Principles

The Queensland Greens believe:

  1. the aim of planning is to produce communities that are diverse, sustainable and liveable, and which articulate the reasonable aspirations of the community.
  2. planning policies should be developed by communities, local governments and state governments, to serve the needs of the community.
  3. an increased reliance on private car use leads to a decrease in community engagement whereas a focus on walkable neighbourhoods, cycling facilities and public transport infrastructure leads to an increase in community life,safety, and health.
  4. proper community consultation is a necessary condition of good planning and should be adequately resourced by government.            
  5. urban sprawl places pressure on the natural environment by way of land clearing and reliance on private, fossil fuel driven motor vehicles for transport.
  6. new development should feature the most energy and water efficient design available.
  7. there must be an integration of land use and transport planning, including planning controls requiring that new development be sited on, or connected to, transit routes.            
  8. too much of our precious agricultural land is being given up for mining, dams and housing.
  9. Queensland needs a State-wide decentralisation (population and settlement dispersal) plan, which acknowledges regional limits to ecological carrying capacity.
  10. unconstrained population growth in the face of constrained resources such as water and arable land is unwise and unsustainable.
  11. planning and development must be integrated with energy policies and play a key role in avoiding and mitigating climate change.

Goals

The Queensland Greens want to:

  1. Stop urban sprawl and maintain productive peri-urban and rural land uses, landscape values and open space in all urbanising regions.
  2. Bring about and maintain a high standard of living, including community engagement, for all Queensland residents.
  3. Minimise the impact of the built environment on the natural environment.
  4. Ensure planning regulations contain stringent benchmarks for energy and water efficiency and take sustainable transport and service delivery into account.
  5. Maintain urban green space and waterfronts for the use of the public.
  6. Facilitate decentralised urban areas through the development of town centres and urban villages based on concentration of services and increased residential density around public transport nodes with adequate public green space.
  7. Plan for services such as schools, hospitals, government housing and community facilities in the town centres outside urban centres.
  8. Ensure that ecologically sustainable development is advanced when exercising planning functions and assessing development applications under the Sustainable Planning Act (SPA).

Measures

The Queensland Greens will:

  1. Repeal the SPA and other State legislation exempting mining and other forms of development from Queensland’s planning, environmental and other laws. Repeal the State Development and Public Works Organisation Act 1971to subject all infrastructure proposals to Queensland’s planning and environmental laws. Similarly, amend the Urban Land Development Authority Act so that declared Urban Development Areas are not exempt. This will ensure environmental assets, including remnant vegetation, are offered the same level of protection within Urban Development Areas as other areas of the State.            
  2. Provide  legal protection for declared nature refuges and all other classes of conservation parks in perpetuity.            
  3. Support the creation of urban villages and town centres by upgrading public transport systems, rezoning the surrounding land for medium to high density and protecting nearby green space from development.
  4. Direct the State Government’s Urban Land Development Authority to work in partnership with local Councils and communities in developing master plans for declared Urban Development Areas. Development sequencing and population growth must also be in step with the upgrading of infrastructure.
  5. Locate government housing near public transport hubs and upgrade public transport services in areas with large amounts of government housing.            
  6. Attract residents to regional areas and provincial cities by developing business location and development policies; public service relocation; cultural, educational, recreational, and infrastructure development; and State support for local government investment.            
  7. Establish processes for formal public consultation and submissions as part of a regular review of the Queensland Regionalisation Strategy and related plans.
  8. Ensure the SEQ Regional Plan, and all future Regional Plans address the following:            

a.     A full assessment is required of the carrying capacity of the region including water availability, food supply, infrastructure capacity and wildlife habitat, taking account of future climate change impacts. Ensure each regional plan does not provide for development beyond the carrying capacity of the region;

b.     Each region’s carbon footprint should be identified and targets set to reduce greenhouse gases by sector;

c.     Provide for a diverse range of housing needs including affordable housing, setting a regional target and measures to achieve at least 10% of total dwellings providing affordable, community and emergency housing in each region;      

d.     Maintain a comprehensive, adequate and representative reserve system that fully protects regional biodiversity and wildlife corridors from further development and increases the connectivity, integrity and resilience of retained habitats and corridor linkages;      

e.     Provide more open space and recreation land at the regional and local levels (with a target of four hectares per 1,000 people).

  1. Develop a State Planning Policy on reducing greenhouse emissions from development and adapting to climate change.
  2. Make retrofitting of solar water heating (or heat pump if solar is not viable) mandatory for all residential properties at the time of replacing an electric hot water system.
  3. Amend SPA to provide transparent calculation of development infrastructure charges. Ensure laws and policies for infrastructure charges apply at a rate consistent with the actual cost of upgrading infrastructure to service each specific development.
  4. Include a specific definition of affordable housing in SPA. Amend SPA to require any structure plan or master plan for new communities to include provision of affordable housing comprising a minimum of 20% of the overall yield.            
  5. Amend SPA so the rolling forward provisions for development approvals are removed. This is to ensure the community and developers have certainty over the lifespan of a development approval as well as making development projects reflect the current planning intents and community expectations for an area at the time of development.
  6. Remove  the injurious affection compensation provisions of SPA, so that the threat of having to pay compensation does not hamper steps by local government to undo planning mistakes.
  7. Remove  from SPA the process of Preliminary Approvals, which circumvent community consultation on the detail of development applications.
  8. Amend SPA to remove other provisions for overriding planning schemes to reduce the ability of Councils to ignore planning scheme provisions at the behest of development interests who claim “sufficient grounds” exist for approving development that conflicts with the town plan. Similarly, remove the Ministerial call-in powers from SPA.
  9. Amend SPA to increase the concurrence role of the Department of Environment and Resource Management (DERM) in assessing the environmental impact of development applications. Ensure DERM is responsible for assessing applications relating to State regulatory provisions on environmental matters, including koala habitat protection and coastal development. Establish comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement laws administered by DERM applying to all high impact development applications or development in sensitive areas.
  10. Provide annual funding for the operation of Queensland community-based, public interest environmental and planning law offices to provide independent planning and legal advice to the community and assistance with appeals.
  11. Provide funding for peak environmental groups/ academic advisers to provide professional input into plan development to provide fair and public interest representation in consultation on the preparation and amendment of planning schemes, policies, transport and regional plans, and projects of State, regional and major local significance.