Recent Updates

• The Minister for Environment has granted final approval for the extension of the North West Shelf gas project to 2070, subject to conditions.  A statement of reasons released with the decision sets out potential impacts to the World-heritage listed Murujuga rock art and conditions requiring a reduction in industrial emissions from the facility. Traditional owners and environmental groups are reviewing legal options to challenge the decision.
  
  Members can watch the conversation with Marian Wilkinson on her Quarterly Essay, Woodside v The Planet, for insights into the project and what influenced the government’s decision
• The High Seas Treaty (“Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdictions”) has come into effect, after 60 countries ratified the agreement. Australia has committed to ratify the Treaty in coming months.
• The Wilderness Society (represented by EJA) has settled its case against the Environment Minister, with the Minister conceding successive governments have breached their obligations in failing to create recovery plans for threatened species (specifically, the greater glider, the ghost bat, the lungfish and the sandhill dunnart). 
• The NSW government declared the Great Koala National Park, reserving an additional 176,000 hectares and imposing an immediate moratorium on logging within the park boundaries,  A support package was also announced for affected forestry workers. Members can support the campaign to further forest protection across NSW.
• The High Court has agreed to hear Traditional Owners’ appeal against a huge agricultural groundwater licence in the NT that threatens sacred sites and cultural practices
• The Federal government has introduced amendments to the Freedom of Information Act that experts say increase secrecy and undo transparency gains. 
• Revelations of a 20 year methane leak from Santos’ Darwin LNG plant played a role in the collapse of a takeover bid. The chair of the NT EPA failed to disclose that he had a paid role with the lobbying firm representing INPEX, co-owner of the plant, while regulating the facility 
• Treasury’s 2025 Measuring What Matters report confirms many biodiversity and sustainability indicators continue to decline.  Meanwhile, 30×30’s new Nature Economics Report found that biodiversity generates $511 billion for the economy each year, but that value was at risk without a significant lift in government funding for conservation.
• The Yoorrook Justice Commission has released its final report, Truth be Told. The report details the experiences of Victoria’s First Peoples and sets out a clear and targeted roadmap for reform (see Indigenous Land & Sea Management)
• Common Threads has launched Together for Treaty, a long term national campaign led by First Nations people, using story telling and community organising to create the environment for political action on truth and Treaty across the country
• The WA Auditor-General has found that more than two thirds of WA’s threatened ecological communities are ineffectively monitored and protected
• Climate Integrity has released a report on benchmarking decarbonisation efforts in some of Australia’s biggest companies, Real Zero Leadership: Positive Practice in the Net Zero Pledges of Australian Companies (see Corporate Influence and Climate Change).
• Traditional owners have signed the Roper River Declaration, calling for a Ropa Woda Governance Council to be included in all future water decisions, and a ban on new water extraction licences in the Roper catchment
• The Queensland government has released new shark management guidelines providing for more shark nets, drumlines, and use of drones
• The Queensland government has ordered a review of its 75% by 2035 emissions reduction target and the law setting its renewable energy target