On February 15, 2017, Environmental Justice Australia (EJA) published The Adani Brief, which documented allegations of conduct by the Adani Group and its associated entities, including alleged illegal dealings and…
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MEDIA RELEASE 1 February 2018 The federal government’s $5bn Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF), which is understood to be considering a coal railway loan application from Aurizon, has not finalised…
The nation is losing the political will to protect our pristine places – and biodiversity is suffering by Adam Morton What if the Franklin river hadn’t been saved? Stopping the…
By Joanne McCarthy DOCTORS have slammed the Hunter’s air quality regime as “trivial”, “sloppy”, “inadequate”, “ineffective” and “failing to protect human health” after a weekend of national air quality standard…
MEDIA RELEASE 23 January 2018 A new campaign aims to secure improved legal protections for key urban waterways in Melbourne’s west, comparable to the safeguards provided for the Yarra River…
MEDIA RELEASE 21 January 2018 The Places You Love alliance has slammed the Federal Government’s draft Australia’s Strategy for Nature 2018-2030 as deeply inadequate and failing to address Australia’s crisis…
By Ruth Williams When it comes to corporate Australia and climate change, 2018 is shaping up as a perfect storm. Investors, regulators and litigation lawyers are all circling, ramping up…
Environment Justice Australia lawyer and Latrobe Valley local Bronya Lipski is calling on the Environment Protection Authority to tighten limits on power station emissions following an EPA review into Victorian…
Rivers and creeks in Melbourne’s west deserve the sort of planning and environmental protections given to the Yarra, a campaign launched by environmental, legal and local river groups says. The…
Adani’s bid for a $1 billion taxpayer-funded loan may have been doomed even before it was scuppered by Queensland’s Palaszczuk Government according to the Government’s main economic advisory body, the…
During the summer break, Barry Buffier quietly announced his resignation as chief executive and chair of the NSW Environment Protection Authority. The Herald reported that Buffier’s resignation came after a year of “intense…
Exposure to fine particulates from burning coal, vehicle exhausts and other pollution sources is linked to an increased risk of pre-term births, according to a study of more than 1…
NSW govt silent on end-of-year promise for new Namoi dust monitoring network (Northern Daily Leader)
THE NSW government has refused to explain why the installation of a new air pollution monitoring network for the Namoi region has been delayed. In June, Environment Minister Gabrielle Upton announced the new government-run network was expected to…
Green groups’ case against logging in central highlands mountain ash forests could have repercussions for NSW and WA. Green groups are challenging the validity of a Victorian forestry agreement in…
MEDIA RELEASE 12 December 2017 The Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) cannot loan public money to Adani’s Carmichael coal project without the consent of the Queensland Government, lawyers have confirmed….
MEDIA RELEASE 8 December 2017 Environmental Justice Australia has welcomed the release of the Victorian Government’s response to submissions to the review of the state’s biodiversity protection law, the Flora…
New equipment to monitor for potentially toxic plumes emitted by coal-fired power stations is being trialled in Victoria's Latrobe Valley. The Environment Protection Authority is trialling testing across Traralgon to…
A community legal service has urged Australia's consumer watchdog to crack down on Adani for misleading vulnerable jobseekers with inflated claims its Queensland mine will create 10,000 jobs. Environmental Justice…
MEDIA RELEASE 6 December 2017 Adani’s claim that its Carmichael coal mine project will create 10,000 direct and indirect jobs has been referred to the national consumer protection agency, the…
The stories in Re-imagining Birrarung: Six radical restoration ideas for the iconic Yarra River are visions of a revitalised, restored river. They imagine what the river can be like when…
Coal combustion, already one of the main sources of pollution, has also been found to release nano particles of titanium that are potentially harmful to humans and other life forms,…
Logging on dozens of central highlands sites has been suspended after legal action from an environmental group. The Federal Court has ordered VicForest must not “conduct timber harvesting operations” on…
Logging has been suspended at 34 sites in Victoria following a legal challenge that, if successful, threatens the validity of controversial timber operations in native forests across Australia. The development comes…
By Dr James Whelan Dawson MP George Christensen was recently reported saying he thinks it’s fair if the federal government (ie. the taxpayer) ‘coughs up’ to get a new coal-fired…
MEDIA RELEASE 20 November 2017 Large areas of forest earmarked for logging in Victoria’s Central Highlands are safe from the chainsaws – for now – until part of a case,…
Green groups are basing challenge on claim that Victorian forestry agreement is not being adhered to Exemptions allowing logging to occur in Australia’s native forests without approval under federal environmental…
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has made $6 billion worth of new loans to coal, oil and gas projects in the 20 months since committing to the Paris climate agreement,…
MEDIA RELEASE 15 November 2017 A federal court case will challenge whether logging in endangered species habitat can continue to have a special exemption from Federal environment protection law. Environmental…
IN A bizarre war over words, the Supreme Court has voted for plain speech in the case of a North Warrandyte couple, who complained about a proposed home that involved…
MEDIA RELEASE 9 November 2017 Communities that live with the pollution of coal-fired power stations are the big losers from French energy giant Engie shifting $1 billion in dividends out…
MEDIA RELEASE 2 November 2017 A decision of Victoria's Supreme Court today confirms the ability of concerned Victorians to object to inappropriate developments – and emphasises the importance of minimising…
Legal action has forced state logging agency VicForests to suspend logging in the Kuark forest in far east Gippsland for at least a month. The environment group Flora and Fauna…
VicForests has been forced to cancel its plan to clearfell an untouched part of the Kuark rainforest in east Gippsland after environmental activists won an injunction in the Supreme Court on Wednesday. Environmental…
By Michael Slezak Environmental Justice Australia injuncts Victorian government-owned business from clearing in Kuark forest Conservationists have won an injunction stopping a Victorian government-owned business from clearing old-growth trees in…
The desperate fight to stop these 500-year-old forest giants becoming office paper (Huffington Post)
The bulldozers and chainsaws are about to move in to one of our few remaining mainland old growth forests. All eyes are on north Queensland, as the country's biggest environmental…
MEDIA RELEASE 1 November 2017 Victoria’s Supreme Court has ordered an injunction to prevent state logging agency VicForests from cutting down a spectacular area of old growth forest in eastern…
Environmental Justice Australia says it will seek injunction to prevent logging of area containing centuries-old trees A Victorian government-owned business is poised to clear-fell hundreds of hectares of spectacular old-growth…
MEDIA RELEASE 12 October 2017 Air pollution from Hunter Valley coal mines has been at dangerous levels in the last month, with the state government issuing a staggering 72 alerts…
Communities in the NSW Hunter region have been exposed to extraordinarily high levels of air pollution from coalmines during September and it's only going to get worse, an environmental researcher…
This report, jointly released by the Australian Conservation Foundation and Environmental Justice Australia, identifies key ‘anti-corruption’ principles and sets out how these need to be applied to government decision-making on…
Air pollution from the Hunter Valley coal mines gets so bad for Wendy Wales on occasion that she has called neighbours warning them of a bushfire, mistaking the dust for…
MEDIA RELEASE 10 October 2017 Lawyers have described the Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund’s first investment – a loan for a port upgrade in Western Australia – as a new fossil…
Green groups have reacted angrily to the news that the federal government’s $5 billion Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility, or NAIF, has agreed to issue its first loan to a WA…
MEDIA RELEASE 12 April 2017 The company directors of the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) are likely to be in breach of their duties if they approve a loan for…
The Turnbull government's Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility has agreed to issue its first loan, but the project still needs Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce's tick of approval. The fund's board…
Subsidised loan to Onslow Marine Support Base is first from controversial $5bn Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility The expansion of a port in Western Australia’s north is the first project to…
The Federal Government’s desire to extend the life of Australia’s ageing coal-fired power stations disregards the toxic burden coal-generated power places on Australian communities, Nicola Rivers writes. According to the…
Guy and Kim Abrahams say case does not need to proceed after changes in bank’s 2017 annual report Commonwealth Bank shareholders Guy and Kim Abrahams have dropped their world-first court…
MEDIA RELEASE 21 September 2017 The passage of the Yarra River Protection Bill through Victoria’s Parliament today signals the start of a new era of protecting Victoria’s most famous waterway,…
MEDIA RELEASE 21 September 2017 Commonwealth Bank shareholders Guy and Kim Abrahams have discontinued their Federal Court proceedings against the bank for failing to disclose climate change risks in annual…
MEDIA RELEASE 18 September 2017 Delta Electricity, the only company to have publicly declared an interest in buying AGL’s 46-year-old Liddell plant, has earned a ‘bad neighbour’ reputation by letting…
Environmental law group has accused Delta Electricity of underreporting emissions at its Vales Point power station and breaching licence conditions The only Australian company with a stated potential interest in…
Gliders listed as threatened by both state and federal governments, but they are not protected by legislation Logging has begun in trees inhabited by the threatened greater gliders in a…
MEDIA RELEASE 7 September 2017, Threatened Species Day The Victorian Government’s main policy to prevent the extinction of the state’s faunal emblem, the critically endangered Leadbeater’s Possum, relies on the…
Wednesday 11/02/15 Huffington Post, Nicole Ghio Today, civil society groups, scientists, political leaders and business owners from across Australia and the United States delivered an open letter to U.S. Export-Import…
Coal-fired power stations emit toxic chemicals and particulates that are highly damaging to human health. And our governments — state and federal — are failing to protect us. This is revealed in a…
For Charmian Eckersley, keeping the windows and doors of her home permanently sealed has become an everyday necessity. Eckersley and her husband have lived in the Lake Macquarie suburb of…
In this fact sheet: What are EPA licences for power stations and air quality control regions? What air monitoring is available for the Latrobe Valley and can you access it?…
MEDIA RELEASE 16 August 2017 News that Adani is being investigated in India for allegedly siphoning off hundreds of millions of dollars to offshore tax havens should put the brakes…
Environmental Justice Australia has exposed Australian coal-fired power stations in a new report, which links pollution from the power stations to community health problems. The report also shows power stations…
The investigation into the New Chum dump fire will not include analysis of air quality data that would show whether Ipswich residents were exposed to toxic smoke. Dump operator Cleanaway,…
Emission limits applied to Australian power stations, including Yallourn, Loy Yang A and Loy Yang B, are significantly less stringent than the standards in the European Union, United States and…
Nicola Rivers: Poor air quality and health problems: the hidden cost of coal (Sydney Morning Herald)
By Nicola Rivers Smoky Sydney skies this week are a reminder of the cost air pollution is having on our community. While toxic emissions from coal-fired power stations go into the air we breathe,…
Consideration of loan described as ‘untenable’ after allegations hundreds of millions siphoned into tax havens The government should immediately suspend any consideration of a federal loan to Adani or an…
AUSTRALIA is trailing behind places like China when it comes to pollution standards and those living near coal-fired power stations are three times more likely to die a premature death,…
A new report on pollution from coal power stations finds the health effects on nearby communities could be eased greatly if emissions were cut. Health problems associated with pollution from…
THREE Hunter coal-fired power stations are licensed to release more than 33 times the level of mercury into the atmosphere each year than Chinese power stations, and a staggering 666…
Australia's biggest coal-fired power stations are permitted to dump toxic pollutants on nearby populations far in excess of overseas counterparts, even those in China, a survey by Environmental Justice Australia…
HOW'S YOUR AIR?RESOURCESNATIONAL POLLUTANT INVENTORYAIR POLLUTION UPDATES Toxic and terminal: How the regulation of coal-fired power stations fails Australian communities is the result of exhaustive research, Freedom of Information searches,...
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MEDIA RELEASE 15 August 2017 A major new report shows Australia’s power stations are allowed to emit far more pollution than those in the US and Europe, operators are failing…
Australia's biggest bank just became the first financial institution to be sued over how it deals with the risk of climate change to its business. Two shareholders of the Commonwealth…
SYDNEY (Reuters) – A husband and wife filed a lawsuit against No. 2 Australian lender Commonwealth Bank of Australia on Tuesday accusing it of failing to disclose investment risks associated…
TWO shareholders have lodged a world-first lawsuit against the Commonwealth Bank because it failed to mention climate change risk in its annual report last year. Lawyers from Environmental Justice Australia…
Shareholders are taking the Commonwealth Bank to court, alleging that it is misleading investors about its financial position. An Australian couple filed a climate lawsuit against one of the country’s…
In world-first case, shareholders’ move comes after the Australian financial regulator warned climate change poses material risk to entire financial system The embattled Commonwealth Bank is being sued by shareholders…
Two shareholders have launched legal action against the Commonwealth Bank of Australia for allegedly failing to adequately disclose the risk climate change poses to its financial position. Proceedings have been…
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia's woes are continuing, with a green activist group launching legal action on Tuesday on behalf of two mum and dad shareholders accusing the bank of failing…
MEDIA RELEASE 8 August 2017 Lawyers from Environmental Justice Australia today filed proceedings in the Federal Court on behalf of shareholders Guy and Kim Abrahams against the Commonwealth Bank of…
EJA has filed proceedings against the Commonwealth Bank on behalf of shareholders for failing to adequately disclose climate change risk in the bank’s 2016 annual report.
MEDIA RELEASE 4 August 2017 All four of Whitehaven’s coal mines in the Namoi region of north west New South Wales breached at least one – and in some cases,…
Documents a major coal company fought to keep secret have revealed a litany of environmental licence breaches at its north-western NSW mines over the past six years. The breaches relate…
MEDIA RELEASE 3 August 2017 A new legal opinion on climate change and trustee directors’ duties has wide-reaching ramifications for Australia’s $2.3 trillion superannuation industry, Environmental Justice Australia said today….
The Environment Protection Authority, or the EPA, of Victoria is going through some big changes. On today's show we're going to talk to two community advocates, Wendy Farmer from Voices…
Communities who live in close proximity to power stations in NSW have some rights to enforce licence conditions and seek remedy for pollution offences. There are ways that communities can…
Any loan the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (Naif) gives to Adani’s Carmichael coalmine project would likely be unlawful, according to the former head of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC),…
AIR pollution created by the New Chum fire can't be detected by the State Government's monitoring equipment, an expert says. The State Government has launched an investigation after huge plumes…
By Matt Ruchel and Dr Bruce Lindsay REMOVING large, mature trees from agricultural land means continuing and exacerbating the irreversible decline of remnant vegetation on private land in Victoria —…
By Kim Shore The Finkel review does not explicitly put community power on the agenda. But community energy entrepreneurship could help deliver Finkel’s recommendations — especially distributed and independent power…
