Affordable coast homes in limbo after LNP delays fast track
- Queensland Labor Opposition
- Mar 20
- 2 min read
Hundreds of affordable homes for key workers in Noosa are in jeopardy after LNP election commitment to cancel them, delays in approvals
Labor calls for homes to be approved as soon as possible to address mounting housing pressures under LNP
Hundreds of homes for key workers in Noosa sit in limbo despite ongoing housing pressures with the LNP refusing to give them the green light and the Planning Minister threatening in Parliament to cancel them.
Two projects expected to unlock more than 200 homes were put on a new planning fast-track – the State Facilitated Development process - by Labor late last year to get approvals within 75 days.
The move was requested by industry, removing barriers for them so they could get builders on-site quicker.
The proposal has since sat in Planning Minister Jarrod Bleijie’s department for six months after an election commitment by the LNP to cancel them.
In that time, the LNP passed new laws to give the Minister the power to ride roughshod over his department and cancel projects.
Under Labor’s SFD process, more than a quarter of the homes were to be affordable, and any approved project would need to have shovels in the ground within two years.
Projects included Walker Group’s 2,700-plus build-to-sell proposal at Robina and a 45-home project at Wakerley put forward by the Catholic Church, which local LNP MPs are now opposing.
Other proposals were a 525-home development in Indooroopilly and a 300-unit project at Milton, as well as housing developments in Redland Bay, Forest Lake, Toowoomba, Lutwyche, Pallara, Tewantin, Noosa Heads and Woolloongabba, where a 435-home project over is planned near the Buranda public transport hub.
Opposition Leader Steven Miles called on Planning Minister Jarrod Bleijie to stop adding more red tape for builders and get out the way of homes for Queenslanders.
It comes after the LNP cancelled hundreds of homes in the Housing Minister’s community on the Gold Coast, as well as cuts to funding for homelessness services across the state.
Quotes attributable to Opposition Leader Steven Miles:
“In one of the tightest housing markets in the country, Jarrod Bleijie has let thousands of affordable homes sit on his desk collecting dust.
“When Queenslanders need homes, Jarrod Bleijie has told builders that if they don’t do whatever he wants, he’ll cancel their project.
“He’s added red tape to a process that was designed to cut it, because that’s what builders, tradies and planners told us they needed in order to get more homes built.”
Quotes attributable to Deputy Opposition Leader and Shadow Planning Minister Cameron Dick:
“Remove the barriers, speed up approvals and you’ll fuel housing construction – that’s what industry told us, so that’s what we did.
“Now the LNP are adding more barriers, slowing down approvals and in some instances, cancelling homes altogether.
“Since then, those projects have been shoved in the bottom of the drawer by Jarrod Bleijie while his colleagues hit the streets opposing homes in their own backyard.”
ENDS