Project approval
- Adopt the Business Council’s best practice model for major project approval as a priority to speed up approvals and provide greater certainty for investors and the community.
- The model supports decision making within 12 months under a single application, single assessment and single approval approach. It involves:
- greater strategic planning with better community consultation to direct future land uses and conditions for approval
- giving primary responsibility for approvals to a single agency, eliminating the need for investors to liaise with multiple departments
- a single application filed after a pre-application consultation process that gives communities a voice right from the start
- standardised terms of reference, Environmental Impact Statements and conditions of approval
- a one-year umbrella time frame during which a decision should be made
- better targeted conditions on approvals that are directly linked to environmental outcomes
- streamlined administration and compliance through better coordination between agencies
- published data about time taken by agencies to manage applications, their adherence to best practice and how they can improve.