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Australian court accepts class action lawsuit filed by Indonesian fishermen
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Stand up for your rights -- Ferdi Tanoni of the Care for West Timor Foundation (right) speaks in a press conference at the Maurice Blackburn Lawyers office in Sydney after filing a class action lawsuit against PTTEP Australasia over an oil leak at its Montara oil rig in the Timor Sea in 2009. (Courtesy of Yayasan Peduli Timor Barat/-)
T
he 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.
(Read also : Indonesian farmers file class-action suit against Montara over 2009 oil spill)
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)
