Queensland Consolidated Acts

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION ACT 1994 - SECT 49

49 Decision on whether EIS may proceed

(1) The chief executive must consider the submitted EIS and, within 20 business days after the EIS is submitted (the
"decision period" ), decide to—

(a) allow the submitted EIS to proceed under division 4 , with or without conditions; or

(b) refuse to allow the submitted EIS to proceed.

(2) The chief executive may extend the decision period by up to 12 months if—

(a) the proponent agrees in writing to the extension; and

(b) the chief executive has not previously extended the decision period for the submitted EIS.

(3) The chief executive may allow the EIS to proceed only if the chief executive considers it addresses the final terms of reference in an acceptable form.

(3A) Also, the chief executive must refuse to allow the EIS to proceed if, having regard to the submitted EIS—

(a) the chief executive is satisfied it is unlikely the project could proceed under this Act or another law, including, for example, because the project—

(i) would contravene a law of the Commonwealth or the State; or

(ii) would give rise to an unacceptable risk of serious or material environmental harm; or

(iii) would have an unacceptable adverse impact on a matter of State environmental significance or a matter of national environmental significance; or

(iv) would have an unacceptable adverse impact on an area of cultural heritage significance; or

(b) the chief executive is required to refuse to allow the EIS to proceed under a regulatory requirement.

(4) If the decision is to allow the EIS to proceed, the chief executive may also fix a minimum period for the making of submissions about the EIS.

(5) However, the period fixed must be at least 30 business days and must end at least 30 business days after the EIS notice is published.

(5A) Subsection (5B) applies if—

(a) under the final terms of reference for the EIS, the EIS submitted by the proponent includes a proposed PRC plan; and

(b) the proposed PRCP schedule for the plan identifies an area of land as a non-use management area under section 126D (2) (b) ; and

(c) the chief executive decides to allow the EIS to proceed.

(5B) The chief executive must, as soon as practicable after making the decision, ask a qualified entity to—

(a) carry out a public interest evaluation for each area of land mentioned in subsection (5A) (b) ; and

(b) give the chief executive a report about the evaluation that complies with section 316PB .

(5C) The request under subsection (5B) —

(a) must be in writing; and

(b) must require the report to be given to the chief executive within—

(i) a stated period of not more than 12 months; or

(ii) if the chief executive decides to extend the period mentioned in subparagraph (i) by not more than 6 months—the extended period.

(6) The chief executive must, within 10 business days after the decision is made, give the proponent written notice of the decision and of any submission period fixed.

(7) If the decision is to refuse to allow the EIS to proceed, or to allow the EIS to proceed on conditions, the notice must be an information notice for the decision that also states—

(a) if the proponent has not previously resubmitted the EIS under section 49A —that the proponent may resubmit the EIS under that section; or

(b) if the proponent has previously resubmitted the EIS under section 49A —that the proponent can not further resubmit the EIS under that section.

(8) In this section—

"qualified entity" means an entity, other than the proponent, that has the experience and qualifications, prescribed by regulation, necessary to carry out a public interest evaluation.