THERE is concern over the federal assessment of Springfield City Group’s new, proposed Woogaroo Forest development which show that public submissions will first be sent to the developer, not directly to the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.
Submissions will go to peninsula@springfieldqld.au which will respond to comments before forwarding them to the department.
The developer will determine how comments are addressed before forwarding them to the government, raising the risk that critical concerns could be selectively filtered or ignored. Residents and advocacy groups will only see the “final documentation,” which may potentially have been reworded or sanitised by the proponent. The federal department’s review relies heavily on the developer’s responses to comments, creating a potential perceived or actual bias in the assessment process.
The Peninsula Precinct proposal would convert 18.9 hectares of core koala habitat within a 420-hectare area of ecologically significant bushland into a high-density precinct of more than 5,000 dwellings, including buildings up to twenty storeys.
The Save Woogaroo Forest Group has published guidance and templates for residents preparing submissions and is encouraging contact with the Environment and Water Minister, local MPs, and Ipswich City Council.
Environmental groups warn the project threatens critical wildlife, including endangered koalas and vulnerable species such as the Grey-headed Flying Fox, Tusked Frog, Powerful Owl, and White-throated Needletail. Woogaroo Forest also contains one of only four remaining patches of Woogaroo Vine Scrub, vital for the survival of several threatened flora species.
The EPBC submissions portal was inaccessible for several hours this week during the ten-day consultation period.
An Environment Department spokesman said that the process being followed for the Peninsula Precinct project follows the regular statutory framework under the EPBC Act.
"As a normal part of the process, and to ensure transparency, the final Preliminary Documentation (which is published for information only), must include a summary of all public comments received and how they have been addressed in the final Preliminary Documentation," he said.
The Save Woogaroo Forest group encourages the public to submit a submission and also to sign a petition to Environment and Water Minister Murray Watt and to contact local MPs and Ipswich City Council to voice concerns over habitat loss, biodiversity decline, and long-term impacts on the western growth corridor.
Environmental groups stress that this short window to submit a submission may be the only immediate chance for residents to influence the development’s environmental assessment, and warn that the proponent-controlled consultation process could dilute community input before it even reaches federal eyes.
