Queensland's Environmental Offsets Bill 2014 and a single State environmental offsets policy

Key Points:

The Environmental Offsets Bill 2014 is intended to bring a simpler, more flexible offsets regime to Queensland.

The Environmental Offsets Bill 2014 was introduced into Parliament on 13 February 2014 and proposes significant reform to the environmental offsets framework in Queensland.

Under the Offsets Bill, the current five separate offsets policies – the framework offsets policy, and specific offsets policies for vegetation management, marine fish habitat, koala habitat and biodiversity – will be replaced with a single State offsets policy, which must be approved by regulation.

It is intended the Offsets Bill and State offsets policy will provide simplicity and flexibility in delivery of offsets and remove inconsistencies under the current framework.