A judge has put a climate change class action on behalf of Torres Strait Islanders on a tight timetable and committed herself to handing down judgment soon after trial, saying the case was one of “considerable urgency”.
The lead applicants in a climate change class action by Torres Strait Islanders are hoping the Commonwealth will admit climate change targets set by the Morrison government were “woefully inadequate”, a court heard Friday.
An appeals court’s finding that the federal government does not owe a duty of care to Australian kids to protect them from the effects of climate change will stand after the lead applicants declined to take the matter to the High Court.
A judge has ordered that $1.27 million be set aside to cover the costs of the law firm administering the settlement in the class action over the federal government’s Robodebt scheme, cutting about $1 million from the figure sought.
The lead applicants in a class action by Torres Strait Islanders have detailed their argument for why the federal government has a duty of care to protect them from the effects of climate change, following a Full Court judgment that shot down the duty of care argument in a class action by Australian teenagers.
The Full Federal Court has overturned a historic judgment that found the federal minister for the environment owed a duty of care to Australians under 18 to protect them from ‘catastrophic’ harm caused by the approval of the Vickery coal mine expansion.
The law firm administering the $112 million Robodebt class action settlement has asked a court to sign off on a $2.2 million bill to cover the full projected costs of distributing the funds, a figure three times the estimate calculated by a costs referee.
The Morrison government has rejected class action claims that it owes a duty of care to Torres Strait Islanders to protect them against the negative effects of climate change, claiming the alleged duty cannot apply to high level government policy.
A judge overseeing a climate change class action against the government will be invited to visit the Torres Strait to see the alleged erosion of sacred sites, but before then the Commonwealth is seeking details on when it allegedly knew of the effects of global warming and the scope of its alleged duty of care.
Approving coal mine projects is not the business of courts, the Morrison government has argued in its challenge to a landmark class action judgment that found it had a duty of care to protect Australian children from the effects of climate change.