PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Association of Mining and Exploration Companies (Amec) on Wednesday welcomed the Queensland government’s announcement that it would cut red tape to improve resources investment in the state.

Deputy Premier and Minister for State Development, Infrastructure and Planning Jeff Seeney said that a Cabinet Committee had listened to resource groups' and local government's suggestions to cut red tape, allowing for major resource projects to proceed in the state.

“This is a great outcome for Queensland, which considers itself a resources leader,” Seeney said.

“The committee is focused on working to reduce the onerous red-tape burden on resource companies and our new approach to developments will make it easier to invest in the state’s resources.

“That means more jobs for Queenslanders.”

Seeney said the changes would streamline the environmental-impact statement (EIS) process, while balancing environmental needs.

“As part of the changes, the Coordinator-General and Department of Environment and Heritage Protection formulated new risk-based, generic terms of reference for EIS processes conducted under the State Development and Public Works Organisation Act.

“The terms of reference have been cut from 100 pages to 25 pages of requirements.

“This huge reduction has been achieved by highlighting the critical matters [which] the proponent should allocate the greatest study effort to in an EIS, and by removing overly prescriptive and duplicate requirements,” the Minister said.

He added that a framework titled Managing the Impacts of Major Projects in Resource Communities, outlined a package of initiatives that would help local government, communities and industry work together to manage the impacts of resource development on regional communities.

He said new social-impact-assessment guidelines would bring together proponents, state and local governments and communities to better manage impacts.

“The overall approach is less prescriptive, and all about delivering better results,” he said.

“The objectives of the social-impact reforms are twofold: to streamline processes so companies have greater certainty as well as time and cost savings, and so resources communities get better ‘on the ground’ outcomes.

“This includes clear roles for state and local government working closely with resource companies and removing social-impact management plans as a requirement.”

Seeney added that the reforms would also deliver better outcomes for resource communities through a government case management role with industry, state and local government and local area infrastructure programmes (LAIPs) to prioritise community infrastructure investment.”

The Minister said that, while the paperwork had been reduced, the environmental standards governing resource development had not changed – the same checks and balances would be in place to protect the environment.

“This is all about ensuring that the key impacts of projects are thoroughly addressed and mitigation measures are effective and delivering an appropriate outcome.”

Amec’s regional manager Bernie Hogan on Wednesday noted that the new simplified terms of reference focused on the critical matters, and removed the overly prescriptive and duplicate requirements.

“This will reduce the cost of preparing EIS statements and help increase investment in Queensland’s resources sector,” said Hogan.

“Even though the paperwork involved has been reduced, environmental standards will not change which is certainly a win-win for industry and communities.”

He pointed out that communities would also have greater say in how companies ‘gave back’ through LAIPs, giving companies confidence they were participating in community-endorsed projects to improve the area they operate in.

“These changes should allow companies to focus on what really matters to their communities, rather than be tied into standardised systems that suited neither the community or the company.

“While this is a good start to reducing the red tape in duplication and cost of approvals, much more is needed to have a significant impact on the industry.”