Green group Environment Defender’s Office funding doubt after federal court finding

Solomon MP Luke Gosling will take the fight to slash a discredited green group’s funding to Canberra. Read what he’ll do.

Solomon MP Luke Gosling will raise issues around ongoing funding for the Environment Defender’s Office with federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek.

The information was prised from Mr Gosling when an interviewer pressed him on whether he supported the NT government’s review of funding into the EDO.

The Commonwealth funds the EDO through a $2m annual grant agreement which expires in 2026.

“There’s a number of issues I’ll be raising with the Environment Minister when we get back (to Canberra), including the time line for some decisions on Lee Point,” Mr Gosling responded to questions about the EDO, referring to a major Darwin housing development stalled by environmental protests.

Pressed for a response, Mr Gosling confirmed he would take the issue to Ms Plibersek.

“Yeah, that will be one of the issues I raise with the Environment Minister. Any other questions?”

Mr Gosling is the second prominent Territory Labor figure calling the EDO to account this week after Chief Minister Eva Lawler announced she would review the organisation’s funding following a damning federal court judgement that cast doubts about the organisation’s integrity.

Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek. NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Ms Lawler said on Monday “there must be consequences for lies”.

NT Opposition leader Lia Finocchiaro and federal Coalition leader Peter Dutton have also said they’d stop the EDO’s funding.

Environment Minister Kate Worden said she had asked her department to look into the EDO but stopped short of saying whether she supported defunding the agency.

“Where any government grant is concerned we require those bodies to conduct their business in an ethical manner, I think that is the very bare minimum that you can expect when you’re getting public funds, so I am looking at that matter seriously,” she said.

“It’s not appropriate for me to comment until I’ve got all the facts before me.”

On January 15, federal court judge Natalie Charlesworth delivered an excoriating assessment of the EDO’s lawyers and the information they provided Tiwi Islanders who were campaigning against a pipeline for Santos’ Barossa gas project.

“The material supports an inference that Indigenous instructions have been distorted and manipulated before being presented to this Court via an expert report, and I so find,” she said in her judgement.

She said environmentalist claims were “confection” or “construction” and “so lacking in integrity that no weight can be placed on them”.

The EDO has declined multiple requests by the NT News for an interview to respond to Justice Charlesworth’s judgement.

David Morris, CEO of the Environmental Defenders Office. Picture: Supplied

While representatives from the organisation have hinted at an appeal, nothing has formally been lodged.

EDO chief executive David Morris released a written statement that referenced the organisation’s advocacy work but failed to address Justice Charlesworth’s findings.

Mr Morris declined to say whether he would step-down.

Australia’s oil and gas industry has also backed cutting the activist group’s funding following Justice Charlesworth’s decision.

Australian Energy Producers chief executive Samantha McCulloch said it was ridiculous for federal or state taxpayers to fund the EDO after its unprofessional behaviour was exposed.

“The taxpayer-funded environmental lawfare must end,” Ms McCulloch said.

“Taxpayers have been effectively bankrolling a group that uses the courts to delay energy supplies that are urgently needed both here in Australia and in our region to support energy security and the transition to net zero.”