ACF to appeal Toondah secrecy edict

A critically endangered Eastern curlew next to the Toondah Harbour ferry channel – Photo: Wild Redlands

The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) today announced that it will appeal against a Federal Government decision to keep secret the details of its meetings with Walker Group about the controversial Toondah Harbour residential development proposal.

In its appeal to the Federal Court of Australia, the ACF will argue that the Federal Government’s Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) made a legal error in refusing to release documents sought through Australia’s Freedom of Information laws.

Geoffrey Watson SC and lawyers from Environmental Justice Australia will be representing ACF in its appeal to the Federal Court.

The ACF has issued a call for the community to support this appeal by making donations.

ACF has been seeking Toondah documents for three years

When Josh Frydenberg was environment minister, his department advised him that the Toondah Harbour apartment and marina proposal was ‘clearly unacceptable’ because of the damage it would cause to the globally significant wetlands.

Minister Frydenberg rejected his department’s advice and sent the proposal to the next stage of assessment.

About three years ago, the ACF lodged a Freedom of Information request for records of meetings between the Department of Environment & Energy (now Agriculture, Water & Environment) and Walker Group.

After this request was refused by the Department, ACF appealed to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. The Tribunal’s decision was published recently, in December 2021.

The ACF says that this case is fundamentally about elevating the importance of transparency in environmental decision-making.

“Negotiations and information between elected representatives and developers should be made public, especially when they are also donors to political parties” says the ACF’s Chief Executive Officer Kelly O’Shanassy.

The ACF says this case is critical to protecting precious habitat with Toondah’s wetlands listed under the International Ramsar Convention and supposed to be protected by Australia’s national environment law, the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

“If, through a culture of secrecy, the Walker Corporation is given the go-ahead to destroy a large area of this wetland to make way for a marina and a massive luxury residential complex, it will set a devastating precedent for other protected areas, possibly even World Heritage Areas’ says Ms O’Shanassy.

Toondah Harbour Backstory

The ACF explains why it’s important to protect the Toondah Harbour wetlands in a pictorial story:

Paving over paradise – When protected wetlands are open for business

More information about the long history of decisions relating to the controversial Toondah Harbour proposal is available in a post published by Redlands2030:

Toondah Harbour – the illustrated history

Redlands2030 – 13 January 2022