Index

Is Climate Change Justiciable? Politics and Policy in Minister for the Environment v Sharma

Zoe Bush

On 15 March 2022, the Full Court of the Federal Court (Full Court) unanimously reversed Bromberg J’s finding that the Commonwealth Minister for the Environment (Minister) owed all Australian children a duty of care to avoid causing personal injury or death arising from the emission of greenhouse gases when exercising her powers to approve a coal mine extension under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) (EPBC Act).

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Anti-corruption bodies in 2021 and their impact on the 2022 elections

Ryan Feuerherdt

Heading into the final weeks of the 2022 federal election campaign, it was difficult to avoid the extensive discussion devoted to the issue of government accountability and integrity.

The failure of Scott Morrison’s Coalition government to implement an anti-corruption body was successfully targeted by the Australian Labor Party, the Greens, as well as the various ‘teal independents’, throughout the campaign.

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iVote, the 2021 NSW Government Elections and the Future of Internet Voting

Narelle Miragliotta and Sarah Murray

In January 2022, the NSW Electoral Commission (NSWEC) petitioned the NSW Supreme Court to void the outcome in three local council elections held on December 4 the previous year. The basis for the petition was not one of the more familiar triggers. As the counsel for one of the defendants in the case observed: ‘This is not a case where there was rampant widespread voter fraud, or lost ballot boxes, or ballot stuffing. There were no riots [or] outbreak of warfare that suspended an election’. The problem in this instance was a system capacity issue. The basis of the petition launched by the NSWEC was a ‘defect or irregularity’ in the electronic iVote system.

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