A 125km line on the map

New Queensland legislation would ban people from being heard in court over a mining project unless the minister approves it, and then only if they own property within 125km of the site.

Streamlining, says the minister

Natural resources minister Dale Last tabled the bill on Tuesday and framed it as faster approvals, aimed at distant activists and green groups he says are funded from overseas.

“Activists based thousands of kilometres away and green groups funded by foreign overseas entities are no longer eligible to have a say”

The court referral becomes optional

Right now an objection goes automatically to the state's land court for independent review. The bill hands that referral to a decision-maker's discretion: the resources minister for leases, the environment director general for approvals.

Pick and choose scrutiny

Anthony Gough of the Queensland Conservation Council says the minister of the day could decide which objections reach open court and which mines get waved through without it.

“strips community members of their right to have their objection to damaging mining projects heard in court”

It saved K'Gari once

Gough points out that most objections come from local farmers and landholders protecting soil, bushland and water, and that this same process ended sand mining on World Heritage-listed K'Gari.

The review that never landed

The government scrapped a months-long Queensland Law Reform Commission review of objection laws weeks before its findings were due, replacing it with a cabinet sub-committee.

Eleven years at New Acland

Last cited the New Acland expansion fight as proof the process must change. The Oakey farmers who won that high court case say the law is being rewritten so they cannot win again.

“King Coal also heard and had the Queensland Government change the laws so we could not win again”