Over $65 billion of investment, mostly in regional Australia, has been put at risk by a small group of environmental and inner-city activists who have exploited a special legal provision to engage in frivolous and vexatious legal activism without delivering a discernible environmental benefit. 

Research recently released by the Institute of Public Affairs found that green groups such as the Australian Conservation Foundation and the Wilderness Society have used a legal provision in Commonwealth environmental law to hold up major projects in court for a cumulative total of 10,100 days since the year 2000. 

Section 487 of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act specifically empowers green groups...