Melinda Jackson

Gas giant Woodside has hit back at claims by activist groups that the federal environment minister's department "negotiated" with the company ahead of approving a 40-year extension to its North West Shelf project.

Activist group Friends of Australian Rock Art have alleged environment and water minister Murray Watt "cherry picked" potential economic and social benefits of Woodside's North West Shelf project while ignoring the harms.

Communications between the environment minister's department and Woodside over the gas company's controversial North West Shelf project raised concerns about the apprehension of bias, activist group Australian Conservation Foundation has told a trial judge.

A judge has approved a $550 million settlement in a class action over the Morrison government’s Robodebt scheme but has halved a funder’s payout to $35 million, despite arguments that it was unprecedented to award a single digit percentage commission. 

The funder that backed a class action over the Morrison government’s Robodebt scheme, which settled for a record $548.5 million, is seeking a $71 million commission, but a contradictor has told the court a $23 million cut will suffice.

The Full Federal Court has dismissed an appeal in a class action over the government’s 2011 live exports ban, which will have consequences for the damages that can be awarded to cattle exporters. 

A judge has tossed an environmental group's bid for judicial review of a minister's approval of plans to build water regulating structures at the Nyah Floodplain in Victoria, saying the approval was contingent on plans to offset effects on the Regent parrot.

A judge has said women who donated eggs to their same-sex partners and were removed from a class action over IVF rebates could potentially revive their claims, but the lead applicant has not yet indicated whether she will pursue this path.

The Commonwealth has hit back at a class action’s appeal over the government's 2011 live exports ban, denying that it lied to an Indonesian minister about the ban. 

A class action over the government’s live exports ban is appealing a finding that no additional cattle would have been exported to Indonesia absent the prohibition, saying the judge failed to fully appreciate the “unheralded” ban.