The Government needs to get serious about protecting children from climate change, writes David Farrier
A recent legal decision by a Federal Court judge has dramatic implications for the debate about the future of coal mining in Australia, including the proposed Russell Vale mine expansion.
The case was brought by an 86-year-old Brigidine nun, Brigid Arthur, on behalf of eight Australian teenagers. Mr Justice Bromberg decided that when the Commonwealth Minister for the Environment, Sussan Ley, eventually makes her decision on whether to approve Whitehaven Coal’s Vickery coal mine extension near Gunnedah, she has a duty to take reasonable care to avoid causing personal injury or death to Australian children from emissions of carbon dioxide into the Earth’s atmosphere. The court was concerned with the threat to the health of our children and grandchildren in their old age, from heatwaves and bushfires caused by climate change.
As is the case with the proposed Russell Vale mine expansion, the go-ahead has already been given by the NSW Government, but the two mines each still require an additional approval from the Commonwealth Government. Under Commonwealth legislation, approval is required because of the impact both mines could have on water sources and biodiversity. However, as a result of this legal decision, the Minister will have to pay very careful attention to the results of climate change research in exercising her duty of care.
The Minister has suspended her decisions on both mines to see if she can work out whether it is possible to give approval, while at the same time taking care of the long-term health of our children and grandchildren. However, she has also announced that she is appealing the decision to a higher court.
So the community will once again witness the deplorable spectacle of a Morrison Government Minister arguing that she would prefer not to have to worry about caring for the health of our children. This in spite of the fact that in the case she accepted evidence to the effect that one million Australian children are expected, in their advanced years, to suffer at least one heat-stress episode serious enough to require acute care in a hospital, and many thousands will suffer premature death from heat-stress and bushfire smoke.
It is interesting to compare the Morrison Government’s reaction to this decision with its response to the Covid pandemic. To protect the well-being of the elderly, children have been asked to sacrifice a great deal in terms of schooling and contact with friends. Shouldn’t we then be willing to protect those same children from the effects of the climate emergency as they reach old age?
The appeal court may overturn the decision. It is therefore crucially important to make it clear to Minister Sussan Ley now that she should accept that she has a duty to take reasonable care for the health of our babies and youngsters. She should withdraw her appeal.
And she should accept that it is impossible to approve new coal mines and oil and gas fields while fulfilling her duty, as spelt out in the International Energy Agency’s pathway to net zero by 2050: see www.iea.org/reports/net-zero-by-2050
There is currently a petition on Change.org which encourages the Minister to accept her responsibilities and to withdraw her appeal.
Please sign at www.change.org/SaveClimateKids
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David Farrier is Emeritus Professor of Law at the University of Wollongong, where he has been teaching and researching environmental law for more than 30 years. He is now a grandfather to three young ones and, in an attempt to protect their futures, he has become increasingly involved in campaigns to slow down climate change.
