Seadragon Offshore Wind Pty Ltd v Minister for Climate Change and Energy

COURT OR TRIBUNAL

Federal Court of Australia

DATE FILED (OR FIRST HEARING DATE)

17/06/2024

LITIGATION TYPE

Project Approval - Mitigation

SUBJECT MATTER

Wind farm

REVIEW TYPE

Judicial review

SUMMARY

A case has been filed in the Federal Court of Australia seeking judicial review of a decision of the Minister to refuse a feasibility licence to the Seadragon offshore wind project in the Gippsland offshore wind zone. In 2022, the Victorian Minister for Planning required Flotation Energy to prepare an Environmental Effects Statement to assess the potential environmental effects of the project. The Victorian Minister raised concerns about threatened and aquatic species, the impact on terrestrial, marine and freshwater environments, Aboriginal cultural heritage values, and landscape and visual amenity. The project also required approval under the Federal EPBC Act. But a notice of withdrawal was submitted in April 2024.

The Minister had indicated to Seadragon that he was not going to grant a licence because the area Seadragon had applied for overlapped with other licence applications of greater merit. Seadragon said that the Minister ought to grant a licence over a reduced area from which the overlapping parts had been removed. The Minister nevertheless refused Seadragon's application based on the reasoning that s 33(1) did not permit him to grant Seadragon a licence over a reduced area. The Court found that the Minister did have the power to grant Seadragon a licence over a reduced area. As such, the decision was remitted back to the Minister to be made according to law.

CASE DOCUMENTS

Victorian planning minister decision
EPBC Act referral
News article
Court file
Seadragon Offshore Wind Pty Ltd v Minister for Climate Change and Energy [2024] FCA 1290