Australia: QLD Planning Minister Adds 12 Months To Development Approvals

On 29 April 2022, the Honourable Steven Miles MP (Planning Minister) gave notice under section 275R of the Planning Act 2016 (QLD) (Planning Act) and section 171N of the Economic Development Act 2012 (QLD) (ED Act) to extend the currency period of any current development approvals or PDA development approvals (DAs) by a period of 12 months.

Snapshot

• In 2020, amendments were made to the Planning Act and the ED Act to allow the Planning Minister to extend or suspend statutory timeframes under those acts if it was necessary because of an 'applicable event', being COVID-19.
• The Planning Minister has made two decisions (here and here) to extend the currency period of any current DAs by a period of 12 months.
• This universal extension continues to have effect even once the notice period ends on 24 June 2022, and the extension will apply to any DAs granted on or before 24 June 2022.

What development approvals receive the extension?

The power has been exercised for the third time under section 275R of the Planning Act and section 171N of the ED Act to extend or suspend any periods under the Planning Act.

The universal extension applies to any current development approval granted under the Planning Act and ED Act on or before 24 June 2022.

The extension does not apply to development approvals for building works under the Planning Act when demolition, removal and rebuilding must start and be completed pursuant to section 71 of the Building Act 1975 (Qld).

When do development approvals lapse?

The power has been previously exercised on 8 July 2020 and 1 September 2021 to extend the currency period of any current development approvals by a period of 6 months respectively. This means some development approvals in Queensland have automatically been extended by up to 2 years.

The currency period will depend on when a development approval was granted:

• if a development approval lapsed prior to 8 July 2020, the extension notices have not re-enlivened that development approval and it remains lapsed;
• if a development approval was granted prior to 31 October 2020 and was due to lapse on 30 June 2022, it would now lapse on 30 June 2024;
• if a development approval was granted between 31 October 2020 and 30 September 2021 and was due to lapse on or before 30 June 2022, it would now lapse on 30 December 2023;
• if a development approval granted between 1 October 2021 and today and was due to lapse on 30 June 2022, the development approval would now lapse on 30 June 2023.

Next steps

We encourage developers to contact us if they have any questions about the extension or any other questions about development applications and development approvals.

The authors would like to thank Kai Allison for assisting with writing this blog post.