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.
Describing the federal governmentās income-averaging debt collection program as a āshameful chapterā, a judge has approved a $112 million settlement in the Robodebt class action, saying the agreement was fair and reasonable.
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.
A court-appointed contradictor has asked for changes to a $112 million settlement in the Robodebt class action against the federal government, saying it is unfair that some group members won’t receive financial compensation from the settlement, which had a “bigger set of losers” than normal.
The judge overseeing the Robodebt class action has raised concerns about the fairness of a $112 million settlement in the case, which will provide no financial benefit to some group members and will extinguish their rights to make claims against the federal government.
The director of now defunct foreign exchange and derivative trader Forex Capital Trading has been banned from providing financial services for 10 years after ASIC found he had a serious lack of regard for compliance while overseeing the firm’s Wolf of Wall Street-esque trading floor culture.
Payouts in class actions in 2020 largely kept pace with the previous year despite the financial strain of the COVID-19 pandemic, with companies and other defendants paying more than $696 million to settle class actions last year.
The law firm that led an unfunded class action against the Federal government over the controversial Robodebt scheme will ask the court to approve up to $16 million in legal costs when it seeks approval for the $112 million settlement reached in the class action last year.
The applicant in the settled Robodebt class action has warned a judge he will have a “dispute on [his] hands” if the government presses an argument that law firm Gordon Legal is not entitled to some of its legal fees — an argument the court was told would put the Commonwealth in breach of the settlement deed.