Review of The Reluctant Nation: Environment, Law & Politics in Australia by Phillip Toyne

Abstract

Phillip Toyne's book provides a very useful starting point for developing an interest in law and the environment. Significant Australian environmental issues of the past 20 years are covered, from Fraser Island and the Franklin River to Coronation Hill and the McArthur River Mine. The book consists of 8 case studies, all relating to conservation areas in either Queensland, Tasmania or the Northern Territory, together with introductory and concluding chapters. The book is based on materials prepared for a course of seminars given by Toyne at the Australian National University in 1993. While the material is, for the main part, very interesting, the book would have benefited from greater attention being paid to discerning and considering the common threads running through the various case studies. Despite this minor shortcoming, I found the book, with its special insights arising from Toyne' s work as Director of the Australian Conservation Foundation, to be a most useful outline of the legal and political aspects of environmental decision making in Australia.