Updates
What the Bayswater and Loy Yang A early closure announcements mean for the community
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...
A huge win for a stellar community campaign
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...
Initial response to the Draft Central and Gippsland Region Sustainable Water Strategy
The Concerned Waterways Alliance (CWA) welcomes the release of the Discussion Draft of the Central and Gippsland SWS. The SWS will be an opportunity to relieve mounting pressures on our stressed rivers and wetlands from consumptive uses, over-extraction and the...
Memorandum of Advice – Amendments to ARENA regulations
A leading barrister and former head of the Law Council of Australia says the Federal government's push to invest public money into fossil fuels could be illegal, is open to serious legal challenges and is "at odds" with the purpose of the Australian Renewable Energy...
Working to reverse ‘aqua nullius’ for First Nations people on the Murray River floodplain
For tens of thousands of years, First Nations people have cared for Country and depended on healthy and flowing rivers – rivers that lived and breathed according to natural cycles. Colonisation and decades of mismanagement and overextraction have left Australia’s...
Standing up for a safe future in light of the IPCC report
In August, climate change and the urgent and undeniable imperative to rapidly decarbonise the world dominated the news, after the sixth United Nations IPCC Report was published. There is no question that the IPCC analysis shows that the choices of the Australian...
Two North Queensland teenagers escalate their call to revoke approval of Adani
It’s clear if we are to protect our magnificent Great Barrier Reef, Adani’s giant coal mine cannot go ahead. The evidence keeps mounting – just this month, the United Nations recommended the Great Barrier Reef be listed as World Heritage in danger because of...
Senate blocks Morrison government’s plan to allow ARENA to invest in fossil fuels
On Tuesday 22 June 2021, Labor, the Greens and cross-bench senators blocked the Morrison government’s plans to invest taxpayer funds into fossil fuels and adjacent technologies. The Senate vetoed regulations which sought to expand the Australian Renewable Energy...
Yallourn mine situation demands inquiry
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...
Federal court rules on Possums Appeal
In May 2021, the full bench of the Federal Court overturned the landmark win in the case to protect the critically endangered Leadbeater's Possum and vulnerable Greater Glider from logging. The appeal was won on a single ground - that logging has a wide exemption...
Representing community opposing a mineral sands mine in East Gippsland
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...
Revision of National Air Pollution Standards
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...