Qld state government approves 30 mining leases since winning office

The Queensland Government says it has approved 30 new resources leases since winning office in October as it vows to reduce regulatory bottlenecks in the sector.

Work on site at the Carmichael coal mine. Picture: Supplied

The Queensland Government says it has approved 30 resource leases since winning office in October as it vows to reduce regulatory bottlenecks and green tape in the sector.

Minister for Natural Resources and Mines Dale Last said the approvals included 12 mining and 14 petroleum leases, helping relieve a bottleneck that has delayed some projects for more than a decade.

Mr Last told a Resources Media Club lunch in Brisbane that at least nine new coal projects were also ‘ready to go’ in Queensland.

Bravus’ Carmichael mine in central Queensland and New Hope’s New Acland mine on the Darling Downs are among coal projects delayed for years by environmental objections.

“To put it in perspective, the Beatles released all their albums in seven years,” Mr Last said. “It shouldn’t take longer than that to get a resources project going and we’re pulling every lever available at a state level to set the wheels in motion.”

While some improvements in approval processes could be implemented “quite quickly within our current regulatory framework” others required legislative change and consultation.

“At the moment, more mines are closing instead of opening, and that needs to change,” Mr Last said.

“We’re looking at a risk-based approach to technical and financial assessments. We’re looking at ways for the state to negotiate Indigenous land use agreements with native groups in high-priority areas. Other proposals will take time to deliver but will bring about significant results.”

The government had scrapped the Queensland Law Reform Commission’s review into mining lease objections process because of concerns it could lead to further duplication of regulation and delays in approvals of new resources projects through activist legal action.

Queensland Mines Minister Dale Last.

“Let’s be honest, it was a solution looking for a problem,” said Mr Last. “It was straight out of the Labor Greens playbook, creating bureaucratic processes that add confusion instead of clarity. To continue it would have sent exactly the wrong message at the worst possible time, when we’re shouting from the rooftops that Queensland is open for business.

“If a project meets its environmental requirements, if it delivers jobs and investment for Queenslanders, then it shouldn’t be held hostage by layers of legal complexity and ideological activism.”

Mr Last said the resources sector needed certainty as well as a co-ordinated approach to streamline federal and state approvals to reduce regulatory complexity and double ups.

“We inherited a system that was too slow, too clunky and driven not by environmental concerns but by an ideological opposition to blue-collar jobs,” he said. “Project proponents were left in limbo for years with thousands of jobs slipping away while the paperwork piled up. The Carmichael coal mine for example was first announced in 2010.”

Mr Last took aim at the Federal Government’s Safeguard Mechanism, a “carbon tax” in disguise, that he said was delaying coal mines, processing and manufacturing plants across Queensland.

The Safeguard Mechanism applies to industrial facilities emitting more than 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year, including mining, oil and gas production, manufacturing, transport and waste facilities.

Failure to keep emissions below the baseline can result in a penalty of $275 for every tonne of excess emissions over the baseline.

“It’s not just traditional resources and manufacturing projects that are paying the price, it’s also the difference between a ready-to-go critical minerals project being viable or not,” said. “These projects are in far flung parts of the state and they’re not connected to the grid. In some cases, the only way to power these projects is with diesel or gas generators. But of course, using these would cause these projects to be listed under the safeguard mechanism and makes them currently unviable.”

Originally published as Qld state government approves 30 mining leases since winning office