The Commonwealth says a landmark ruling in a class action that found it has a duty of care to protect Australian children from the effects of global warming is “incoherent” and distorts its ability to balance competing interests.
The federal Minister for the Environment has lost a bid to declass a class action brought over climate change risks from an expansion of the Whitehaven coal mine, with a judge making a declaration that the government owes a duty to all Australian children to protect them from global warming.
Class actions are the next battleground following Thursday’s Federal Court ruling that the government owes a duty of care to protect children from the risks of climate change, according to a number of legal experts.
The federal Minister for the Environment owes a duty of care to children who could suffer “catastrophic” harms from increased greenhouse gas emissions that would result from approving the expansion of Whitehaven’s Vickery coal mine, a judge has ruled.
The Federal Government has argued a class action against the expansion of a northern NSW mine has “conspicuously failed” to show that the emissions would contribute to “catastrophic harm”, but a judge has questioned the Commonwealth’s contention that other countries would be responsible for the emissions.
Trial kicked off Tuesday in a landmark class action brought by teenagers seeking to halt the expansion of a Whitehaven coal mine in NSW, with the barrister for the teens arguing catastrophe was likely if the expansion was blessed by the Federal Minister for the Environment.
The Victoria Supreme Court has dismissed a lawsuit by restaurant owner and Liberal member Michelle Loielo challenging the validity of the Victoria government’s now dropped COVID-19 curfew, with a judge finding that the measure was legal and “proportionate to the purpose of protecting public health”.
The judge overseeing a challenge to Victoria’s recently lifted COVID-19 curfew has dismissed the state’s government bid to have the court split the hearing and first determine whether restaurant owner Michelle Loielo had standing to bring the case.
The health official behind Victoria’s now repealed curfew is seeking to dismiss a lawsuit brought against her challenging the directive on human rights grounds, claiming that the declarations sought would have “no foreseeable consequences” on the Liberal Party member who filed the case.
A case by restaurant owner and Liberal Party member Michelle Loielo challenging Victoria’s COVID-19 curfew is continuing despite an announcement by the Andrews government scrapping the curfew on Sunday night.