APSN | Australian court accepts class action lawsuit filed by Indonesian fishermen

Home > South-East Asia >> Indonesia

Australian court accepts class action lawsuit filed by Indonesian fishermen

Jakarta Post - August 4, 2016

Indonesian seaweed farmers launch class action over Montara oil spill – Sydney Morning Herald. August 2, 2016
Java on brink of ecological collapse – Jakarta Post. June 24, 2016
2009 Montara oil spill still reducing catches and inflicting losses – Jakarta Post. June 15, 2016
After decades of exploitation, Java on brink of ecological crisis – Jakarta Post. December 30, 2015
Industry will lobby government over peatland clearing license – Jakarta Post. November 17, 2015

Djemi Amnifu, Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara – The Federal Court of Australia in Sydney on Wednesday accepted a class action lawsuit filed by Indonesian fishermen, who are demanding PTTEP Australasia pay compensation for an oil leak at its Montara oil rig in the Timor Sea in 2009.

The lawsuit was registered by the Care for West Timor Foundation's (YPTB) advocacy team heads Ferdi Tanoni and Daniel Sanda, who are representing 13,000 seaweed farmers from East Nusa Tenggara who suffered losses from the Montara oil spill.

Ferdi said that in filing the class action lawsuit, they were accompanied by two lawyers, one of whom was Ben Slade from Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, a reputable Australian law office established in 1919. Another lawyer was Greg Phelps from WardKeller, the biggest law office in Northern Australia.

Citing Slade, Ferdi said the Montara oil spill case must be brought to court because the meeting between the Australian law office and PTTEP Australasia representatives, which aimed to settle the case out of court, had failed to reach an agreement.

Phelps asserted that PTTEP Australasia had purportedly closed its eyes and ears over sufferings experienced by East Nusa Tenggara people. He said PTTEP Australasia expected that the case would eventually disappear so they could be free from any responsibility.

"That's why today, we, who have voluntarily supported the people since 2011, help carry out an advocacy to reveal the truth in this case," said Phelps, as quoted by Ferdi in an email to The Jakarta Post on Wednesday evening. (ebf)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/08/04/australian-court-accepts-class-action-lawsuit-filed-by-ri-fishermen.html.