Mediated Visibility and Public Environmental Litigation: The Interplay between Inside and Outside Court during Environmental Conflict in Australia

Nixon, Cynthia; Konkes, Claire; Lester, Libby; Williams, Karin

doi:10.3390/laws10020035

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Much has been written about these environmental law cases, including their coverage by news media (e.g. Jolley and Rickards 2020;Konkes 2018;Nixon et al 2021).…”

Section: Taking Coal To Courtmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Great Barrier Reef (the Reef) has been central to the evolution of Australian environmental policy for more than half a century (Bowen and Bowen 2002;Foxwell-Norton and Konkes 2018;Foxwell-Norton and Lester 2017). More recently, the threat of climate change to the Reef has become a key motif in Australia's climate change politics (Hobbs and McKnight 2014;Konkes and Foxwell-Norton 2021;Nixon et al 2021), which, more than in many other countries, is strongly influenced by political ideologies and corporate and environmental activism, flamed by media always doing more than simply reporting the news (Lester 2019). Although 'climate change is fundamentally a political issue' (Carvalho, van Wessel and Maeseele, 2017: 124), environmental non-government organisations (eNGOs) are increasingly turning to the court system to challenge mining and other practices that contribute to carbon emissions (Konkes 2018;Schuijers and Young 2021).…”

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confidence: 99%

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The likelihood that climate change may destroy the Great Barrier Reef has been a central motif in Australia’s climate change politics for more than a decade as political ideologies and corporate and environmental activism draw or refute connections between the coal industry and climate change. The media fuel this debate because in this contest, as ever, the news media always do more than simply report the news. Given that the Reef has also been central to the evolution of Australia’s environmental laws since the 1960s, it is not surprising that the Reef is now a leading actor in efforts to test the capacity of our environmental laws to support action on climate change. In this contribution, we examine the news coverage of the Australian Conservation Foundation’s (ACF) 2015 challenge to Adani’s Carmichael coal mine to observe the discursive struggle between the supporters and opponents of the mine. Our analysis of the case shows that while the courts are arenas of material and symbolic contest in the politics of climate change in Australia, public interest environmental litigants struggle both inside and outside the courts to challenge the privileging of mining interests over the public interest.

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“…Much has been written about these environmental law cases, including their coverage by news media (e.g. Jolley and Rickards 2020;Konkes 2018;Nixon et al 2021).…”

Section: Taking Coal To Courtmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%