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Bushfire Survivors Take Action Over NSW Climate Policy
Bushfire survivors are taking legal action to force the New South Wales Environmental Protection Authority to address climate change. EDO is representing a group of people from around the state, who have experienced first-hand the devastation caused by major bushfires – infernos made more likely and more intense by climate change. After the worst bushfire […]
EDO lawyers are top of class
EDO’s Special Counsel Brendan Dobbie has been honoured as 2021 Lawyer of the Year for his work in Climate Change Law in Sydney, in the Best Lawyers in Australia guide. Only a single lawyer in each practice area and community is awarded this accolade. Several other EDO lawyers have also been recognised amongst the nation’s […]
Water allocation and management in the NT
Water resources in the Northern Territory are managed under the Water Act and Water Regulations by: the Minister for Land Resource Management establishing water control districts[1] controlling which uses are able to take water in a water control district (these are the beneficial uses)[2] having water allocation plans (also called a WAP) that allocate water to beneficial uses[3] requiring people […]
Water regulation in the Northern Territory
Water resource laws in the Northern Territory: control who can use water resources control how water resources are allocated and managed may require people who extract surface or groundwater or do works which affect a waterway to hold a licence require people discharging waste into water to have a licence impose criminal offences for polluting […]
Indigenous heritage in the NT
This Fact Sheet is about protection of Indigenous heritage that is linked to land in the Northern Territory. Indigenous heritage is protected under Northern Territory laws and under national laws. Northern Territory laws There are two Northern Territory laws that can protect Indigenous heritage. These are: the Northern Territory Aboriginal Sacred Sites Act the Heritage Act 2011 […]
Native Plants and Animals in NSW
Protecting Native Animals, Plants, Threatened Species & Ecological Communities We have updated and combined our fact sheets on native plants and animals and threatened species following the introduction of the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016. The new fact sheet outlines the legal protections for native and threatened species in NSW. This fact sheet will be useful […]
Court challenge over coal mine’s critically endangered woodlands offsets failure
A new legal challenge has been launched today against the operator of Whitehaven’s Maules Creek mine for failing to secure thousands of hectares of biodiversity offsets for the controversial coal mine near Narrabri in central north NSW. The mine gained federal approval in 2013 on the condition that the company secure 5,532 hectares of biodiversity […]
Analysis: Native vegetation clearing in NSW – Regulatory failure confirmed
Late last Friday, while everyone was transfixed by the burgeoning COVID-19 crisis, a confidential review of how the NSW native vegetation laws are tracking was quietly and reluctantly released. The news is not good. By Rachel Walmsley, Director of Policy and Law Reform, Sydney It was clear to EDO from the moment the old native […]
Reforming Australia’s Nature Laws
The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) is Australia’s key environmental legislation, tasked with regulating activities that may significantly impact on environmental values we consider to be of national importance. These environmental values include our native fauna and flora species, places such as spring-dependent communities in the Great Artesian Basin, world heritage […]
