Adani dropped its five-and-a-half year, millions of dollars damages claim against environmental activist Ben Pennings in the Supreme Court of Queensland on November 27.
Adani v Pennings was the biggest and longest Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation suit in Australia’s history.
“I’m beyond ecstatic that this harrowing case is over but very angry the current law allows it,” Pennings said. “Adani has wilfully abused our court system with five versions of their claims against me in five years. They tried to silence me … but I can again speak freely about the damage they are doing to Australia’s democracy and precious places.”
Pennings said it is a “massive victory for everyone who believes in democracy, free speech and the right to protest. The time and money spent on this case demonstrates the impact of the Stop Adani movement, particularly the strategic whistle blowing and civil disobedience tactics of Galilee Blockade, between 2017 to 2020.”
Pennings said the legal precedent set “makes it harder for any corporation to attack and silence” people through legal action.
“But no-one should ever have to go through what I did. We need legal protections in Australia to stop corporations from abusing the courts to silence public participation.”
Many of Adani’s allegations against Pennings had already been struck out by the court. Its damages claim had also been reduced from $600 million to $6 million.
Pennings said, while he had agreed not to seek Adani’s confidential information, or ask others to do so, Galilee Blockade will continue its civil disobedience to protect Queensland’s Galilee basin from fossil fuel expansion, including the expansion of Adani’s Carmichael mine.
Adani tried to obtain a civil law search order in June 2020 to raid Pennings’ family home. It included hiring security people to follow his children, including a nine-year-old, to school. While this was legal, both the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal rejected Adani’s application. Adani then started its very public Supreme Court litigation against Pennings who was campaigning against thermal coal mining in the Galilee Basin.
It successfully gained an injunction against him for more than five years, while the drawn-out case proceeded.
Adani spent an extraordinary $10 million on this litigation, for a claim that was reduced to $6 million. Donations from more than 20,000 people raised $1.2 million for Pennings’ legal fund.
Bob Brown said Pennings “courageously stood his ground over five punishing years until Adani caved in. This must never happen again. Australian states should follow most US states and ban such abuse of the law against ordinary citizens by billionaires.”
Kiera Peacock, who led Pennings’ legal team, said: “The end of this case is long overdue … The case changed so many times that, by 2024, Ben was forced to ask the court to bring it to an end as an abuse of process. Whilst the court declined, it struck out significant parts of Adani’s claim. This outcome allows him to finally move on with his life, free from the burdensome and free-speech-restricting injunction he has been under for the past five years.”