Extract from The Guardian
Environmental Defenders Office in Queensland says ‘critical infrastructure’ power previously applied only to essential works
Powers granted by the Queensland government for Adani’s proposed Carmichael mine are unprecedented for a private commercial development, new findings reveal.
Legal analysis by the Environmental Defenders Office in Queensland provided exclusively to Guardian Australia ahead of its public release on Thursday shows that the broad powers have previously applied only to essential endeavours.
Anthony Lynham, the state minister for natural resources and mines, declared the Carmichael mine and its associated infrastructure a “prescribed project” and “critical infrastructure” on 7 October.
There has been only a handful of critical infrastructure declared since laws enabling it were introduced to the State Development and Public Works Organisation Act in 2006. Most of the five relating to water supply.
Most notably, in 2007, the then infrastructure minister declared parts of the water grid in south-east Queensland critical infrastructure because that region was experiencing unprecedented drought.
Jo-Anne Bragg, chief executive of the Environmental Defenders Office Queensland, said the use of a declaration power “largely designed to protect Queensland from the worsening effects of drought” for the Adani Carmichael combined project was “deeply inappropriate”.
At the time of the declaration Lynham told the Sunday Mail: “This is a critical project. The government is serious about seeing it happen. We have to get jobs happening for central and northern Queensland.”
Under the law governing critical infrastructure, the coordinator general may speed up or progress assessment and, with ministerial consent, step in and take control of any legal decision still required for the project to proceed.
At that point opportunities for the community to interrogate the impacts of the project on groundwater may be limited.
The Queensland courts are also stripped of their usual statutory powers to review and determine the lawfulness of any decisions that might be made by the coordinator general.
Bragg said this meant the critical infrastructure declaration “could be used to potentially short-circuit legal protection for vital groundwater resources”.
“We believe the provision has been wrongly used in its application to the Adani project, and believe this could open the floodgates to all manner of major private developments demanding to be fast-tracked through the assessment process,” she said.
She recommended that the state government revoke both declarations to assure Queenslanders that proper procedure would be followed, and for the State Development Act to be amended to constrain the broad powers of the coordinator general in future.
The Environmental Defenders Office’s analysis found that the Adani coal project was assessed faster than the average time taken for major coordinated projects in Queensland.
A review of the Queensland government’s “coordinated projects” website showed that the average time between the lodgment of an initial advice statement by a proponent and the delivery of a coordinator general report was four to five years.
In the case of the Carmichael mine only three and a half years passed between Adani lodging the initial advice statement for the project and the delivery of the coordinator general’s report.
“Despite the size and impact of the Adani mine, the proposal has passed through the process in less time than an average comparable project,” Bragg said.
“The government needs to stop bowing to industry pressure and instead ensure that the impacts on our precious and irreplaceable groundwater resources are thoroughly scrutinised.”
Lynham’s office has been contacted for comment.
Legal analysis by the Environmental Defenders Office in Queensland provided exclusively to Guardian Australia ahead of its public release on Thursday shows that the broad powers have previously applied only to essential endeavours.
Anthony Lynham, the state minister for natural resources and mines, declared the Carmichael mine and its associated infrastructure a “prescribed project” and “critical infrastructure” on 7 October.
There has been only a handful of critical infrastructure declared since laws enabling it were introduced to the State Development and Public Works Organisation Act in 2006. Most of the five relating to water supply.
Most notably, in 2007, the then infrastructure minister declared parts of the water grid in south-east Queensland critical infrastructure because that region was experiencing unprecedented drought.
Jo-Anne Bragg, chief executive of the Environmental Defenders Office Queensland, said the use of a declaration power “largely designed to protect Queensland from the worsening effects of drought” for the Adani Carmichael combined project was “deeply inappropriate”.
At the time of the declaration Lynham told the Sunday Mail: “This is a critical project. The government is serious about seeing it happen. We have to get jobs happening for central and northern Queensland.”
Under the law governing critical infrastructure, the coordinator general may speed up or progress assessment and, with ministerial consent, step in and take control of any legal decision still required for the project to proceed.
At that point opportunities for the community to interrogate the impacts of the project on groundwater may be limited.
The Queensland courts are also stripped of their usual statutory powers to review and determine the lawfulness of any decisions that might be made by the coordinator general.
Bragg said this meant the critical infrastructure declaration “could be used to potentially short-circuit legal protection for vital groundwater resources”.
“We believe the provision has been wrongly used in its application to the Adani project, and believe this could open the floodgates to all manner of major private developments demanding to be fast-tracked through the assessment process,” she said.
She recommended that the state government revoke both declarations to assure Queenslanders that proper procedure would be followed, and for the State Development Act to be amended to constrain the broad powers of the coordinator general in future.
The Environmental Defenders Office’s analysis found that the Adani coal project was assessed faster than the average time taken for major coordinated projects in Queensland.
A review of the Queensland government’s “coordinated projects” website showed that the average time between the lodgment of an initial advice statement by a proponent and the delivery of a coordinator general report was four to five years.
In the case of the Carmichael mine only three and a half years passed between Adani lodging the initial advice statement for the project and the delivery of the coordinator general’s report.
“Despite the size and impact of the Adani mine, the proposal has passed through the process in less time than an average comparable project,” Bragg said.
“The government needs to stop bowing to industry pressure and instead ensure that the impacts on our precious and irreplaceable groundwater resources are thoroughly scrutinised.”
Lynham’s office has been contacted for comment.
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