Economic Development Queensland and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024

Economic Development Queensland is the Queensland Government’s land use planning and property development agency.

The Economic Development Act 2012 (ED Act) provides the legislative framework for EDQ to work in partnership across government, industry and the community to lead and deliver infrastructure and property projects.

Under the ED Act, the Minister for Economic Development Queensland (MEDQ) is a corporation sole constituted by the Minister and the Minister refers to the Minister administering the ED Act. However, for ease of reference, when addressing the day to day operations of the MEDQ, Economic Development Queensland (EDQ) is used.

The Economic Development and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024 proposed amendments to the ED Act to support EDQ delivering more homes faster, responding to the current housing supply challenges in Queensland. The Bill was passed by Queensland Parliament on 11 June 2024 and the amendments came into effect on 1 July 2024.

Key amendments

The amendments focus on four key areas:

• Housing supply, affordability and diversity
• The introduction of a Place Renewal Framework
• EDQ’s corporate structure
• Operational refinements to existing functions and powers.

The amendments offer various avenues for providing more social, affordable, and diverse housing in the context of urban renewal and precincts to accommodate Queensland's expanding population.

New Place Renewal powers have been introduced that will support a more coordinated and collaborative approach in complex precincts to drive better outcomes.

The amendments create a more agile, standalone organisation with a Chief Executive Officer and skills-based board accountable to the (MEDQ) which can respond quickly to changing market circumstances.

The amendments also provide operational refinements to existing functions and powers for better clarity for industry and stakeholders, and to provide greater flexibility for the MEDQ to respond to emerging planning issues.

The amendments will help meet the Homes for Queenslanders target of 1 million new homes by 2046 and contribute to the Australian Government’s National Housing Accord target of 1.2 million new, well-located homes across Australia by 2029.

As a result of these amendments, EDQ will deliver an extra 1,300 dwellings within the next five years. It will also approve a further 15,000 homes in Priority Development Areas (PDAs) which is a 117 per cent increase.

To improve EDQ’s capacity to deliver more housing and government’s priorities, EDQ will transition towards securing its long-term financial sustainability by adopting a Financial Framework which reflects a transparent allocation of EDQ resources against activities. While not part of the legislative amendments, a new regulatory fee schedule that reflects a full cost recovery model is being proposed. The new fees will be phased-in over a 2-year period for existing PDAs starting from January 2025 and fully adopted from inception of new PDAs in 2024.

All existing and new staff are employed under the Public Sector Act 2022 with existing rights and entitlements retained.

Fact Sheets

Further information on the overarching amendments can be found in this Fact Sheet.

The following Fact Sheets provide additional information on the specific amendments: