Coastal Plan threatens investment in Queensland

The Government’s announcement that they will reintroduce the former Labor Government’s Queensland Coastal Plan as part of their plan for the Great Barrier Reef threatens to undermine significant investment across Queensland and particularly in coastal regions.

The Property Council has been quick to remind the Government of the ramifications of the QCP when it was introduced in 2011, as it diminished the property rights of up to 10 per cent of property owners across Queensland.

The previous plan effectively sterilised development activity across large swathes of the state, through forcing landowners to take into account the climate change predictions of inundation and erosion to the year 2100 on their development activities proposed today.

Serious concerns were raised by the Property Council at that time regarding the quality of the mapping, impacts on property rights and values, and the lack of consideration for development options that involved adaptation and mitigation.

The Property Council has reasserted its serious concerns with the Government’s decision directly to the relevant minister, Premier and to the media. 

In addition, the Property Council has contracted the new Minister for Environment and Heritage Protection, and Minister for National Parks and the Great Barrier Reef, the Honourable Doctor Steven Miles outlining our concerns with the Queensland Coastal Plan and has reached out to local MPs in over electorates that will be impacted by the Coastal plan to ensure they are aware of the implication it will have on their constituents.

An overview of the property industry’s concerns regarding the former Queensland Coastal Plan can be found here.