EDO, along with a number of community organisations, worked with the Queensland Government in 2015 to fulfil an election commitment and restore long standing landholder and community objection rights to mines that were removed by the previous state government.
The State Development and Public Works Organisation and Other Legislation Amendment Bill (Qld) was passed in July 2015 restoring community objection rights for major or “coordinated” mining projects. For other Queensland mining projects those rights were restored in 2016
Community objection rights are crucially important in the public interest. They allow the true costs and benefits of long term projects with huge impacts to be tested in the independent Land Court. This enables the benefit of expert evidence and debate for example on groundwater, prime agricultural land, air quality, climate, endangered species, noise and economics. In turn, this is a valuable safeguard against poor assessment or corruption and ensures the best environmental, economic and social outcomes are achieved.
