Regulatory Strategy 2022–2027 – Progress report 2024

The Regulatory Strategy 2022 – 2027 was published in February 2022 and the first progress report was published in 2023. The Progress Report 2024 provides an update on the delivery of the action items and targets across the six focus areas during the second year of the Regulatory Strategy.

Overall, we are progressing well in implementing the Regulatory Strategy, with 9 actions complete (20%), 22 ongoing actions (50%), 11 actions in progress (25%) and 2 actions not yet commenced (5%). We are on track overall to achieving our targets.

Implementation highlights include:

Powers and Penalty Review

An independent review into the adequacy of powers and penalties available under the Environmental Protection Act 1994 was published along with a Government response in May 2023.

The review was initiated in part due to the significant odour nuisance issues in the Swanbank industrial area and surrounds but has relevance to all of Queensland. It was conducted by retired Judge Richard Jones and Barrister Susan Hedge.

The review aimed to identify whether the tools available, particularly in relation to nuisance, are suitable to deal with the challenges of the future and make recommendations for improving the regulation of Queensland’s environment.

The findings of the review and the Government response are available online.

On 11 June 2024, the Queensland Government passed the Environmental Protection (Powers and Penalties) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024.

The new laws deliver stronger protections for communities impacted by environmental issues caused by operators. The changes will also give the environmental regulator additional tools to prevent environmental harm before it occurs.

Operation Sidero

The multi-agency Operation Sidero involved compliance officers from Queensland’s environmental regulator, the Office of Fair Trading, the Queensland Police Service and 11 local government agencies.

The two-day compliance operation targeted 44 metal recyclers across southeast Queensland and resulted in enforcement action being taken at over 22 unlicensed sites.

Unlicensed scrap metal operators can potentially cause significant environmental harm and community nuisance through the release of contaminated water, increased fire risk and dust and noise nuisance impacts.

Operation Sidero compliance action included:

  • 44 inspections
  • 22 Direction notices
  • 19 Penalty infringement notices issued ranging from $3,096 for individuals to $15,480 for companies
  • Continued investigations for several sites

Supporting operators to prepare for weather events

It is essential that operators undertake the necessary planning and preparation to avoid adverse environmental impacts during significant weather events. Sites that are well prepared and have contingencies in place, tend to manage much better during significant weather events and are also less likely to attract an enforcement response from the regulator.

To support operators to prepare for significant weather events, Queensland’s environmental regulator contacted over 3,000 environmental authority holders in August 2023 to:

  • provide them with information to assist them to prepare for the upcoming weather season; and
  • outline the regulator’s expectations of them during, and in response to, weather events.

In September 2023, three industry specific (resources industry, extractive sector and waste and other sectors) extreme weather online information sessions were delivered to further support environmental authority holders.

Review detailed progress for action items and targets

Information about the delivery status of each action and target within the focus areas can be found by clicking on the relevant focus area.

Other performance reporting and monitoring

In addition to tracking the delivery of the focus area actions and targets, we also committed to monitoring our regulatory performance against a suite of measures including:

  • Obtaining feedback from customers in relation to the quality of information we provide and our performance
  • Evaluating our regulatory performance against the Queensland Government’s regulator model practices
  • Tracking our support for ecologically sustainable development that prevents and minimises impacts on the environment while supporting jobs and a strong economy by considering the number of environmental authority applications and amendments that are supported.

Performance against these measures is captured in other published reporting materials including the department’s Regulator Performance Framework report and the department’s corporate reporting documents.