Media Release: Court documents reveal the EDO’s “confected” evidence to stop critical gas project

The extent of the Environmental Defenders Office’s (EDO) inappropriate conduct has been laid bare in Federal Court documents, reinforcing the need for an immediate halt to taxpayer funds to the activist lawfare group. 

Australian Energy Producers Chief Executive Samantha McCulloch said the documents revealed in The Australian today show the depths of what Justice Natalie Charlesworth described in her judgment as the EDO’s “distorted and manipulated” evidence that it used in its failed legal bid to stop Santos’ Barossa project earlier this year.

“It is now beyond any doubt the EDO is more interested in engaging in legal activism than genuinely representing the interests of Traditional Owners,” Ms McCulloch said.

“It is unacceptable that the EDO continues to receive $2 million a year in taxpayer funds from the Federal Government to disrupt and delay critical energy projects and put Australia’s economic and energy security at risk.”

The latest revelations follow Justice Charlesworth’s scathing decision in January, where she found that the EDO’s evidence amounted to “confection” and was “so lacking in integrity that no weight can be placed on them”.

The court documents provide an insight into the interactions between the EDO and its cultural consultant, who Justice Charlesworth found had lied to and misrepresented the evidence of Traditional Owners in his report.

In her judgment, Justice Charlesworth said, “But he did lie to the Tiwi Islanders, and I find that he did so because he wanted his ‘cultural mapping’ exercise to be used in a way that would stop the pipeline. It is conduct far flung from proper scientific method, and falls short of an expert’s obligation to this Court.”

“At a time when Australia urgently needs new gas supply, it is not in the public interest for these activist lawyers to be undermining our economic and energy security, and damaging Australia’s attractiveness as a place to do business and to invest,” Ms McCulloch said.