Indigenous elder who took on miner and won left with $70,000 in legal costs
by Joshua Robertson from Environment | The Guardian on (#18NY6)
Queensland land court rules it does not have power to award costs to either side in challenges to mining permits
An Indigenous elder who successfully took on the mining entrepreneur "Diamond" Joe Gutnick in the Queensland land court has wound up with a $70,000 legal debt he cannot repay.
In a case that could have a chilling effect on future challenges to mines by traditional owners and others, the Kalkadoon elder James Taylor was denied legal costs despite winning a three-year battle for changes to Gutnick's phosphate project near Mount Isa.
