Activist Ben Pennings claims victory after long legal battle with Adani

A Brisbane environmental activist has claimed a major court win after a long legal battle against miner Adani. But the resources giant has also claimed success.

Protesters outside the Supreme Court in Brisbane. Picture: NewsWire / John Gass

A Brisbane environmental activist has claimed a major court win after a long legal battle against miner Adani.

But the resources giant said it “welcomed” a decision by the Supreme Court not to throw the entire case out, as Ben Pennings had hoped.

Adani commenced proceedings against Mr Pennings in 2020, claiming the climate change activist had disrupted operations of the Carmichael coal mine through his involvement with the Galilee Blockade protest group.

Adani alleged the Galilee Blockade, a group which protests against mining in the Galilee basin, ran two campaigns seeking that Adani employees disclose confidential company information.

Earlier on Friday, Justice Susan Brown delivered a judgment which struck out several paragraphs of Adani’s statement of claim against Mr Pennings – with some parts of the claim labelled as “confused and embarrassing”.

Ben Pennings outside Brisbane Supreme Court. Picture: NewsWire / John Gass

Outside court, Mr Pennings said the decision had effectively thrown out the most serious allegations against him, including intimidation and conspiracy.

“I come out a very relieved man. This is very very good news,” he told his supporters and media.

Mr Pennings said his lawyers still needed to go through the full judgment, but said “the vast majority” of the allegations had been struck out.

Adani has been granted leave to replead, and still had 28 days to decide whether they wanted to appeal the decision.

Mr Pennings had originally sought an order to permanently stay the proceedings as an “abuse of process”, but Justice Brown was not satisfied this was appropriate.

“I am not satisfied that the defendant (Mr Pennings) has shown in all the circumstances that the proceedings have been brought forward to harass the defendant, bring unjustifiable oppression to bear upon him and intimidate him from participating in legitimate public discourse,” Justice Brown said.

“Whether the plaintiffs (Adani) are going to be successful at trial is a matter yet to be determined.”

A spokesperson for Bravus, the Australian face of the Adani Group, said it welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision.

“We brought these civil proceedings against Mr Pennings in 2020 to enforce our rights and allow employees and contractors of our Carmichael mine near Clermont in central Queensland to carry out legal and legitimate business activities free from intimidation and harassment,” the spokesman said.

Protesters outside Brisbane’s Supreme Court on Friday. Picture: NewsWire/John Gass

“Mr Pennings had applied to the Court to have the case struck out. He also asked the Court to lift the injunction against him which prevents him from threatening our contractors and employees. Justice Brown rejected both applications and the injunction remains in place.

“Mr Pennings has been either wholly unsuccessful or largely unsuccessful at every stage of the civil legal proceedings since they began. The matter is expected to go to trial in 2025.”

Mr Pennings, however, said he had come out of court a “very very happy man”.

He acknowledged the case against him was “not over completely” but that he was still “extraordinarily relieved” by the decision to strike out key allegations.

“I’ve been up since 2.30 this morning, dry-retching… It’s a horrible process to go through,” he said.

“I don’t believe I’ve done anything that has required this sort of legal action — severe, ongoing, torturous Supreme Court litigation.”

Mr Pennings claimed it was “anti-democratic” to “take a stand like this against a peaceful protester”.

“I’ve had to raise a million dollars in legal funds from the public just to be able to fight this,” Mr Pennings said.

He said he hoped Adani might drop the proceedings against him, but that he was prepared to keep fighting.

“It’s four-and-a-half years so far; if it becomes six years, I’ll still be here,” he said.

Mr Pennings’s daughter Isabella told the media she had struggled with fear and anxiety after believing that Adani hired a private investigator to follow her family members.

“I would worry when I walked down the street, when a car slowed down, if they were following me,” Ms Pennings said.

She said today’s outcome was “a long time coming” and “really reassuring”.

“You worry about getting too excited because there’s obviously still things they could do but it’s such a huge relief and it feels like there’s such a big weight off our shoulders.”

Queensland Greens MP Michael Berkman had earlier supported Mr Pennings outside court.

“The fact that both Labor and the LNP have supported this project and other projects in the Galilee basin, shows you just how much control the fossil fuel lobby and corporate Australia in general has over our entire political and legal system,” Mr Berkman said.

“We need to make it clear to the state that we expect them to act against SLAPP suits and we expect protections against this kind of corporate lawfare that so many other countries and states are entitled to.”

Remah Naji, the Greens candidate for Moreton in Brisbane’s south, said cases like that against Mr Pennings were “designed to shut people up”.

“Powerful organisations and wealthy people don’t like being challenged and they use their deep pockets and expensive lawyers like a weapon,” Ms Naji said.

Former Greens leader Bob Brown said Mr Pennings would be an “enduring hero” for the conservation movement “until the day the coal mining stops and beyond”.

“This false vilification of Ben Pennings through legal accusations has effectively been a four year jail sentence with an unknown date of execution,” said Mr Brown.

“It cried out for action for governments around the country to make such actions illegal as in many jurisdictions overseas.”