Member for Mulgrave Curtis Pitt says the Newman Government is playing Russian roulette with climate change after removing sea-level rises from planning policy.
Cairns has been identified as one of the Queensland communities most vulnerable to sea level rises predicted by climate scientists.
“Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney’s decision to remove sea level rises from planning policy is a potentially disastrous dereliction of duty,” said Mr Pitt.
“It is a self-interested and short sighted decision driven by a greed for developers’ dollars. Mr Seeney has decided to favour short-term economic gain over sensible, responsible planning.
“Premier Campbell Newman has form on this issue. As Lord Mayor of Brisbane he approved the development of housing estates on flood plains and tragically we all saw the result of that.
“Some people will never fully recover from the consequences of his poor decision, but neither the Premier nor the LNP has learnt from that disaster.”
Mr Pitt said the Deputy Premier’s decision to remove regulations on councils forcing them to consider sea-level predictions before approving development applications was a dereliction of duty that would bring confusion and could result in councils facing financial ruin.
“The LNP has ignored warnings from the Local Government Association of Queensland that some new houses could be uninsurable and that subsequent legal action could result in some councils being declared bankrupt.
“Some councils will be over cautious while others could be tempted to approve developments in inappropriate places and gamble on scientific advice being wrong.
“Queenslanders have a right to expect a uniform approach, not a patchwork of different planning standards up and down the coast.
“Instead of that uniformity we now have confusion and the potential for mistakes which could cost some people everything.”
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