RE-Alliance recently responded to the Queensland government's draft Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) Roadmap, with our key call being that the Roadmap place communities at the heart of all planning and engagement throughout each stage of REZ development and operation.

Our recommendations were to:

Ensure the final plan

• Expands on-ground community engagement and information provision in and around each planned REZ.

• Places communities at the centre of planning, with two-way collaboration and co-design adopted  over one-way inform-style consultation at all stages.

• Establishes reference groups at a more disaggregated level - the individual REZ -  not regional scale, so that benefits and impact mitigation are not diluted.

Further develop or consult specifically to improve the final plan on:

• Compensation for reference group participation and ensure flexible meeting dates/times and formats to enable engagement by as representative a group as possible.

• Supporting dedicated positions on each reference group for key organisations that work at both state and local levels to facilitate information sharing and support within and across impacted areas of rural and regional Queensland through reference group engagement.

• Options to enable a fair, transparent, accountable and defensible structure for multi-project and/or REZ wide benefit schemes. And, as part of that consultation, consider how pooled funds would be attributed and communicated publicly so that like for like comparisons can be made across the state.

• Ongoing funding for capacity building and/or resources to support each regional council to ensure they can develop and manage effective working relationships and assist facilitation between state and local government, community (individuals and organisations), proponents and other stakeholders.

Read our full submission here.