Call for reform to free up approvals process

The Association of Mining and Exploration Companies (AMEC) says it supports a shakeup in the Department of Environment and Science in the name of more efficient mining approvals. AMEC blamed the bottleneck in the department equally on over-regulation and a cultural malaise Queensland director Sarah Gooley said. AMEC Queensland Director Sarah Gooley “…when you see a government stay put for a long time, you start to see some ideologies flow down into how things are assessed. So that's the cultural issue that I think the tide needs to shift on, but also it's a regulatory issue. “If you were to look at the level of, for example, environmental regulation that companies were dealing with at the start of the previous government and look at where it's at now, and it's on every side that our explorers and miners were dealing with, be it environment under the Mineral Resources Act or under Safety under the Water Act. “The prescription has just incrementally been tightened every year in each space. So it was a regulatory issue, but it was also that was sort of backed in by a cultural issue that developed too.” Related: AMEC keen to drive change under new regime Issues AMEC members had with the Department of Science and Environment had been raised in a meeting with incoming environment minister Andrew Powell said Ms Gooley. Some had been left unresolved since the last time the LNP were in power nine years ago said Ms Gooley. “So he sort of walked away from that engagement with a really clear understanding of some of the issues that that department is responsible for and how it was affecting us trying to get development up and running. “I think I'm an optimist and I think Andrew will be really across what needs to change, and it's really clear when you look at his ministerial charter letter, he has clear written instructions to support development. “So we are hoping to get into his and the new DG (director general) Trisha Callahan's offices really quickly and just to make sure that they are across the incoming government brief that we've prepared for them that identifies what the problems are and then what the possible scope of reform or mechanisms to change those looks like and who's responsible for it.” AMEC said the first of the top three issues to be addressed in Queensland included land access and coexistence and getting surety around costs of exploration. The second involves environment and reform around the estimated rehabilitation cost calculator and then associated with that, the financial provisioning scheme. AMEC also wanted a position on the Mining Safety and Health and Advisory Committee which would require an amendment to legislation Ms Gooley said.

Call for reform to free up approvals process

Industry Queensland

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