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The Guardian
16-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Torres Strait leaders lost their landmark case. How can governments be held to account on climate?
In the hours after the federal court delivered its judgment in a landmark climate case on Tuesday, the two Torres Strait Islands community leaders who brought the proceedings, and their supporters, expressed their shock and dismay. The court had agreed with much of the factual evidence about climate impacts on the Torres Strait Islands but the case still failed. In respect of negligence law, it found the federal government did not owe Torres Strait Islanders a duty of care to protect them from global heating. One question ringing in the aftermath: what is the road ahead for people who want Australian governments held to account for their actions related to the climate crisis? Sue Higginson, an upper house Greens MP in New South Wales, is an environmental lawyer and former chief executive and principal solicitor of the Environmental Defenders Office who has litigated in high-profile climate cases. 'The judge made clear, the factual basis here is very real and live but he was limited and constrained by decades of laws around duty of care that don't factor in climate change and the future,' Higginson said. 'So we are unfortunately in a self-serving circle of inaction on climate change.' Higginson said governments could act on the judgment by taking steps to fill the void. 'Actually legislate, create a legal instrument that actually makes climate action a legal obligation, a legal reality that is enforceable where governments are holding themselves to account,' she said. 'It's likely until we see such action, we will continue to see people take to the streets and demand that action directly.' Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton's Clear Air column as a free newsletter Justice Michael Wigney's judgment found that in respect of negligence law, he was bound by past decisions by appeals courts that found matters involving 'high or core government policy' were to be decided through political processes. He said unless the law changed, people and communities seeking damages or other relief for harm suffered as a result of government policies on climate change had to rely on public advocacy, protest and the ballot box for recourse. A change in law would require either legislation by government or 'the incremental development or expansion of the common law by appellate courts'. Dr Riona Moodley, a lawyer and a lecturer and researcher at the University of New South Wales's Institute for Climate Risk and Response, said while Tuesday's decision presented an obstacle for anyone seeking redress for climate harm through the law of negligence, it was not necessarily insurmountable. She noted the judgment had explicitly left one possibility open: 'If this matter went back to an appeals court, they would have the power to revisit the current state of the law and decide to change it.' Moodley said the decision was also unlikely to stem the tide of Australian climate litigation calling for government accountability and that courts and Australian common law 'will need to evolve to adapt to addressing climate change and the impacts of it'. Dr Wesley Morgan, a fellow of the Climate Council and colleague of Moodley's at the Institute for Climate Risk and Response, said Australia had seen a series of high-profile unsuccessful climate litigation cases in recent years, such as the Living Wonders case and the Sharma proceedings. Sign up to Clear Air Australia Adam Morton brings you incisive analysis about the politics and impact of the climate crisis after newsletter promotion But he said the dam wall would eventually have to break. 'This is how legal norms change. When they are challenged repeatedly by those who are impacted by the deepening climate crisis, legal norms will need to shift to meet that need,' Morgan said. Isabelle Reinecke is the head of Grata Fund, a charity that supported the lead plaintiffs, Uncle Pabai Pabai and Uncle Paul Kabai. Reinecke said she felt 'disappointed in our legal system' after the outcome, but was encouraged by the strength of the factual findings, which could form the basis for future litigation – whether by appeal in this case or in other cases. 'Our cause is just and the court didn't say that it's impossible,' Reinecke said. 'I think while the judge said that the law does not currently support the Uncles' claims, that does not mean that the law can't or won't change. 'It has changed before.' She flagged cases that had lost and won on appeal, or paved the way for subsequent wins – 'for example the Gove land rights case that came before [Eddie] Mabo's case'. Reinecke said while Wigney's remarks about protest and the ballot box were true, people advocating for climate change action had tried those measures for decades. 'I don't think it's correct or good enough for a court to say strong words of 'This is an existential threat to humanity but you have to talk to parliament',' Reinecke said. 'What is the point of a court if it isn't to hold those responsible for an existential threat to humanity accountable in a democracy?'
RNZ News
20-06-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Defence heads face scrutiny week hearing, promise to be fiscally responsible
Defence secretary Brook Barrington. Photo: Ministry of Defence Defence heads have assured politicians their huge new budget takes into account soldiers actually having to fire their weapons. They fronted up to an even-tempered scrutiny week hearing with MPs at Parliament on Thursday afternoon. Greens MP Lawrence Xu-Nan asked whether the budget boost of $9 billion new spending over four years allowed for buying the likes of replacement Javelin missiles, which cost $400,000 each. Defence secretary Brook Barrington responded that the increased budget meant troops could now move past the approach from the last 50 years of being only partly equipped. "The defence force is actually being provided with funding to ensure that, if we upgrade the capabilty, we are also able to shoot things with it," he said. Along with defence force Chief Air Marshal Tony Davies, Barrington laid out a raft of measures they said would enable them to buy weapons and other systems faster and smarter. "The demand queue is growing," Barrington said. "The longer it takes us to lodge an order, someone else has got their place in the queue before us and some of this stuff takes three years. "You know, you lose your place in the queue... and you're losing time." They felt a sense of urgency, but also had to ensure quality thresholds were set, so that in 3-4 years he was not up before MPs again being told, "We knew we couldn't trust you folk to bloody get your way out of a paper bag", he said. "We've got to find a sweet spot between rigour, confidence and pace." He added defence had already met with 280 people from 174 companies, both last month and this month, and that an industry strategy would be put out soon. They would be fiscally responsible with the billions of taxpayer money, Davies said. Defence Force Chief Air Marshal Tony Davies. Photo: RNZ / Ashleigh McCaull To accelerate, they would drop the old approach of trying to get 30 years of life from gear and retreading it, and instead, look at getting a "minimum viable product" quickly out to the field, he said. "Simple... quick... lean." On the personnel front, they had to rebuild forces, he said. The budget and plan had "buoyed" personnel, but their thinned-back ranks still constrained how much notice they needed to deploy, how long they could deploy for and whether they could mount multiple operations. Personnel turnover had fallen to less than seven percent, but vacancy rates in February were about 30 percent, an Official Information Act request (OIA) showed. The army was short 1500 people, Air Force 660 and navy 630. Defence was "over-training" people to hit 100 percent, when it did not need to, so was reviewing how to speed training up, Davies said. The 15-year plan was to add 20 percent to combat forces - or 2500 people - and the only way to do that currently was to cut civilian jobs down, he said. "At the moment, we've got ships tied up that can't go to sea, because we haven't got the sailors. We've got people that are going on their fifth deployment overseas, because we don't have the number of soldiers. "We've got Joint Force headquarters out at Trentham with watchfloors that can't be filled, because we haven't got the uniformed people with those skills. "We need those. The money is tight, still, even with uplifts." An OIA response showed that, in March, a hefty 313 positions were vacant at Joint Defence Services, far more than in other sections. Defence Minister Judith Collins said the point was to be able to defend against anybody who "threatened our people, or our assets". "Our people are not going to have to wave a white flag anymore. They are going to be able to get out there and protect themselves." She said she had told "prime" multinational defence contractors their best bet for getting a share of the business was to involve New Zealand firms. The small firms would not be written "out of the equation", Barrington said. He added the business cases for two very large projects - replacing the 757s and the maritime helicopters - were well advanced. Other business cases would be made short and sharp. The fleet renewal planning was by far the biggest job, but the budget gave the ministry a couple of million dollars extra for teams to do that. "What happens in two years, if the world situation's got worse and we need to step it up again?" Davies said. "How are we going to accelerate our capability acquisition process. It might be that we need to double our efforts there, so we are constantly looking at ways to fine tune it." The budget set aside $155m over four years for new military allowances for deployments and hundreds of millions for more operations. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Daily Telegraph
13-05-2025
- Daily Telegraph
‘Profoundly sorry': Horror as child slapped by worker
Don't miss out on the headlines from Parenting. Followed categories will be added to My News. A disturbing Snapchat video of a child being slapped by a worker for entertainment has been obtained by the ABC as part of an investigation into one of Australia's biggest childcare providers. The nine-second video, which was taken at Affinity Education centre in Sydney's inner west in South Strathfield, shows the child crying in a bouncer as they are slapped in the face multiple times by the worker. Want to join the family? Sign up to our Kidspot newsletter for more stories like this. The footage was reportedly posted to Snapchat with a laughing emoji in May 2023. The video was obtained by ABC's 7.30. The program gained access to a stack of internal regulatory documents following a parliamentary order obtained by Greens MP Abigail Boyd. Affinity Education, which is privately owned, runs 250 childcare centres across the country, and includes the brands Papilio, Milestones and Kids Academy. The worker has since resigned from the centre and was convicted of common assault. She was given a community corrections order and banned from working in childcare for 12 months. The colleague who filmed the video has also resigned. Affinity Education CEO Tim Hickey said the centre acted quickly after being notified of the incident by police. 'The safety, wellbeing, and development of every child must always come first,' Affinity CEO Tim Hickey said in a statement after declining an interview by ABC's 7.30. The childcare worker was convicted by police. Picture: ABC 'I want to express again how profoundly sorry I am that something like this could occur to any child in our care. 'These incidents are not representative of the dedicated, professional team who care for children every day across thousands of centres.' The ABC said that between 2021 and 2024, Affinity centres across NSW had received more than 1700 regulatory breaches, clocking up more than one a day. Despite this, they have been fined less than $2000. The ABC also obtained footage of a worker dragging a toddler by the arm at a centre in Elderslie, in south-west Sydney. Former Affinity employee Loretta Dodwell, who worked at a Queensland centre, said the culture at the education company was 'toxic'. 'The cost cutting and the lack of staff really caused serious incidents in the centre,' she told 7.30. 'They were also putting on lots of trainees, like young trainees that were cheap to employ and that put a lot of pressure on the qualified staff.' This story was republished with permission from Originally published as 'Profoundly sorry': Horror as child slapped by worker
News.com.au
12-05-2025
- News.com.au
‘Profoundly sorry': Horror as child slapped by worker
A disturbing Snapchat video of a child being slapped by a worker for entertainment has been obtained by the ABC as part of an investigation into one of Australia's biggest childcare providers. The nine-second video, which was taken at Affinity Education centre in Sydney's inner west in South Strathfield, shows the child crying in a bouncer as they are slapped in the face multiple times by the worker. The footage was reportedly posted to Snapchat with a laughing emoji in May 2023. The video was obtained by ABC's 7.30, who gained access to a stack of internal regulatory documents following a parliamentary order obtained by Greens MP Abigail Boyd. Affinity Education, which is privately owned runs 250 childcare centres across the country, includes the brands Papilio, Milestones and Kids Academy. The worker has since resigned from the centre and was convicted of common assault. She was given a community corrections order and banned from working in childcare for 12 months. The colleague who filmed the video has also resigned. Affinity Education CEO Tim Hickey said the centre acted quickly after being notified of the incident by police. 'The safety, wellbeing, and development of every child must always come first,' Affinity CEO Tim Hickey said in a statement after declining an interview by ABC's 7.30. 'I want to express again how profoundly sorry I am that something like this could occur to any child in our care. 'These incidents are not representative of the dedicated, professional team who care for children every day across thousands of centres.' The ABC said that between 2021 and 2024, Affinity centres across NSW had received more than 1,700 regulatory breaches, clocking up more than one a day. Despite this, they have been fined less than $2000. The ABC also obtained footage of a worker dragging a toddler by the arm at a centre in Elderslie, in south-west Sydney, Former Affinity employee Loretta Dodwell, who worked at a Queensland centre, said the culture at the education company was 'toxic'. 'The cost cutting and the lack of staff really caused serious incidents in the centre,' she told 7.30. 'They were also putting on lots of trainees, like young trainees that were cheap to employ and that put a lot of pressure on the qualified staff.'
Daily Telegraph
12-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Telegraph
Nurses and midwives allowed to prescribe abortion drugs under a bill set to pass parliament
The Catholic Archdiocese says amendments to contentious abortion reform legislation are a 'helpful development', with a watered-down bill set to pass parliament this week. Experienced nurses and midwives will be allowed to prescribe abortion drugs to women in the first nine weeks of their pregnancy under the legislation, which is expected to go to a vote on Wednesday. The legislation will expand women's access to medical abortions, but will not force medical professionals to facilitate terminations if they object to the practice. Upper House Greens MP Amanda Cohn sparked a series of protests outside parliament when she introduced her bill to expand access to abortions, with speakers including former prime minister Tony Abbott labelling the legislation as an attack on religion. Protesters attend an anti-abortion rally outside NSW parliament last week. Picture: Supplied Mr Abbott and others were campaigning against changes which would have forced doctors who object to providing abortions to refer patients elsewhere. However, the aspects of the bill which created the most controversy were removed before the legislation passed the upper house. 'While it is a helpful development that the intended attacks on conscience have been removed from the bill, we still hope the bill will be rejected in its entirety,' a Catholic Archdiocese spokeswoman said. Former prime minister Tony Abbott speaks at an anti-abortion rally outside NSW parliament last week. Picture: Facebook Protesters attend anti-abortion rally outside NSW parliament on Wednesday May 7, 2025. Picture: Supplied The legislation which is expected to pass into law will allow endorsed midwives and nurse practitioners to prescribe the abortion drug MS-2 Step to medically terminate a pregnancy in the first nine weeks of gestation. Nurse practitioners and midwives will only be allowed to prescribe the drug if it is within their scope of practice. Allowing nurse practitioners and midwives to administer abortion drugs was recommended by a NSW Health inquiry into abortion laws, which found there were difficulty accessing the service in some areas of the state. Mr Minns originally opposed the legislation, but on Monday confirmed he would vote for the amended bill, now the provisions on conscientious objection have been removed. Liberal and Labor politicians will vote according to their conscience, and not be bound to party lines. Opposition health spokeswoman Kellie Sloane will also vote in favour of the legislation. 'I could not have supported the original version of this bill – it went beyond what I considered reasonable or workable, but I support the amended version,' she said. NSW Greens MLC Amanda Cohn. Picture: Facebook '(The amended bill) aligns with TGA guidelines, reflects the number one recommendation from the NSW Health statutory review, and brings NSW into line with every other state except Tasmania. 'It's a sensible, tightly scoped reform that improves access while preserving safeguards and respecting professional conscience.' Dr Cohn confirmed the Greens would support the bill 'as it currently stands'. The legislation will also make no changes to a requirement for two doctors to approve abortion after 22 weeks gestation. It will also make no change to the 'duty owed' by healthcare workers to provide medical care to a baby born due to a failed termination. She blamed anti-abortion campaigners for spreading 'disinformation' over her bill, which had 'caused unnecessary distress in the community'.
