MILLIONS of dollars’ worth of mining royalties could be lost after the Queensland government introduced changes to laws giving landholders the right to object to mining developments.
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Queensland Resources Council boss Michael Roche said the changes could pave the way for “vexatious” litigants to delay projects, tie up scarce Land Court resources and cost the state millions of dollars in lost royalties.
State Development Minister Dr Anthony Lynham said the State Development and Public Works Organisation and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2015, introduced to Parliament on Wednesday met an election commitment to restore objection rights stripped away by the previous LNP government.
“We have listened to community concerns that their laws restricted landholder and community rights and our proposed changes seek to rectify this as soon as possible,” he said.
“This bill is the first step towards delivering on our election commitment to restore community objection rights removed by the LNP’s Mineral and Energy Resources (Common Provisions) Act 2014.
“Most importantly we have stepped in to restore these rights before the LNP’s laws have had any practical effect. No project has proceeded under the LNP’s laws.”
Mr Roche said he understood the government’s election commitment to repeal what proved to be a controversial amendment but said the move would reopen an avenue used by activists to frustrate mining projects by clogging the Land Court with futile legal action.
“The amendment by the previous government did not remove any existing right,” he said.
“A long-standing feature of Co-ordinator-General Environmental Impact Statement processes for projects of state significance is that conditions handed down by the Coordinator-General are final.
“Regardless, environmental organisations have continued to be able to frustrate the court processes even when they understand there will be no changes to environmental protections.
‘This is a deliberate waste of the Land Court’s time.”
The Bill repeals section 47D of the State Development and Public Works Organisation Act 1971 Act – a section preventing people objecting to the Land Court granting an environmental authority for a proposed mining activity if the Co-ordinator-General had previously assessed the activity.
The Co-ordinator General assesses most major mine projects in Queensland.
