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Land access - the Queensland approach for resource and agriculture co-existence

James Reynolds — September 2011

Emerging Issue: Sustaining Australia’s wealth into the future will be significantly influenced by the nation’s ability to develop its resource wealth, now and into the future, and what we do with the proceeds. Continuing broad support for access to land is critical.

Increased resource exploration and production have brought greater contact between resource businesses and the community – reflecting the simple fact that buoyant commodity prices have made previously uneconomical resource areas, prospectively profitable. Different sectors within the resources industry have their own approach to land access, and these approaches cover a spectrum of behaviours. Arguably, if resource businesses are unable to individually and collectively make their approach to land access equitable and fair, then there is a need for regulatory intervention, not just to ensure reasonable protection and compensation for affected land owners, but also to provide a level of regulation to eliminate resource businesses that apply inappropriate and unfair practices when dealing with land owners.

In Australia, resources are owned by the government – so land access is not about affected land owners being able to gain a personal royalty on discoverable resources; rather, it is about fair and reasonable access to allow the enjoyment of the property, and the effective and efficient access by the resources sector, while either compensating for or protecting current land owner activities, and cultural and heritage values.

Land access policy for resource exploration and production is critical as it balances:

  • Stewardship – taking into account the rights and interests of existing participants, the environment, and the long-term impacts (intergenerational concerns)
  • Economic growth – balancing the need for effective access to minimise transaction costs to development
  • Equity – having an arrangement that does more than simply “paying lip service” in recognising community and agricultural interests
  • Regulation – ensuring that regulation is designed to treat the problem, not the symptoms, in a manner that is transparent, cohesive, and devoid (as much possible) from unintended consequences.

The Queensland Government’s Land Access Policy Framework represents a clear example of a progressive approach. Although driven by the need to respond to the land access demand by the burgeoning coal seam gas (CSG) sector, the land access policy framework applies to all resource exploration and production.

The key features of the Queensland regime include:

  • Transparent and strong legal basis
  • Broad applicability
  • Positive regulatory obligation on resource licence holders to comply with a standard code of conduct
  • Prescription of required standards for preliminary resource activities
  • Creation of standardised negotiation and agreement structures
  • Requirement for arrangements to be agreed prior to resource exploration activities occurring
  • Escalating negotiation and disputation processes
  • Enhanced compliance and enforcement powers
  • Extensive education and information services*.

With the policy framework coming up to its 12-month anniversary, there is an opportunity to review where the policy framework could be improved.

Particular areas of risk that the policy will need to address will be the sheer scale of land access demand generated by the resources sector, and the ongoing need to ensure the policy’s education and information sources, and enforcement functions are sufficiently flexible to:

  • Address the differences between CSG and non-CSG resource requirements on land access
  • Effectively communicate with resource companies representing sovereign energy conglomerates, noting the substantive investment plans of energy conglomerates from China and India.

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* For more details see, http://mines.industry.qld.gov.au/mining/land-access-policy-framework.htm

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