Environmental Defenders Office ordered to hand over $9m to Santos over failed Barossa gas challenge

The taxpayer-funded green group that tried to kill a $6.2 billion Santos project with confected claims of underwater songlines has been ordered by the Federal Court to pay all of the gas giant’s legal costs.

The Environmental Defenders Office will pay Santos $9.04m after a failed legal challenge to prevent an export pipeline connecting to its Barossa gas project being installed off the coast of the Northern Territory’s Tiwi Islands.

Santos was ordered to stop work on the 262km pipeline in November last year, after traditional owners represented by the EDO said the pipeline, which runs at least 7km off the shores of the Tiwi Islands, would intersect with the submerged “Crocodile Man” songline and the underwater resting place of the rainbow serpent.

In January Justice Natalie Charlesworth threw out the claims, saying the EDO confected evidence during the trial, saying one of the firm’s former lawyers — who helped prepare Tiwi Islander witnesses for the trial — had misrepresented their views.

The cost ruling is set to put significant financial strain on the EDO, which had about $8.5m in cash reserves, according to its most recent annual financial report.

The Coalition has vowed to defund the EDO, which currently receives more than $2 million of Federal Government funding annually. The WA state government is also tipping in about $300,000 of taxpayer cash each year to the EDO and has refused calls to turn off the funding tap.

The Barossa project and the associated Darwin LNG life extension project will create around 600 jobs throughout the construction phase, according to Santos.

Tthe NT Government estimates $2.5 billion worth of wages and contracts will flow to Territorians from the projects.

More to come.