Motion – State Development

16 Jul 2015 9:18 AMMichael Hart

Motion – State Development

Mr HART (Burleigh—LNP) (5.47 pm): My apologies: I have only come into the chamber as this debate started and I have not had time to read the bill. None of us have; it has been fostered on us at one minute to midnight on a very busy week, as we have heard from other members.

I want to talk about the urgency of this bill. I was on the State Development, Infrastructure and Industry Committee in the last parliament, and there were numerous times when, during the Regional Planning Interests Bill, we discussed those sorts of issues about the rights of people to appeal and the rights of people to have their say in court decisions and Coordinator-General decisions about mining approvals. We just heard the Deputy Premier say that the people of Queensland have a right to be heard. Where is their right to be heard if this is pushed through in this sitting of parliament rather than going out into the regional areas and giving people the opportunity to have their say.

This government has been elected since 31 January. They have had plenty of opportunity to bring this bill forward and put it out there for discussion so that people can voice their opinions. The government has had six months to bring this forward, put it out there and give people time to consider it. The previous committee spent months touring around Queensland talking to people. We went to Toowoomba, and we sat down with people in that area and gave them the opportunity to have their say. All we are saying here, Mr Speaker, is that people from all areas of Queensland, environmentalists, mining companies—everybody deserves the opportunity to have input into this.

During the previous committee’s investigation into these things we heard there were vexatious attempts made to hold up the process of mining approvals, and those things add years and years to the development approval of mines. I do not know how many times we heard today that this government is about jobs. The resource sector in this state provides a lot of jobs. Those opposite would have to admit that. What is it that those opposite want to do? They want to rush this through and take away those opportunities from those people. They are not really serious about jobs at all; they are there to kow-tow, as other members have said, to the extreme green movement. That is what they are doing here. They are coming into this chamber and trying to push this through at one minute to midnight in budget week.

Over the past three years in parliament, on numerous occasions, the crossbenchers and the members of the then opposition complained that maybe the people of Queensland were not getting their say. Where do those people stand on this issue now? All we are saying is that the people of Queensland should have the opportunity to have their say. Is that really wrong? Do the majority of the members opposite think the people of Queensland should not have a right to be heard on this matter? The previous government felt that they should. Do those opposite think they should not? If those opposite want the people of Queensland to have their say and be heard on issues, they should not support this motion.

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