Menzies Research Centre calls Australia environmental lawfare ‘capital of the world’

Australia is the environmental lawfare ‘capital of the world’, according to the Menzies Research Centre, which is claiming climate lawsuits have cost the economy nearly $17.5bn.

Tiwi senior lawman Dennis Tipaklippa’s landmark victory invalidated Santos’s approval to drill for gas in Tiwi sea country. Picture: Environmental Defenders Office

Australia is the environmental lawfare “capital of the world”, according to the Menzies Research Centre, which is claiming climate lawsuits have cost the economy nearly $17.5bn and 30,000 jobs in the last two years.

Menzies Research Centre executive director David Hughes said Australia had the most climate lawsuits in the world on a per capita basis. Its report, Open Lawfare: How Australia became the Lawfare Capital of the World, to be released this week, showed activists had launched 127 climate lawsuits in Australia from the 1990s to 2022.

The report said in the two years to June 2024 there had been at “been at least nine major projects held up by environmental lawfare”, costing the economy nearly $17.5bn and 30,000 jobs.

Menzies Research Centre executive director David Hughes. Picture: Menzies Research Centre

“Australia’s top 25 environmental activist groups had combined revenue of $113m in 2015,” Mr Hughes said. “In under a decade, revenue of these same groups more than doubled to $275m.”

The report found activists were being encouraged to stymie projects by Australia’s “relatively low bar for launching court actions”.

“Groups like the Environmental Defenders Office have been found to ‘coach’ witnesses in order to block resources projects in the Northern Territory, deploying underhanded tactics that rely on Indigenous consultation rules as a back door to environmental lawfare,” the report said.

“Green lawfare is not limited to class-action cases; all over Australia, activist groups take advantage of laws that purport to protect the environment to block projects – including renewable energy projects – on ideological grounds.”

The Menzies Research Centre attacked the Albanese government for helping fund “environmental lawfare groups”.

“The 2022 budget included $10m for the EDO and Environmental Justice Australia, which are responsible for the majority of environmental lawfare in Australia,” the report said. “The 2024 budget confirmed ongoing support for green lawfare funding.”

The right-wing think tank is arguing our courts “increasingly serve as forums for activist groups to pursue ideological agendas”.

“There is increasing use of the courts for political purposes and power transferred to unelected bureaucrats,” the report said.

“Activist groups, pursuing specific agendas, have identified, promoted and resourced campaigns to employ the power of the courts for their purposes.

“This phenomenon has been growing over the last decade.

“It is essential … courts both maintain their independence and be seen to do so. Judicial activism erodes public confidence in the ability for courts to be independent and free from bias. Additionally, the use of courts as forums for political campaigns undermines the primacy of parliament and the separation of powers.”

The report warned Labor’s environmental reforms, including establishing the Environmental Protection Agency and a Nature Repair Market, threaten to make the issue worse.