By Greg Barns SC
The recent decisions, including one announced this week, by the Northern Territory’s CLP Government to cease funding environmental groups, including legal services, is dangerous for at least two reasons.
Firstly, it is critical there are civil society groups able to ensure the physical environment of any community is protected and that development is balanced against conservation values. And secondly, because in a democracy government should not cut funding to organisations just because they oppose the policies or decisions of that government.
This latter argument might be said to be particularly relevant in a place like the Northern Territory where there is no upper house to keep a check on executive government.
The CLP Government’s announcement on Monday, made by Environment Minister Joshua Burgoyne, says that the CLP has “doubled down on its commitment to stamp out green lawfare, announcing it will terminate taxpayer funded support for the Environment Centre NT (ECNT) and the Arid Lands Environment Centre (ALEC).” The NT Environmental Defenders Office had its funding cut late last year.
Mr Burgoyne misleadingly terms the funding decisions “as being a shift in policy and priorities.” It is nothing of the sort of course – it is about silencing critics and preventing legitimate concerns about environmental issues being agitated in courts and communities.
The importance of this trio of environmental organisations to the Northern Territory community is self-evident. Take, for example, the ECNT. It was established in 1983 to fight uranium mining in Kakadu National Park and has rightly campaigned, and therefore provided a voice for many, in relation to opposing seabed mining and damming rivers.
ALEC, another of the groups the CLP loathes, has created community gardens in Alice Springs and focused on renewable energy in that community.
But why should governments fund organisations that criticise them or oppose their pet projects and policies? The simplistic and cynical answer, obviously one favoured by the CLP Government, is that governments shouldn’t do it because it gives political opponents ammunition.
Dr John Lee, a former Australian government adviser and now a foreign affairs specialist at Washington’s Hudson Institute, writing in the Financial Review on December 20 last year in the context of government-funded think tanks, answered the question the right way.
“Advancing and improving policy means contesting and criticising the government and its actions,” argued Dr Lee.
“This means governments must be principled and brave enough to fund organisations and individuals that may make life difficult for them. It is a necessary democratic indulgence that keeps thinking ahead of the curve and leads to better policy outcomes,” he wrote.
Eloquently put and absolutely right.
It would be far better for the CLP Government to leave funding in place for environmental organisations who criticise it.
Such criticisms, observations and comments of government policy in the environmental space is critical if the already fragile land and waterways we live on, use and enjoy, are not to be destroyed by development that has not been the subject of such independent scrutiny and critique.
The CLP Government seems to be determined to silence critics and snub its nose at the idea it should be held accountable for its actions. In the context of the physical environment this is seriously dangerous.
Let’s say a development that impacts on water supply is allowed to proceed as part of the CLP’s ‘let it rip’ mindset. And let’s say in a decade that water supply has had its quality severely compromised. The damage is done. Damage that might not have happened if environmental groups in the NT had been successful in having the project properly scrutinised, or placed legitimate pressure on government to think twice about supporting and facilitating the project in the first place.
And what of corruption? One of the consequences of defanging independent groups like the ECNT, ALEC and the EDO is that there is more opportunity for developers and governments to cut corners and worse. The lack of proper scrutiny of executive government in the NT is already problematic because Parliament is a rubber stamp.
With the watchers gone, the temptation on the part of some project proponents and the NT Government to play fast and loose with regulations and to ignore community concerns will be the order of the day on too many occasions. That’s not good for democracy in the NT and nor is it in the long term interests of anyone.
Greg Barns SC is a former political adviser and former National President of the Australian Lawyers Alliance
I’d expect an SC could mount better arguments than the rubbish presented above. If special interest groups truly represent a valid cause, they will privately source the funds they need, without sticking the taxpayer with another bill. Their failure to secure such funds is, in itself, evidence their cause is less than serious.
As for special interest groups being vital to holding governments to account, in a democracy, it is not the place for SIGs to usurp the power of the voter. It is the voter who chooses which government they want and it is the voter who will let a government know they are doing something wrong. It’s called an election.
Comments like “ALEC, another of the groups the CLP loathes…” serve well to demonstrate the authors bias.
About time the Government started to pull back from many organisations they poor money into, regardless of left. right, compassion or idiot reasons.
The country is broke and at some future time the end will appear and all will be hurt.
First of all, the left are not entitled to our money just because they truly believe their ideological rubbish.
Secondly, there is no reason at all for Government to fund ideological groups who want to fight the government. It is our money. If the loony left want to support something they should fund it with their own money, not ours.
So Mr Barns, how about you personally fund these extremist “environmental” groups if you believe in their existence so much? It’s easy to spend other peoples money, isn’t it?
According to the three CLP acolytes trying to crucify Greg Barns SC, money in the Territory public purse has now become the property of the minority of NT residents voting for the CLP – along with big, business moguls who wine and dine right-wing politicians, don’t vote here at all, don’t pay taxes and hold back on royalties.
The public purse strings are pulled open here and there by the invisible hands of the CLP politicians themselves. The public purse is apparently bottomless when exploited by private entrepreneurs. I can’t say for sure how much is given to government friends because this information is secret business-in -confidence. Unaccountable and uncertain.
I’m not sure where these self-proclaimed executioners come from – but the fact is that public money comes from those who pay taxes – direct and indirect and the interest earned from careful investment. It is often drained by unrealistic loans for private ‘developments’ that never happen and gifts to those who already have lots of money and continue to benefit from more government wealthfare, Nonetheless, the costs are nonetheless paid for by us, the Australian taxpayers and carers.
Public revenue belongs to all of the Australian people and even pays the high wages and infrastructure costs of ultraconservative politicians who sell our country down the drain without dipping into their own deep, golden pockets.
I won’t go into facts and figures provided by more learned knowledge-sharers than I am. Have a good look at Bureau of Statistics’ information on social/cultural, economic and environmental facts about Australia and Australians, eh? These facts and figures are gathered through census, regular monitoring and updated research by highly-trained statistic researchers and are available free and openly to all who want fair and accountable information.
… from Farrell to Finocchiaro, the fear is palpable.
SIG’s represent a wider group of activists that have been using the courts to oppose projects based on ideology of parties outside of the NT. We have seen projects stalled all over Australia by pressure from such groups that abuse the position and trust of traditional owners by promoting mythical storie
In addition to previous comment.
Stories like the blue bee that have halted a gold mine in NSW have been used to shut down development by environmentalists even when all of the controlling environmental assessments have been made. Environmental groups are not using sound environmental arguments when they rely on corrupting Aboriginal voices as they did with a gas project north of the Tiwi islands.
While we are all upset with EDO and other protestors lets not forget the origins of this media organisation!
If you cant remember, a certain person was asked to leave a certain Industry body when Cheif of Transparency and Integrity CM Micheal Gunner threatened to withdraw $500k funding to aforementioned Industry body because someone said something in jest!
Do tell, I may have missed that, travelling around….