Reflections on the Coal Pollution Case from Senior Lawyer Charley Brumby-Rendell. Last week, I sat in the Supreme Court for three long days, alongside our small but mighty legal team and client. Before the judge’s vast, carved wooden bench, we made our arguments – for...
During October 2022 our client, Environment Victoria, went to the Supreme Court against the EPA and three of Australia’s biggest energy companies. This landmark case was the first test of Victoria’s key climate change legislation, the Climate Change Act 2017, and the...
Decades of brown-coal mining has left the Latrobe Valley with enormous mine pits and toxic coal ash dumps contaminating the land and groundwater. As Australia transitions to clean energy, rehabilitating these sites properly will be crucial to protect community health...
Communities in the Latrobe Valley have powered our homes, offices, and schools across Victoria for decades. As coal mines close, mining operators need to be held responsible for cleaning up their mess, to ensure that the Latrobe Valley community aren’t stuck with the...
Lawyers at Environmental Justice Australia have today lodged a complaint at the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission to stop a brumby preservation group from racially vilifying Monica Morgan, a senior member of the Yorta Yorta Nation. The Barmah...
The future health of Gippsland Lakes, an internationally recognised Ramsar wetland, lies firmly in the hands of the Victorian and Commonwealth governments, writes senior EJA lawyer Ellen Maybery. As a Party to the Ramsar Convention, Australia has a responsibility to...
On behalf of our client, the courageous Environment Council of Central Queensland, we’ve just commenced a landmark legal intervention. Our client has just asked Australia’s new Environment Minister to reconsider nearly all new coal and gas proposals currently awaiting...
By Jocelyn McGarity, Clean Air LawyerIt’s been a busy few months fighting for clean air to protect community health across NSW and I want to share an update on some of the crucial moments EJA has been involved in lately. We scrutinised the National Pollutant...
The NSW EPA is accepting submissions now on a proposed law which will determine clean air regulations for big polluters in the years ahead. Air pollution is a serious issue in NSW that causes hundreds of avoidable deaths and cases of childhood asthma every year. Yet...
The National Pollutant Inventory (NPI) is Australia's annual report on toxic pollution. Their latest data (2020-21) has just been released, and our team has analysed the trends. Notably, our analysis shows AGL’s power stations across NSW and Victoria reported...
Two coal-fired power stations owned by AGL, Bayswater and Loy Yang A, have announced that they are closing early, but only by two and three years (in 2033 and 2045) respectively. These announcements are a disappointing outcome for the health of communities living...
After months of public hearings and on-the-ground campaigning, the Minister for Planning has assessed the environmental effects of the Fingerboards mineral sands mine as unacceptable. This means that the 1,675-hectare open cut mine is now unlikely to proceed, which...
Two weeks ago, Victoria’s Energy Minister stood in front of TV cameras and declared a state-wide ‘energy emergency’. Recent heavy storms had pelted the Latrobe Valley and we were told floodwaters could cause the walls of the Morwell River Diversion, that runs through...
More than four years after the Minister for Planning first required an Environment Effects Statement (EES) be prepared for the Fingerboards mineral sands mine proposed in East Gippsland, Victoria, the public hearings to consider the proposal are about to commence. An...
In April 2021, state and federal environment ministers finally met to revise Australia’s outdated national air pollution standards. The decision, delayed two years, comes after a lengthy ten-year process including a review of air pollution standards, a proposal for a...
This week, the Minister for Planning rejected AGL’s proposed Crib Point gas import terminal, saying it would result in “unacceptable environmental effects” to the internationally significant Westernport Bay. This is a huge win for the community who have been...
On March 11, EJA was in court on behalf of the Australian Conservation Foundation seeking the release of documents, which recorded meetings between the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment and the Walker Group. The Walker Group sought to build a...
In November 2016, a developer purchased a block of land in Chelsea and lodged an application to clear all native vegetation for fourteen two-storey townhouses. After a four-year effort by the Friends of Dents Paddock alliance the native coastal vegetation land was...