Queensland strips funding from environmental legal service

The Queensland government will stop funding for a not-for-profit environmental legal service, angering environmentalists across the country who have signed an open letter condemning the decision.

The Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) offers legal aid for environmental disputes, and has offices across the country including in Brisbane and Cairns.

The Queensland government had provided funding of $500,000 a year for five years, but chief executive David Morris said he received news on Thursday morning that this would end from July 1.

The office is partly funded by government, and partly through philanthropic contributions.Credit: Dean Sewell

“Over the past five years, Queensland government funding has enabled us to provide about 1500 legal services to people who otherwise could not possibly afford legal advice,” Morris said.

“Loss of this funding will deny many people access to the law and to environmental justice, which should be a basic right.”

“Without [the EDO], many communities won’t even know their rights, let alone have the chance to exercise them.”

Asked about its decision, the LNP state government dug in, saying it was consistent with the promises it took to last year’s state election.

“As per our commitment before the election, we honoured Labor’s funding agreement in its entirety which expired at the end of June 2025,” a spokesperson said.

“As part of future assessments for programs, the EDO would have to convince the government that proper processes had been put in place to qualify for further funding, after being ordered to pay $9 million in costs after a judge criticised EDO lawyers for coaching a witness.”

This is a reference to the huge fine that the climate-focused legal service was told to pay oil and gas giant Santos, after a court rejected its attempt to block an offshore pipeline near the Tiwi Islands and found it had coached Indigenous witnesses.

EDO lawyers had argued that the pipeline’s proposed route risked damaging Tiwi Islanders’ underwater cultural heritage and interfering with the travels of two creatures of their Dreaming stories – the rainbow serpent Ampiji and the Crocodile Man.

In a scathing ruling in January, Federal Court judge Natalie Charlesworth found some evidence presented by the EDO had involved “confection”.

In one instance, the judgment criticised evidence based on a “cultural mapping” exercise as “so lacking in integrity that no weight can be placed” on it.

Morris said the EDO had been given assurances before the election that it would maintain funding commitments if the party was voted in.

In its open letter, the Queensland Conservation Council said Premier David Crisafulli had also promised that “funding for environmental organisations would not be cut”.

“By allowing this to happen, the Queensland LNP has reneged on its election promise,” the council’s letter said.

Queensland Greens state MP Michael Berkman, a former EDO lawyer, said the decision was “yet another broken promise from the Crisafulli LNP Government”.

“The LNP have made it crystal clear that they don’t care about our environment,” Berkman said. “Independent voices won’t be tolerated, and they’ll make up whatever lies and excuses they can to cut them out.”

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