News

The LNP will 'fast-track' protection for Darling Downs

The LNP has committed to fast-track a regional plan for the Darling Downs to protect prime agricultural land and urban areas from mining and incompatible development and give landowners and miners certainty. The LNP will, in partnership with local councils, put in place planning restrictions protecting prime farm land, homes and towns. This is about developing a statutory regional plan that will clearly identify appropriate land uses across the region. 

It’s about giving proper legal protection to prime ag land and establishing statutory separation distances between resource projects and urban areas. 

It should have been done years ago. But under the Beattie-Bligh governments, which live for the moment, there’s been no forward planning, just PR spin and crisis management. 

A prime example is the situation now faced by Gowrie Junction residents – a community left in limbo after the Bligh Labor Government refused to back LNP moves to cancel the mining exploration permit for the area. 

This is an area where mining exploration should never have been allowed and if Labor had any sense it would have joined the LNP in State Parliament and revoked the permit. 

Our motion also demanded exploration permits covering the Felton Valley and other areas of prime agricultural land not be renewed and that no more permits be issued for the Darling Downs region until a statutory regional plan was established. 

The impact of mining doesn’t start when the digging starts. There needs to be recognition that exploration permits hit people who live in those areas from the moment they (permits) are approved. 

Local communities shouldn’t have to live with a sword hanging over their heads for five to ten years …causing enormous stress on individuals and property prices fall. The uncertainty and fear can destroy families, businesses and asset bases.