NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell has asked for a report on the involvement of a state government-funded legal-aid organisation in a secret plan to "stop the Australian coal export boom".
The Environmental Defenders Office is listed as a contributor to the leaked plan, which aims to "disrupt and delay" key export infrastructure and "discredit" the state government's community consultation process on the competing land-use claims of mining and agriculture.
The EDO, which receives more than three quarters of its annual $2.4 million budget from NSW taxpayers, was represented at the "national coal convergence" that drafted the plan last October by its leading lawyer, Kirsty Ruddock, the daughter of long-serving federal Liberal MP Philip Ruddock.
Mr O'Farrell said yesterday he had asked senior bureaucrats to report to him on Ms Ruddock's involvement.
He told The Australian: "I've asked for advice as to the appropriateness of an officer of the EDO being present (at the October meeting).
The Australian
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