Individuals and community groups waging David and Goliath legal battles against energy companies could soon struggle to have their day in court.
Legal experts are sounding the alarm after conservative politicians attacked the Environmental Defenders Office, discrediting lawyers and calling for defunding.
The backlash follows a failed case against Santos, in which Federal Court Justice Natalie Charlesworth accused the legal group's lawyers of confecting evidence and coaching witnesses during the hearings.
The EDO had taken the energy company to court on behalf of Tiwi Islands traditional owners in 2023, claiming the controversial pipeline on the $5.8 billion Barossa project north of Darwin interfered with Indigenous cultural heritage. Justice Charlesworth rejected the case on January 15.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton this week promised to defund the EDO, joining the industry group Australian Energy Producers in accusing it of manipulating court systems to stall major projects.
The EDO has remained tight-lipped about the allegations against their lawyers but in a statement, its CEO David Morris said Mr Dutton's pledge was disappointing.
"Our determination to continue providing public interest legal services to communities across the continent is unwavering," he said.
"Were it not for EDO, access to environmental justice in Australia would be seriously diminished."
The EDO is mostly funded philanthropically but receives a small amount of federal cash, which was cut in 2013 by then prime minister Tony Abbott but reinstated by the current Labor government in 2022.
Former productivity commissioner Warren Mundy said it was unsurprising the coalition wanted to defund the EDO once again.
The behaviour cannot be justified but it happens regularly in court proceedings where "people confect evidence in court all the time", according to Mr Mundy, who pointed to the robodebt debacle and a NSW Police officer's conviction for fabricating evidence
In his role as productivity commissioner in 2013, Mr Mundy recommended in a report that the government reinstate the EDO's funding.
He argues the EDO plays an important role in accessing justice and holding organisations and government to account.
"If we don't have this sort of litigation, supported by community-based organisations like the EDO, when ministers and officials make decisions without bias they are going to make errors, and people with limited means have no way of getting access to justice," he said.
Australian National University scholar Andrew Macintosh said those calling to defund community legal centres often have other interests.
"Typically it's those with vested interests who are calling for these things to be shut down because they don't they don't like public rights being upheld because it causes an inconvenience," said Professor Macintosh, who is associate dean for research at the university's law school.
The courts had systems in place to deal with those who confect evidence.
"I find it very hard to accept that the response to that should be to cut funding to community legal centres," he said.
"There's very well-established institutions for curtailing and punishing that sort of behaviour that they're alleging has occurred in this case, you can get disbarred or be held in contempt of court."
The Environmental Defenders Office is a non-profit litigation group that makes $13.3 million a year, with its remaining funding coming from the federal, state and territory governments as well as philanthropists.
State government grants make up 10 per cent of the funding arrangements.
Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek would not confirm whether the federal government would review its position.
