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Traditional owners have welcomed the release of a long-awaited consultation plan by the Queensland government that includes options for limiting new oil and gas development in the Lake Eyre Basin.
Key points:
- The Queensland Government is seeking community feedback on options to protect the Lake Eyre Basin ahead of the 2024 state election
- The Regulatory Impact Statement was due to be released in September last year after extensive consultation with stakeholders
- Traditional Owners have welcomed the release of the long-awaited plan
Released today, the regulatory impact statement includes a 12-week consultation period involving stakeholders and locals.
The draft plan floats options for the future of the Lake Eyre Basin including retaining the existing regulatory framework to manage resource extraction or putting an end to future oil and gas development on the rivers and flood plains of the Channel Country.
Environment Minister Leanne Linard said the Palaszczuk Government was committed to protecting the "long-term health, ecology and cultural values of the rivers and floodplains of the Lake Eyre Basin".
"Through this public consultation, we are seeking the public's views on options to better protect the globally significant river systems in the basin, and achieve a balance between future economic prosperity for Queensland and ecological sustainability for the region," Ms Linard said in a statement.
The government said it will prioritise feedback from Traditional Owners.
"Any resources projects, regardless of where they are, must stack up environmentally, socially and financially," Minister Linard said.
The consultation period begins today and will close on August 25.
The Regulatory Impact Statement was completed in mid-2022 after extensive consultation with Traditional Owners, miners, graziers and environmental groups in the region.
It was due to be released in September last year.
Mithaka Traditional Owner George Gorringe, who was part of the consultation committee, welcomed the news but said he was yet to see the plan.
"I got a call yesterday and I haven't seen the plan, but this is good news," he said.
He said the consultation period would give locals a chance to voice their opinions before the next state election in 2024.
"If it was released any later, we wouldn't have been able to consult properly before the next election," Mr Gorringe said.
"It gives us a chance."
The Wilderness Society's Queensland campaigns manager Hannah Schuch welcomed the announcement.
"[The Lake Eyre Basin] is amongst the last, free-flowing desert rivers and fertile floodplains of their kind left on earth," she said.
Ms Schuch said the floodplains support an abundance of wildlife and local communities while providing a cultural connection that dates back tens of thousands of years.
"To continue to allow oil and gas mining in these areas would go against the government's responsibilities for nature, the climate and regional community's desires," she said.
"So we'll be backing in an option that ensures that the rivers and floodplains are truly protected from the ongoing expansion of oil and gas."
Hopes election promise will be fulfilled
Graziers and traditional owners have long raised concerns about the potential impact oil and gas projects could have on the environmentally sensitive region.
The plan released today is part of a 2015 election promise that saw the state government commit to restoring protections in the wild rivers, and ultimately limit gas exploration in the Channel Country.
"It is the long-held desire of local pastoralists, Traditional Owners, townspeople and conservationists, to see the very best protection of the floodplains of the Channel Country rivers which flow into Lake Eyre," Birdsville grazier and co-founder of OBE Organic David Brook said.
"We look forward to the Palaszczuk Government in Queensland, acting on their election commitment so that the significant waterways and floodplains will not be subject to unwise resource development which might impede or contaminate the annual flows."
The announcement follows a decision by Origin Energy in 2022 to review and ultimately abandon its fracking ambitions in the Cooper-Eromanga basins, after it was quietly granted 11 petroleum leases across more than 250,000 hectares of land in 2021.
At the time, the energy giant said the decision was part of its move towards "green energy", and that it would sell its exploration permits to another energy company or forfeit the sites back to the state government.