MEDIA STATEMENT

Community Coalition Responds to Planning Minister’s Approval of Coochin Creek Mega Music Festival and Exhibition Centre

The Community Coalition — representing 10 resident and environmental organisations and thousands of community members across the Sunshine Coast and Moreton Bay regions — expresses profound dismay at today’s decision by Planning Minister Jarrod Bleijie MP to grant state approval for a Mega Music Festival and Exhibition Centre within the Northern Inter‑Urban Break (NIUB), adjacent to the ecologically significant Pumicestone Passage.

A development of this scale and intensity, proposed for an environmentally sensitive location, should never be approved. There is no credible justification for allowing it to proceed.

Significant environmental, bushfire, flooding and public safety risks remain unresolved, and the conditions imposed are nowhere near sufficient to protect the ecological values of the site or its surrounds. Traffic congestion and access constraints also remain major concerns.

This is, in the view of the coalition, a deeply troubling outcome for the Sunshine Coast and for Queensland’s planning integrity. It follows just five weeks after the approval of the Comiskey Group’s adjacent Big4+ style Tourist Park — a development with its own substantial impacts and planning conflicts.

For decades, the NIUB has been recognised as a critical greenbelt protecting the Pumicestone Passage, wildlife habitat, landscape character and regional separation. Approving a development that enables events of up to 35,000 attendees per day over multiple days is in direct conflict with long‑standing planning intent and community expectations.

The decision also follows a series of actions taken during the call‑in period that have alarmed community organisations, including:

• Reinstating the ability for developers to make political donations

• Amendments to the Planning Regulation 2017 that removed key assessment criteria underpinning the State Assessment and Referral Agency’s (SARA) recommended refusal of both Coochin Creek developments

• Regulatory changes that weaken protections for the NIUB and undermine more than two decades of strategic planning

Community concern has been overwhelming and consistent. Nearly 6,800 people have signed the petition to protect the Pumicestone Passage and the NIUB, and hundreds of detailed objections outlined major environmental, safety and planning conflicts.

Compounding these concerns, despite multiple formal requests over the past six months, neither Deputy Premier and Planning Minister Jarrod Bleijie nor Tourism and Environment Minister Andrew Powell — both Sunshine Coast MPs — agreed to meet with the coalition’s 10 member organisations. The coalition considers this lack of engagement on a proposal of such scale and significance to be unacceptable.

Despite claims to the contrary, the Mega Music Festival and the Tourist Park do not align with Destination 2045’s tourism and events strategy. The NIUB is not an identified events or tourism growth precinct. SARA’s recommendation to refuse both developments found no significant tourism or economic detriment if they did not proceed in this sensitive location.

The Sunshine Coast’s tourism strengths and appeal lies in nature‑based, low‑impact, sustainable experiences — not in placing a mega‑event precinct inside a protected inter‑urban break beside an internationally listed Ramsar wetland.

Federal assessment still required — environmental obligations remain unmet

This state approval does not remove the requirement for federal assessment before any work can commence. The Commonwealth has repeatedly advised the proponent that both developments must be referred under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act due to the risk of significant impacts on nationally protected wetlands, migratory species, threatened species and other Matters of National Environmental Significance.

The key questions now are:

• Will the developer finally comply with federal law and lodge the required EPBC Act referrals?

• If not, will the State Government exercise its authority to initiate the referral?

• Will Federal Environment Minister Murray Watt take decisive action to compel referral if both the developer and the State Government fail to act?

The Pumicestone Passage and the Northern Inter‑Urban Break are too important to be placed at risk through weakened regulation or political expediency. Our coalition, with the strong support of the broader community, will continue to stand up and strongly advocate to ensure these nationally significant environmental values are fully protected and not further degraded.

-ENDS-