Crisafulli Govt ignores community concerns, pushes through controversial planning legislation

The Queensland Conservation Council has expressed disappointment that the Queensland Government has ignored hundreds of submissions from the community and key stakeholders to pass a controversial planning legislation.

Under the new laws, Olympic venues have a free pass to override environment and planning laws, while renewable energy projects will be subject to unprecedented new hurdles before they can lodge an application for development approval.

The vast majority of the 706 public submissions made to the Parliament about the Planning (Social Impact and Community Benefit) Bill raised significant concerns or called for the Bill to be scrapped entirely.

In a final rushed amendment, the Crisafulli Government also pushed through changes reducing the statutory community consultation time required for regional plans from 60 days to 30 days.

Queensland Conservation Council Director Dave Copeman said

We firmly believe that any development, for the Olympics or otherwise, should be rigorously assessed and held to a high standard on First Nations engagement, community benefits and nature protection.

This legislation is a flashback to the Campbell Newman era and takes us a step back towards Queensland’s slash and burn days.

When we invite the world to Queensland for the Olympics we all want our unique natural advantage to be on full display. That means we need a healthy Great Barrier Reef and healthy local koala populations.

Right now our natural environment is in significant decline and we can’t turn this around if the Crisafulli Government waters down nature protection and climate action.

We’re very concerned about the rushed amendment pushed through today to reduce community consultation timeframes for regional plans. It’s a complete contradiction that the Deputy Premier says this legislation is about increasing community consultation while they sneak in changes like this at the last minute.

We agree that a successful transition to renewable energy hinges on good community engagement and benefit sharing.

But the submissions on this Bill highlighted that local councils and the renewables sector have serious concerns about whether these rushed reforms will actually improve outcomes for communities.

Instead, they risk stifling new clean energy projects, which will ultimately push up climate pollution and power prices.

If the Crisafulli Government is serious about improving outcomes for nature and communities they should get on with planning the energy transformation through Renewable Energy Zones that guide development and manage the cumulative impact of projects.

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