This is an extremely urgent call asking you to contact your local MP, NSW Ministers and the Premier, urging that they maintain funding levels for the Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) in Sydney, HSI’s most important partner. The NSW Government is planning to strip all of the EDO’s public funding because it is effective in defending public rights and the environment against large developers favoured by the Government. We need every HSI member to help with this on this critical issue.

Since HSI established its first office in Australia in 1994, the environment lawyers at EDO have continued to provide us with the best legal advice and help possible, at no cost! We have been provided with many hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of free advice and free legal representation over nearly 20 years. Campaign life without these skilled legal professionals is simply unthinkable, with enormous ramifications for the protection of wildlife and habitats all over Australia.

HSI has been involved with nearly 20 court cases over the years, fighting to protect species and their habitats, and the EDO has been involved in nearly all of them. The most memorable was the many years spent in court trying stop the Japanese whaling fleet from killing minke whales in Australia’s Whale Sanctuary in Antarctica – a very long running battle in which the Federal Court Judge agreed to issue an injunction prohibiting the whaling company from entering Australian waters.

That victory was designed and managed by EDO to perfection. In part this was because EDO was able to enlist the help of Australia’s top Barristers. In this case it was Stephen Gageler, who went on to become the Solicitor General in Canberra (the Attorney General’s right-hand man) and has just been appointed as a Judge to the High Court of Australia. Can you imagine HSI being without this sort essential legal advice and access to the best legal minds in the country – all trying to defend Australia’s beleaguered wild animals and places?

But it’s not just about going to court - EDO helps HSI in every aspect of our work - local, regional, national and international, and many our victories have also been EDO victories, and we really cannot countenance losing such a critical partner – and ultimately of course the environment will suffer. Remember, that we are only one of hundreds of individuals and groups that EDO has helped, so it is not hard to image the huge gap that would be left in our environmental defences should EDO be destroyed by a Government doing the biding of big industry and rapacious developers.

Please help us and EDO by taking the following action

Many, many thanks for all your help. There is no doubt that Australia’s wildlife and wild places will suffer as a direct consequence if the EDO is not given the full financial support it (and the public) fully deserves.

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