Local communities to have their say on wind farm developments
Credit: Deputy Premier, Minister for State Development, Infrastructure and Planning and Minister for Industrial Relations, The Honourable Jarrod Bleijie · Published 18 Jan 2025 · statements.qld.gov.au ~~
The Crisafulli Government is acting to ensure local communities are consulted for any new wind farm developments, in line with the LNP’s election commitment.
The development approval for the Moonlight Range Wind Farm, 40 kilometres north west of Rockhampton has been issued with a proposed ‘call in’ notice that allows submissions to be made from community members, local governments and other stakeholders as to whether the proposal meets State interests.
The consultation period is 40 business days and will close on 14 March 2025.
These actions are the first step in delivering the LNP’s election commitment to ensure renewable energy projects are impact assessable with approval processes consistent with other land uses like mining.
Deputy Premier and Minister for State Development, Infrastructure and Planning Jarrod Bleijie said that for too long local Queensland communities had been sidelined under Labor’s failed laws which do not require any community consultation.
“Queenslanders backed our election commitment to provide both local communities and councils a say in new renewable energy developments in their backyard,” Mr Bleijie said.
“It’s only fair that the regions that play host to these large-scale new developments are consulted as part of any approval process.
“We will continue to consult in the implementation of our election commitment, to fix Labor’s flawed and inconsistent code assessable approval system for projects of this nature.
“All projects, whether they are renewable energy, agriculture or mining should be subject to the same rigorous approvals process which includes community consultation and we will amend the assessment process to deliver this certainty to Queenslanders.
“The Queensland Government is open for business and the introduction of an impact assessment framework for renewable energy projects and approval processes consistent with other land uses will provide certainty for the community and industry.”
Member for Mirani Glen Kelly said a mandatory step of community consultation should be occurring in the proposed Moonlight Range project.
“Renewable energy developers should have a social licence for these sorts of projects to go to the next step,” Mr Kelly said.
“Under the previous Labor Government these developers’ version of community consultation was a lecture, telling communities what was going to happen, not taking concerns onboard from the communities that are impacted by these projects.
“The opening of the consultation period of the Moonlight Range Wind Farm gives the surrounding community a chance to finally have their voices heard.”
Three other applications for wind farms currently under assessment in North Queensland, Central Queensland and South West Queensland have also been paused to allow proponents to demonstrate that the appropriate community consultation and impact assessments has been undertaken.
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