Oz Court Rules $21 Million In Free Govt Money To Frack NT Natural Gas Basin Invalid
A Northern Territory environmental group has won a court battle over a Morrison government grant to develop the Beetaloo Basin onshore gas field. The Environment Centre NT argued in the federal court that the $21m grant for exploration wells was legally unreasonable on multiple grounds.
Justice John Griffiths on Friday rejected arguments that the federal resources minister, Keith Pitt, should have considered the risks of increasing greenhouse gas emissions when he made the grants. But the judge declared the grant agreements void because a delegate for the minister had signed them after the environmentalists had taken their case to the court, instead of waiting for the legal proceedings to end. Pitt said he welcomed the decision because it would allow grants for the development of the Beetaloo Basin to proceed.
The ECNT’s lawyers at the Environmental Defenders Office also said Pitt should have considered the potential climate change risks from developing the onshore shale gas field before handing taxpayers’ money to Imperial Oil and Gas.
They failed on those grounds but the judge did agree the funding contract, which was signed on 9 September, just days after ECNT applied for an urgent court hearing over the matter, was legally unreasonable and there had been a jurisdictional error.
EDIT
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/dec/23/court-rules-morrison-government-grant-to-develop-gas-field-in-beetaloo-basin-invalid