19 November, 2015

Turnbull has a chance to burnish his green credentials


A
government crackdown to stop "vigilante" green groups challenging large mining projects in court should be passed by Parliament despite criticism they are undemocratic, a Senate inquiry controlled by the government says.

New PM, Malcolm Turnbull, can
differentiate himself from his
 predecessor by scrapping this Bill.
Labor, the Greens, community groups and environmental advocates have argued the changes proposed by the former Abbott government limit the public's right to ensure environment laws are upheld.

The bill was proposed after a Federal Court challenge by a grassroots community group threw a spanner in the works of Australia's largest coal project, Adani's Carmichael mine in central Queensland – a move former Prime Minister Tony Abbott described as "sabotage".

Read Nicole Hasham’s story in The Sydney Morning Herald - “Government-controlled Senate probe backs crackdown on green 'lawfare'.”

(Should new PM Malcolm Turnbull be eager to differentiate himself from his predecessor and within that illustrate his understanding of climate change, he would abandon this bill, reinstate democracy and again legitimize the right of a person from as far away as Western Australia to lawfully object to something such as the Adani Carmichael Mine in central Queensland, acknowledging that coal produced from the mine will be a measurable and noticeably contributor to the world’s carbon dioxide emissions – Robert McLean.)

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