Media releases
If you have a media enquiry, please call or email Kathryn Lewis on (03) 8341 3110 or [email protected]
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Legal, human rights and environment groups call on Victorian government to withdraw draconian anti-protest laws
Today, human rights, environment and legal advocates published an open letter calling for Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews to immediately withdraw a proposed law which would punish peaceful protesters. The Sustainable Forests Timber Amendment (Timber Harvesting...
Andrews government must stop pursuit of draconian anti-protest law
Environmental Justice Australia and the Human Rights Law Centre are urging the Andrews government to withdraw a draconian proposed new law that would criminalise peaceful protest. The Sustainable Forests Timber Amendment (Timber Harvesting Safety Zones) Bill 2022 was...
New data reveals some coal-fired power stations have increased toxic pollution despite declining energy generation
Analysis of new data from the National Pollutant Inventory reveals AGL’s power stations across NSW and Victoria reported significant increases in some of the most toxic pollutants while energy generation in several stations dropped. Archaic coal-burning power...
Govt push for ARENA to fund fossil fuel tech faces critical vote amid scrutiny from leading barristers, Liberal Senators concerned about lawfulness
Just a day before the federal budget, the Senate will vote on a second disallowance motion brought by a Liberal-led Senate Committee to block the Coalition’s regulations for the Australian Renewable Energy Agency to fund fossil fuel technologies including carbon...
Lawyers warn EPA decision allowing Delta to exceed pollution limits is unlawful
Environmental lawyers have cautioned the NSW EPA that its decision to give Delta Electricity a free pass when it handed the company an exemption from legal air pollution limits in December last year, is unlawful. Environmental Justice Australia lawyers,...
Supreme Court trial begins in case against VicForests
Community group, Wildlife of the Central Highlands, is in the Supreme Court today, fighting to protect forests home to threatened wildlife from being torn down in the wake of the catastrophic Black Summer bushfires. The three-week trial, heard by the Honorable...
Bayswater closure puts health at risk for another decade, must come with transition support, environmental advocates say
The announcement today that AGL has brought forward the closure of its Bayswater power station by two years, to 2033, must come with significant support for workers and a safe rehabilitation plan, environmental lawyers and advocates say. It also means for...
Loy Yang A power station closure leaves another generation at risk of toxic pollution, environmental lawyers say
The announcement today that AGL has brought forward the closure of its Loy Yang A coal-fired power station by three years, to 2045, fails the Latrobe Valley community and will leave another generation susceptible to the serious health effects of toxic pollution,...
Environment groups welcome Minister’s decision for Engie’s Hazelwood Mine rehab plan to undergo environmental assessment
Environmental Justice Australia and Environment Victoria have today welcomed Victorian Planning Minister Richard Wynne’s decision requiring the Hazelwood Mine Rehabilitation Project to undergo the Environmental Effects Statement process. For more than five years, the...
Forestry plan to weaken protections for threatened species, ignores strong legal tools already available
Changes to the Victorian government’s forestry plan indicate weakened protections for threatened wildlife and ignore strong legal tools already available to regulate the industry, environmental lawyers say. The announcement today includes a plan to introduce new...
Community group urge Environment Minister, department for transparency over secret Yallourn closure deal
A Latrobe Valley community group are calling for transparency from the Victorian Environment Minister to release the details of a secret deal struck with Energy Australia to keep its Yallourn power station operating until 2028. Energy Australia announced in...
Young Queenslanders urge UNESCO to list Great Barrier Reef as ‘in danger’ as federal government deadline looms
Three young Queenslanders have stepped up their fight to protect the Great Barrier Reef by writing to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, urging the icon be listed as ‘in danger’ due to the severe risk it faces from climate change, and the federal government’s...
NSW EPA puts Delta Electricity ahead of community health as Vales Point granted third pollution exemption
Environmental lawyers and doctors have slammed the NSW environment regulator’s decision to grant Delta Electricity a special exemption from legal air pollution limits for another five years. The decision on 15 December came despite a NSW parliamentary committee...
Victorian government’s waterways plan fails to provide for the green infrastructure of Melbourne’s west
A plan to protect the waterways of Melbourne’s west, which has been more than three years in the making, will not provide the broad law reform necessary to protect and restore critical rivers and creeks across this fast-changing region. The Victorian Department of...
Urgent reform needed as federal law allows VicForests logging to go ahead despite breaching state laws, driving extinction
Today the High Court has declined to grant leave to community group Friends of Leadbeater’s Possum, to appeal their case to the High Court of Australia. This confirms Australia’s federal environment laws need urgent reform and are catastrophically failing wildlife...
‘Let rivers be rivers’: Community alliance says ecosystems must come first to tackle mounting crisis for Victoria’s waterways
An alliance of community and environment groups are calling for river ecosystems on the brink to be put first in a government strategy which will lock-in the next decade of water planning for southern Victoria. The Concerned Waterways Alliance has today released a...
A hidden problem: Latrobe Valley community’s plan for environment regulator, power station operators to clean up toxic coal ash waste
Environment and community advocates in the Latrobe Valley have compiled a detailed plan for Victoria’s regulator and power station operators to clean up dangerous and toxic coal ash dams. Time is running out for Energy Australia, operator of Yallourn Power Station,...
Today’s Parliamentary Inquiry report reveals tragic state of Victorian biodiversity
From Greater Gliders in native forests to Regent Honeyeaters in the suburbs – Victoria’s dramatic ecosystem decline revealed in parliamentary Inquiry requires “decisive action” from the Andrews Government. Victorian National Parks Association, Birdlife Australia,...