For more than 30 years, we’ve created impact for environmental justice in Australia.
We're proudly not-for-profit, independent and funded by the generous EJA community.
Using a powerful combination of public interest litigation and legal advocacy campaigns, with your support, we’ve had some incredible successes inside and outside the courtroom for the people, places and wildlife we love.
How do we deliver impact?
We run landmark court cases
To set game-changing precedents and disrupt the systems that are fuelling destruction and injustice.
We use strategic legal interventions
To run powerful legal campaigns to investigate, expose and demand action and accountability.
We advocate for better laws
To fix flaws in our legal system, push for better policies and improve the way our laws and made and enforced.
We help people have a say
To empower communities to access information, challenge decisions and participate in the legal system.
Over three decades creating lasting, large-scale impact
We're a national public interest organisation using the law for a radically better world.
Our impact for climate justice
We all want to enjoy life in healthy, resilient and vibrant communities, with a safe and stable climate. Where we take care of each other and know in good times and hard times, we can have the essential things we need.
To create the biggest impact and make our vision a reality, we run public interest court cases, legal interventions and advocacy campaigns to:
- Stop the expansion of fossil fuels
- Ensure government decision making is transparent and based on sound science
- Remove barriers to accelerate the energy transition and transform industries for good
- Secure climate justice for people most affected.
Some of our proudest accomplishments:
Our impact protecting ecosystems
We work tirelessly for meaningful environmental protections that enable nature to thrive, while curbing extinction and ecosystem collapse.
We run urgent court cases, legal interventions, law reform and advocacy campaigns to:
- Protect and regenerate whole ecosystems closest to the brink of collapse, especially ancient forests in South Eastern Australia; fragile Savanna woodlands in the Northern Territory; and one of the world's most vulnerable river systems, the Murray-Darling and its floodplains
- Ensure laws and policies are transparent and based on sound science
- Push for First Nations legal rights to care for Country.
Some highlights:
Our work for environmental justice
We all want our families and communities to breathe clean air, enjoy swimmable rivers, clear skies and better lives. We all want dignity, access to information and a say in decisions that impact us.
So we partner with communities at the frontline of environmental injustice – together we investigate, expose, advocate and litigate for:
- Real pollution controls and robust monitoring for communities living near coal-fired power stations
- Mine rehabilitation, so the companies that profited from burning coal properly clean up their toxic mess
- Meaningful regulations and better laws, properly enforced, to protect people and our environment from waste and toxic contamination.
Some highlights:
Our work for First Nations justice
For thousands of generations, First Nations people have cared for Country. Using Aboriginal law, communities have kept our forests, rivers, and wildlife healthy and thriving.
First Nations justice is at the heart of environmental justice. We are working First Nations clients and partners to:
- Enable cultural burning and other First Nations cultural practices by improving legal and policy frameworks
- Get cultural water onto country using innovative legal pathways
- Exercise their sovereign authority and knowledge to protect and care for country, through legal interventions, court cases and advocacy campaigns.
Some highlights:
Our work improving the law
The law is one of the most powerful ways to protect people and our environment from harm. We believe good laws, properly used, are key to stopping the destruction and creating a world that works for all of us.
That's why we fix flaws in our legal system, push for better policies and improve the way our laws and made and enforced, by:
- Shaping and strengthening the law by advocating for smart, ambitious and meaningful law reform
- Applying and enforcing the law, working tirelessly to ensure law-making and decision-making are transparent, fair and subject to scrutiny by the courts
- Increasing access to the law by helping people have the tools and knowledge to challenge environmental harms and seek justice.
Some highlights:
Make a difference
The challenges we face are vast. The time to push for large-scale system change is now.
Our financials
We are committed to transparency, accountability and sound financial management.
We encourage you to investigate our track record.
Join us
The law is a powerful tool to disrupt the status quo and make governments and corporations accountable.
Join us and let's build a radically better world.
