removing "ecologically sustainable" from ESD

The Queensland Government is committed to more effective and efficient processing of development applications. 

These changes will be implemented through legislative amendments to the Sustainable Planning Act 2009 (SPA).

Read more about the Sustainable Planning Act 2009

The Sustainable Planning and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2012

The Sustainable Planning and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2012 was passed by Parliament on 13 November 2012.

At planning reform forums in May to July 2012, local governments, the development industry and environmental sector representatives identified that a number of concepts and processes within Queensland's planning and development system could be improved. This information is being used to identify priorities for change over the next 6 to 24 months.

The Bill seeks to achieve planning reform by:

• improving the coordination and responsiveness of state government in dealing with particular development applications (proposing development within or partially within state jurisdiction)
• removing ineffective master planning and structure planning arrangements
• reducing regulatory 'red tape' for development applications involving a state resource
• providing some flexibility to accept a development application where not all the mandatory supporting information has been provided
• providing that certain provisions within the Queensland Planning Provisions also apply to local government planning schemes made under the Integrated Planning Act 1997 (repealed)
• enabling the Planning and Environment Court to order costs in certain circumstances
• introducing an alternative dispute resolution process in the Planning and Environment Court for minor disputes which will enable these disputes to be resolved more quickly.

State planning policies

The Queensland Government is establishing a new approach to state planning policies that simplifies and clarifies the state's interests. The new approach means that one single state planning policy will be developed to replace the various current state planning policies in existence.