New risk to green schemes

SIGNATURE federal Labor reforms could be under threat after a High Court decision that ruled the school chaplains program invalid

SIGNATURE federal Labor reforms, including the Gillard government's $1 billion Regional Development Australia Fund and the GP super clinics program, could be under threat after a landmark High Court decision that ruled the school chaplains program invalid.

Millions of dollars doled out under green schemes such as the Community Energy Efficiency Program and the Energy Efficiency Information Grants to help businesses, community groups and local councils cut their energy use and adapt to carbon pricing, could also be challenged.

The Coalition warned it would not simply greenlight legislation to support schemes that were threatened by the High Court ruling, which found the commonwealth's funding for chaplains in Australian schools exceeded its constitutional powers.

Opposition environment spokesman Greg Hunt said while the Coalition was still trying to understand the full effect of Wednesday's decision, several environmental programs could be affected.

"There are a significant number which could be included as the government has been handing out millions of dollars in a desperate attempt to gloss over the impact of the carbon tax," Mr Hunt said.

Greens leader Christine Milne warned the government would now be constrained in how it dished out public money.

"The point is they will now have to legislate for those programs and it's appropriate that this now goes through the parliament and has that scrutiny," Senator Milne said.

The High Court decision has left the government scrambling to put many of its funding programs -- from roads and regional funding to programs to support the arts, sport and environment -- on a secure footing.

Attorney-General Nicola Roxon said the steps could include passing legislation to support certain schemes, distributing funding via the states or some other mechanism.

Yesterday, Ms Roxon said programs such as the Roads to Recovery Program, which has allocated $4.8bn in roads funding to local councils since 2000, had "some challenges" as a result of the High Court decision.

However, she said the only program directly invalidated by the High Court was the school chaplains scheme.

On Wednesday, the High Court ruled in a 6-1 decision that funding for the school chaplains scheme was invalid because it exceeded the commonwealth's executive powers under the Constitution.

University of NSW constitutional law professor Andrew Lynch said the case put the brakes on spending without engagement with the political system.

"The Regional Development Australia Fund is a good example of something that the commonwealth will need to think about -- how it secures those kind of payments," he said.

"That will require getting legislation through the parliament, which supports that scheme or dealing the states back into the process rather than directly establishing and administering these schemes."