Queensland Environmental Defenders call on state government to help fund public interest environmental litigation

On 11 June 2010, the EDO-NQ and EDO (Qld) made a joint submission to the Queensland’s Attorney General,  Cameron Dick, requesting that the State to make up to $180,000 legal aid funding available annually for public interest environmental cases run in State courts. In support of their submission, the Queensland EDOs noted the financial obstacles individuals and community groups face in bringing lawsuits on behalf of the public that seek to enforce State, Commonwealth and local laws intended to protect the environment. The Queensland EDOs further noted the benefits that the public has reaped in New South Wales, which has long had in place financial assistance for such litigation. “Legal aid has been available for years in New South Wales and has allowed numerous worthy public interest environmental law cases to be run in that state’s courts,” noted Patrick Pearlman, Principal Solicitor of the EDO-NQ, based in Cairns. “We’re simply seeking similar funding for groups and individuals that want to protect Queensland’s ecosystems on behalf of all of us,” he added.

Queensland’s environmental defenders further noted that legal aid from the State would supplement funding that is available under the Commonwealth’s “public interest and test case” scheme, which helped the EDO (Qld) run litigation on behalf of the Wide Bay Burnett Conservation Council challenging the government’s failure to comply with environmental conditions related to operation of the Paradise Dam, which in turn threatened the rare Queensland lungfish.  According to Jo-Anne Bragg, Principal Solicitor for the EDO (Qld) office in Brisbane, “even with community donations that the Council was able to raise, and pro bono assistance from law students and barristers, we could not have run this case without assistance from the Commonwealth – it’s simply too expensive and too much of a drain on our limited resources”.

Under the Queensland EDOs’ proposal, an independent assessment committee would review applications for legal aid for public interest environmental litigation and determine, independent of the litigants’ financial means, whether the lawsuit raises sufficiently broad public interest concerns and, if so, recommend funding to assist in running that case.  It is worth emphasising that the legal aid sought by the Queensland EDOs would be available to any party running a public interest environmental law matter in court – not just the EDOs.

While Attorney General Dick expressed interest in the Queensland EDOs’ submission, support from the public – including from members of academia and the bar – will be particularly helpful.  On that note, Brisbane barrister, Stephen Keim, authored a letter on 16 June 2010 strongly supporting the EDOs’ legal aid funding request, which the EDOs have forwarded to Attorney General Dick.  See below for links to the EDOs’ submission for legal aid funding, together with letters of support.

•  Queensland Legal Aid Submission - 12 June 2010
• Letter of support - Stephen Keim