The peak body for the resources sector in Queensland has welcomed the opening of submissions to the Queensland Resources Industry Development Plan (QRIDP) by the Queensland Government.
"The Queensland Resources Council (QRC) has been pleased to work closely with the Palaszczuk Government from the outset to develop the plan," said QRC Chief Executive Ian Macfarlane.
"We congratulate Resources Minister Scott Stewart and his department on working with us to develop this important plan to ensure the resources sector and its communities remain strong and deliver jobs and prosperity for all Queenslanders," he said.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the resources industry has continued to ensure Queensland's economic prosperity through its $82.6 billion contribution in the last year.
The sector contributes one in every five dollars to the state economy, supports one in six Queensland jobs, supports more than 15,000 businesses and contributes to more than 1,200 community organisations - all from less than one percent of Queensland's land mass.
"We encourage people and companies to make submissions to the QRIDP and look forward to hearing about new ideas to take our industry forward and make it even stronger," said Mr Macfarlane.
"Queensland is ideally positioned to deliver the minerals and energy that Australia and the world need for a low-emissions future. Our existing strengths in coal, gas, metals and renewables will be further enhanced through the development of our full potential in critical and new economy minerals, as well as in hydrogen."
QRC is looking forward to working on behalf of its members and the wider industry to ensure the QRIDP has a strong focus on the industry's growth, including the areas the QRC and the Government jointly committed to prior to the State election last year:
- targets for industry growth
- responsibly unlocking resources
- capitalising on opportunities from clean energy to lower power costs
- ways to assist explorers discover the next deposits, through future rounds of the existing Collaborative Exploration Initiative
- opportunities to continue advanced processing of resources in Queensland
- opportunities to grow the Mining Equipment, Technology and Services (METS) sector in accordance with the Government's 10-year METS Roadmap and Action Plan
- ensuring best practice environmental protections and rehabilitation, based on the landmark financial provisioning laws and the continuation of the abandoned mines program
- working with communities to maximise the resources sector's contribution to its economic and social well-being
- review regulatory processes to ensure they are streamlined and any regulatory change of material impact will be subject to a 12-week consultation process and consistent with the Government's Office of Best Practice Regulation Guidelines
- facilitating access to our network of common user ports, rail lines and electricity infrastructure.
Submissions to the plan can be made here.
