Singleton Station water license is facing a fresh challenge
The controversial Singleton Station water licence is facing a fresh challenge, with a group of native title holders today launching an appeal over the NT government's decision to grant horticultural venture Fortune Agribusiness, one of the largest groundwater licences in the nation's history.
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TVTranscript
00:00 A vast and arid desert, the battleground for a more than three year long dispute.
00:07 The controversial Singleton Station water licence facing a fresh challenge.
00:12 They won't rest until the water licence is determined to be invalid.
00:18 A group of native title holders today launching an appeal over the NT Government's decision
00:23 to grant horticultural venture Fortune Agribusiness one of the largest groundwater licences in
00:29 the nation's history.
00:30 They have very deep concerns about the benefits being only to the developer and that the benefits
00:38 to locals are overstated.
00:41 A month after the NT Supreme Court dismissed a legal challenge to the licence, the group's
00:46 fight will continue in the NT Court of Appeals with the Central Land Council set to challenge
00:51 the judge's ruling, which found lawyers did not establish the minister's statutory power
00:56 had been abused and failed to establish that the minister's decision lacked an evident
01:01 and intelligible justification.
01:04 The Water Security Minister today claimed she could not comment directly on the matter
01:08 because she has a conflict of interest in her role as Environment Minister.
01:13 The Northern Territory Government has done immense work around water resources.
01:16 We'll continue to do that work.
01:19 We've got a number of water plans that are very specific and we've done a lot of work
01:22 but that work is continuing and I believe that the territory water resources have never
01:26 been in a better position.
01:28 After Fortune Agribusiness last month told the ABC it was relieved by the Supreme Court's
01:33 dismissal, Chair Peter Ford today said the company would respect the legal process and
01:39 it was yet to see the Central Land Council's grounds for appeal.
01:42 [BLANK_AUDIO]