Queensland Premier Campbell Newman ditches bid for no-go gas zones

THE Queensland government has quietly abandoned laws to ban coal-seam gas operations and mining from within 2km of towns.

THE Queensland government has quietly abandoned laws to ban coal-seam gas operations and mining from within 2km of towns.

The Bligh government introduced a bill in 2011 restricting mining within 2km of "urban restricted areas" - towns of 1000 people or more - but it was not enacted before the change of government. The laws were later mimicked by NSW.

The Newman government has scrapped the move and will hand decision-making to local councils under new legislation being drawn up.

The move has been criticised by green groups, who say it could encourage corruption and council stacking.

A spokeswoman for the state's Department of Infrastructure said "priority living areas" would be identified within 2km of towns of 200 people or more but local councils would decide on whether mining could proceed.

"Resource activities will not be prohibited nor exempt from occurring within PLAs," the spokeswoman said. "Instead, a process will provide for local governments to determine whether the proposed activity is appropriate for their community."

Priority living areas would be mapped in regional plans being drawn up for different parts of the state, the spokeswoman said.

Only two regional plans have been completed so far - Central Queensland and the Darling Downs in the state's south.

Under the new laws councils would provide the state government with the "settlement area" of the town and future growth areas.

Lock the Gate Alliance spokesman Drew Hutton said the new laws were concerning, given that councils could often be easily influenced.

"One of the things I would be most concerned about is these companies have enormous sway over communities which are dependant on them for providing infrastructure," Mr Hutton said.

"They are responsible for repairing roads and sewage plants, which are put under enormous pressure by the presence of the companies.

"The councils are able to be very strongly influenced."

The spokeswoman for the Department of Infrastructure said the buffer zones proposed by the former government did not take account of the physical attributes and planned expansion areas of towns and amounted to a "complete lock-out of resource extraction" within those areas.