Article source: Guardian Environment
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Queensland's new streamlined major projects bill hands the state government sweeping powers to bypass conservation and planning regulations – a move experts warn could fast-track any development deemed in the public interest, regardless of environmental or agricultural impact.
The legislation creates pathways to override existing protections without demonstrating genuine environmental need. For landholders like Matt and Caitlin Wood, who operate a regenerative farm on Springbrook mountain, the bill poses an existential threat: their operation – which integrates livestock, native tree regeneration, and fire management – could be overridden by state approval of industrial or extractive projects.
This is a regulatory greenwashing case study. Governments often frame "streamlining" as efficiency or economic necessity, but the mechanism here is straightforward: legal exemption from environmental due diligence. The bill's breadth means no project assessment needs to demonstrate it cannot proceed under existing frameworks; the state simply decides it should.
For supply-chain due diligence and ESG procurement teams, this matters directly. Queensland projects approved under these powers will lack transparent environmental or social impact assessment. Investors, corporate buyers, and insurers funding or sourcing from such projects inherit reputational and liability risk – the bill creates a two-tier approval system where one tier has minimal accountability.
The question isn't whether streamlining sometimes makes sense. It's whether broad exemptions from environmental assessment constitute genuine policy or regulatory capture masquerading as reform.