Qld to test ‘no-go’ development zones in return for faster approvals

Queensland will be the first state to test plans to define “no-go zones” for developers in return for faster approvals outside these zones.

Three bioregional plans are part of first level of new federal protections announced by federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek in Brisbane on Thursday.

Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek (left), with Queensland Environment Minister Meaghan Scanlon, announces the federal government’s new Environmental Protection Agency and the framework to tougher protections for native species.Credit: Tony Moore

The three areas include urban development in south-east Queensland, a second region focusing on renewable energy and a third focused on rare mineral exploration.

They coincide with Australia’s need to add additional housing as the population grows, the transition towards renewable energy and the need to identify critical minerals for digital industries.

At the national level is a federal Environment Protection Agency that will operate on top of Queensland’s still-evolving EPA.

Both will decide over disputes, using a new set of national environment standards determined between wildlife, environmental and business groups.

Plibersek (left) and Scanlon sign a Memorandum of Understanding to investigate the first of three bioregional plans to define no-go zones.Credit: Tony Moore

These new national environmental standards will be released “around the same time as the exposure draft of the legislation”, in the second half of 2023.

Plibersek would not comment on Queensland’s planning guidelines, where broadscale clearing is still permitted in Queensland government-declared priority development areas.

Queensland Environment Minister Meaghan Scanlon said environmental concerns in priority development areas were considered by Economic Development Queensland and the federal government, but not effectively.

“As has been mentioned here today, that system is clearly not working to the standard that Queenslanders and Australians would like to see,” she said.

Scanlon said the bioregional plans under the national scale worked on a traffic light system.

“It looks at the cumulative impact, not on a project basis, one by one. It looks at the whole-lens approach, where we need to preserve wildlife corridors, where sustainable development can occur, while not compromising biodiversity,” Scanlon said.

The tougher controls – titled the Nature Positive Plan – contain a preliminary framework for new environment and planning legislation to better protect Australian wildlife and vegetation.

“Current offset arrangements are failing to prevent environmental decline,” the report says.

“Offset arrangements also cause delays and impose significant, unproductive costs on project proponents. The government will reform offset arrangements to ensure they deliver gains for the environment and reduce delays for project proponents.”

The draft legislation will go to parliament in late 2023.

Dr Paul Sinclair, from Australian Conservation Foundation, welcomed the national EPA, but said the new standards should apply to Australia’s native forest logging sector.

“For too many years that sector has been excluded from national environment laws at great expense to species in some of the world’s greatest forests.”

Business Council of Australia president Tim Reed said delays in approving significant projects added costs and delayed job creation.

“We have to think about strengthening the environment and at the same time creating an environment where business can get on and create jobs and get investment underway.”