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Estimates: Questioning the Deputy Premier about banning new developments in flood affected areas

During Parliamentary Budget Estimates on Wednesday 27 July 2022, I asked the Deputy Premier whether the government will consider banning new development approvals on flood-affected land. 

You can read the answers below or in the official Queensland Parliament Record of Proceedings (Hansard).

Mr BERKMAN: My question is to the minister. We have seen again this year the devastating impacts of inappropriate historical development in flood-prone areas in Brisbane and across Queensland. It is clear that these impacts and costs will only increase over time as the climate crisis worsens. Putting aside the flood resilience funding and potential buybacks you mentioned in your earlier comments, my question is what steps is the government taking to prohibit development on known flood-affected land to protect Queenslanders from future floods?

Dr MILES: I thank the member for Maiwar for the question. You have touched on what is clearly one element of the response to ensuring places do not flood again, particularly the buyback program but also the raising and retrofitting. After the floods I organised a regional planning committee flood workshop with all of the South-East Queensland mayors to explain how we can better build resilience into the planning framework. The range of options includes better and better utilisation of flood mapping, making sure it is more freely available, and changes to compensation provisions which are sometimes identified as a barrier to down-zoning for councils. There are a range of initiatives and learnings that have come out of that workshop and the feedback we have had since as well as the flood experience itself. I look forward to more advice from the state planner about what other initiatives we should build in to assist councils to make sure they are not approving inappropriate developments in locations where they are likely to flood.

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