Environment Minister welcomes external review into EDO after scathing Santos ruling

The Environment Minister welcomed an external review into the tarnished community legal service, labelling a judge’s findings as ‘very concerning’.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek says “there will be consequences” for the Environmental Defenders Office if funding agreements were breached, admitting findings against them were “very concerning”.

An external review into the community legal service was launched in response to federal court judge Natalie Charlesworth’s scathing assessment the EDO lied to Tiwi Islanders who were campaigning against a pipeline for Santos’ Barossa gas project.

On Wednesday the EDO announced it had appointed a team of external legal experts to recommend reforms, including on best practice when working with First Nations clients.

“We take this decision seriously, as we would any decision that includes judicial comment about our lawyers,” EDO chair Bronwyn Darlington said.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek and her Northern Territory counterpart Kate Worden. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

In Darwin to announce a $53.1 million investment in remote water infrastructure, Ms Plibersek said “the comments of the judge were very concerning”.

“That’s why I’ve sought to reassure myself that the EDO is behaving in the way that we would expect any organisation that is receiving government funding to behave,” she said.

“If they’ve behaved in a way that is contrary to their arrangement with the Commonwealth Government, there’ll be consequences for that.”

The EDO is budgeted to receive $8.2 million in federal funding over four years.

Ms Plibersek said that along with her departmental investigation into the funding agreement, she would await the findings of the EDO’s external review, which will be led by prominent silk Tony McAvoy SC.

The NT government is also reviewing its $100,000 annual funding arrangement with the legal service.

More than $50m for more reliable water in remote and regional NT

The federal and NT governments have jointly pledged $53.1m to upgrade water infrastructure in remote communities. (AAP Image/Dan Peled)

Meanwhile the federal and Northern Territory governments pledged more than $50 million to improve water reliability and purity in Maningrida, Numbulwar, Gove Peninsula and Yulara.

Ms Plibersek said it would help to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians and allow communities to expand housing and health services.

Maningrida will receive $21 million for work to increase water storage capacity via the construction of a water tank, new pipes to move the water from the water storage to the community, and upgrades to the water network.

On the Gove Peninsula $8.9 million will upgrade a water pipeline in Yirrkala and assess water infrastructure for Gunyangara to identify needs.

In Numbulwar $3.2 million is earmarked for planning and investigation work, such as investigative drilling, to identify new water supplies.

These three projects fall under the federal government’s $150m commitment to improve water security in Indigenous communities nationally.

Under a separate agreement $18.2 million will go to Yulara to improve water supply at tourist services in Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park.

Originally published as Environment Minister welcomes external review into EDO after scathing Santos ruling