Deputy Premier and Development Minister Jeff Seeney has taken control over Queensland’s coastal policies as part of a new Draft Coastal Protection State Planning Regulatory Provision (Coast SPRP).  

The new Coast SPRP, released on 8 October and in effect for the next 12 months, repeals the Labor government’s coastal state planning policy which took effect last February.  

The Coastal SPRP effectively sidelines the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection, which historically has been responsible for managing the impacts of coastal development.

‘The Deputy Premier has effectively removed the checks and balances provided through the Queensland Coastal Plan that were designed to protect coastal environments and icons like the Great Barrier Reef," Cairns and Far North Environment Centre (CAFNEC) Coordinator Sarah Hoyal said.

"These areas, including local places of high ecological significance such as Trinity Inlet and Boat Bay are now exposed to further threat if it is considered of ‘net benefit to the State or region’ by the Minister for State Development.

"This is the kind of approach that has led to the Great Barrier Reef now being proposed as a World Heritage site ‘in danger’."

Tourism constitutes one of the State Government's 'Four Pillar' economy, and Ms Hoyal echoed Ecotourism Australia CEO Kym Cheatham's call to move away from mass-marketed tourism.

"(Tourism must) be based on unique natural and cultural adventure experiences. We are concerned that this new planning regulation will allow development to occur in sensitive coastal areas on whose natural values the Queensland's tourism industry is based," she said.

"Given the international concerns raised by UNESCO about the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area, it is absurd that the management of our sensitive coastal environment has been removed from DEHP and moved to the DSDIP.

"I believe the people of Queensland did not vote for a Government that would put the department responsible for economic development in charge of environmental protection."

According to the Environmental Defender's Office of North Queensland principal solicitor Patrick Pearlman, the old Labor policy was "vastly superior to the new Coast SPRP."

Mr Pearlman noted that there was no public consultation before the new SPRP’s release, and opined that “the new coastal plan contains all the flaws in Labor’s policy and adds a host of new ones”, citing the following examples:

• Under the new SPRP, local council plans must locate development outside coastal areas of high ecological significance (HES), except where “there is an overriding social and economic need demonstrated to the satisfaction” of the Development Minister.  
• The new plan adds development for “tourism purposes” to the Labor policy’s list of six activities exempted from restrictions on development of high ecological significance coastal areas.
• The Coast SPRP also gives Mr Seeney the ability to reject the classification of any coastal area as being of high ecological significance.  According to Mr Pearlman, this provision “guts any protection afforded to ecologically important coastal areas by an HES classification”.
• Development restrictions now apply only to coastal management districts, not the broader coastal zone, and
• The new SPRP is "unprecedented" in that it applies retroactively to development applications lodged before 8 October 2012.