New Bill guts mining objection rights for Qld communities

Queensland's peak conservation group has warned new legislation would strip regional communities of their right to go to court to protect the local environment from invasive mining projects.

The Mineral Resources and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2026 - introduced to State Parliament today - would severely limit the ability of Queenslanders to object to damaging mining projects across the state, and put their right to a court hearing at the discretion of the State Government.

The new Bill comes just weeks after the Queensland Government passed new laws that significantly increased the powers of the state to seize private land and override existing laws to fast-track hand-picked projects.

Queensland Conservation Council Acting Director Anthony Gough said

This proposed law would absolutely gut the ability of the Queensland landholders and the community to protect their property and the local environment from mining projects.

This Bill dramatically restricts which members of the community can object to mining projects, including by limiting objection rights to people who own or occupy land within a 125km radius of the minesite, as well as Native Title holders covered by Federal law.

This Bill also strips community members of their right to have their objection to damaging mining projects heard in court.

Right now, objections are automatically referred to the Land Court. Under this Bill, objections would only proceed to the Land Court at the discretion of the relevant Minister or the Director-General of the Environment Department.

That means the Minister of the day can pick and choose which community objections get heard in open court, and which mines get waved through without that scrutiny.

These measures severely limit the ability of Queenslanders to protect their local communities and ecosystems from potentially devastating mining projects. 

The vast majority of objections are made by local groups and landholders to protect agricultural land as well as local bushland, native habitat or water resources. It was this process that led to the cessation of sand mining on World Heritage-listed K'Gari (Fraser Island).

In a state as vast and varied as Queensland, limiting objection rights to a 125km radius makes no sense at all. The impacts of mining on biodiversity, climate and water resources have implications far beyond this arbitrary 125km limit.

Queenslanders should be able to protect every inch of the state from inappropriate and invasive mining. They shouldn't be denied that right simply because they live more than 125km away from a particular mine.

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