping reform to environmental approvals, Mr Cook denounced the actions of some environmental activists who he said were splitting traditional owner groups in the interests of their own agendas.

Federal approvals reform is also in the works, with consultation held in November.