In 2009, EEG decided to roll out the big guns and sue the state government for breaking its own laws. This set a major precedent, allowing environment groups to sue the government over its plans to commit, or allow their state owned logging entity to commit an environmental crime. So far we have been successful with six legal challenges and with the financial support of the public we intend to continue suing those who illegally vandalise our forests.
Government can lie to the voters and media but they can’t so easily lie to the courts.
In 2009, EEG decided to roll out the big guns and sue the state government for breaking its own laws. This set a major precedent, allowing environment groups to sue the government over its plans to commit, or allow their state owned logging entity to commit an environmental crime. So far we have been successful with six legal challenges and with the financial support of the public we intend to continue suing those who illegally vandalise our forests.
Government can lie to the voters and media but they can’t so easily lie to the courts.
The Brown Mountain landmark trial has concluded in the Supreme Court on Thursday 25th March – after a 16 day trial. Justice Osborn has reserved his decision. It could take anywhere from one month to six months to hand down a finding, but of course we are hoping sooner. The four week trial has been …
VicForests has agreed not to log 81 of its planned logging areas as part of our court case for the owls – at least until mid December. These stands of forest have been identified as areas known to contain, or are adjacent to areas that contain threatened species of owls. After last summer’s fires …
Environment East Gippsland is suing the state government for a fourth time! We lodged the legal papers on Monday 22nd Sept 2014. The summer fires destroyed thousands of hectares of critically important habitat for East Gippsland’s threatened wildlife. This region is the stronghold for large forest owls yet DEPI refuses to urgently review the protection …
EEG is suing the state government for a fourth time. Legal papers were filed and served on Monday 22nd Sept. Both VicForests and DEPI are being sued. Within the 170,000 hectares of forest that the Goongerah-Deddick summer fires burnt out, were 46 protected zones set aside for threatened owls. These areas would also have supported …
Writ and Statement of_Claim (PDF) lodged on Monday 22nd September 2014.
EEG wrote to Ministers Walsh and Smith in April requesting an urgent review of owl zones, but the environment minister refused. Read the letter (PDF) sent to Ministers Walsh and Smith in April 2014 Read Ryan Smith’s reply (PDF)
MyEnvironment’s court appeal to stop logging of the small pockets of habitat where the critically endangered Leadbeaters Possum still survives … was dismissed; they lost! The three judges found the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act is too weak to protect even the state’s faunal emblem from extinction! MyEnvironment, a community group and local champions of …
As eight ”nannas” face the clogged court system for knitting in a logging coupe, the price of protest in Victoria is set to escalate. Fourteen months ago, six grandmothers and two grandfathers entered a logging coupe at Mount St Leonard, placed their chairs in a neat row, and quietly sat down to knit. The group …
EEG and the Department of Environment and Primary Industries (DEPI) have applied for our case to be discontinued in the Supreme Court after an out-of-court agreement was reached. We took action to sue the government over its disregard for its own laws. We asked it to write protection plans for four out of 374 Victorian …
CONSERVATION groups seeking boycotts of products linked to environmental destruction may soon be liable for prosecution under consumer law. The move could hamper market-based campaigns by groups such as Markets for Change and GetUp! Currently, green groups have exemptions for secondary boycott activities under the Consumer and Competition Act. The Abbott government is going to …
