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Queensland has ordered a 12-month inquiry into federal environmental laws in a bid to speed up the approval of a prospective oil field in a move that has mystified the Albanese government.
State treasurer David Janetzki has tasked the Queensland Productivity Commission with conducting the inquiry, which he said will investigate whether the new laws are slowing down major projects and leading to higher costs.
The inquiry follows public calls from Premier David Crisafulli for the federal government to fast-track works to establish an oil industry at the Taroom Trough, a 750-square-kilometre tenement about 300 kilometres west of Brisbane.
The changes to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act were passed in 2025 after years of debate, and aimed to simplify environmental processes for major projects around the nation.
Janetzki said the inquiry would help involve public stakeholder contributions, and deliver recommendations for how the state should go forward in light of the laws.
Of particular interest was how the law changes affect fossil fuel projects, Janetzki said.
“What does it mean, those changes to the EPBC Act, for Queensland’s desire to invest or to explore, to drill, to store more fuel into the long term?” he said.
Janetzki said the Taroom Trough was a “perfect example” of the type of project that should be fast-tracked by the federal law.
But despite the state insisting their federal counterparts are dragging their feet, federal environment minister Murray Watt said no one from the Queensland government had made an official request regarding the trough.
“One of the key ways we can speed up approvals is for state governments to sign bilateral agreements with us to let approvals happen simultaneously,” he said in a statement to this masthead.
“So far David Crisafulli is yet to even come to the table on a bilateral agreement with us.
“Queenslanders would be better off if the Queensland Government worked with us, through the reforms we have established to speed up approvals, instead of simply seeking headlines.”
When asked whether the trough had been raised with the federal government, Janetzki said, “there are always discussions going on”.
“But we need so much more in Queensland. That’s what this Productivity Commission inquiry is charged with delivering,” he said.
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