The Environmental Defence Society (EDS), which has a long history of successful litigation for the preservation of the environment and contributions to environmental policy development, says it has a $65,000 shortfall to fight the proposal to open-cast mine the Bendigo hills.
The mine is being considered through the coalition government’s new Fast-track process from now until October 29 and EDS hopes to be invited to be heard by the expert panel considering it, chaired by Matthew Muir KC.
Resource management lawyer and EDS chief operating officer Shay Schlaepfer said an appeal to its supporters for funds earlier this month to fight the mine had led to ‘‘bits and pieces of donations that had added up to a decent amount, but the bulk of the cost is still needed’’.
Ms Schlaepfer was hopeful more people would donate because there was a ‘‘lot of support from interested people concerned about the direction of travel that the government is taking with fast track.’’
The charity needs funding for legal counsel and five expert witnesses in landscape, ecology, hydrology, geochemistry and economics.
The charity is largely struggling with funding its case due to the ending of the government’s Environmental Legal Assistance Fund, Ms Schlaepfer said.
The fund, previously run by the Ministry for the Environment, gave up to $50,000 per legal case to iwi and environmental organisations to help them fight for the environment.
The fund was scrapped by the coalition government nearly a year ago.
Until then, EDS routinely applied to the fund to enable it to afford to pay expert witnesses and legal counsel.
Ms Schlaepfer said the charity had ‘‘typically’’ got around $30,000 per case, about twice a year.
The money enabled EDS to hire the specialists it needed on a ‘‘heavily subsidised’’ basis and helped top up, rather than pay the full cost, of cases.
Ms Shay said the fund had given an opportunity for the public interest voice to be heard and its scrapping had been ‘‘quite a knock that put pressure on organisations’ litigation budgets and cases’’.
In addition, there was very limited time to prepare a case against the Bendigo mine.
‘‘Our litigation is now entirely funded by philanthropy and the goodwill of legal counsel and experts and when considered in the context of a Fast-track regime, in which the applicant has all the time in the world to prepare their case and we get only 20 working days, it is not a very fair or balanced situation.’’
The charity does not have the budget for a fundraising team so is reliant on people actively choosing to give, she said.
Santana, which met with the Fast-track panel yesterday, was asked to comment on whether it felt the scrapping of the government’s environmental legal fund and the rapid time-frames of fast track meant things were unfairly weighted in its favour.
It did not comment by deadline.
