George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much indeed for that question, Senator Canavan. Senator Matt Canavan, who is a Rockhampton based senator, knows better than anybody else in this chamber, I dare say, of the devastating effect on the economy, in Central Queensland in particular, of the latest stunt by radical environmental activists to use the processes of the Federal Court and court processes by conducting vigilante litigation to bring to its knees Australian industry.

Do not just take that from me, Senator Canavan, because I happen to have a document called Stopping the Australian coal export boom, in which an assembly of green activist groups, including Greenpeace, the Graeme Wood Foundation and others, declare a strategy to delay and disrupt key infrastructure projects including ports, rail and mines. They announced their intention to use the courts to mount legal challenges to the approval of several key ports, mines and rail lines and to run legal challenges that delay, limit or stop all of the major infrastructure projects of this country. That is the intention.

The reason they are able to do that is a provision of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, section 487(2), which reverses the traditional common-law position which says that anybody who is affected has a right to approach a court to seek redress but that people who are not affected have no right to use the court to make political points. Section 487(2) reverses that, and this government has decided to repeal it. (Time expired)