Agricultural
7 May, 2026
Farmers, Arrow Energy pan Condamine Alluvium Bill
Plains farmers and coal seam gas company Arrow Energy provided submissions arguing for the Queensland Government’s Regional Planning Interests (Condamine Alluvium) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2026 to be scrapped.
The Bill’s stated purpose is to amend the planning, environmental, and resources legislative frameworks to ensure that new coal seam gas activities in the Condamine Alluvium groundwater resource are subject to strong protections, including prohibiting long‑ term detrimental impacts on the Alluvium.
The Bill also seeks to:
- Streamline coal seam gas approvals by removing the requirement for a regional interest development approval (RIDA) and relying instead on the environmental authority process; and
- Clarify and expand compensation arrangements for landholders for coal seam gas‑induced subsidence impacts.
The Bill came as a result of a commitment during the 2024 Queensland election campaign by Condamine MP Pat Weir, who said legislation would be drafted to ensure other coal seam gas companies operating in the Condamine Alluvium would have to prove beyond reasonable doubt that they would not be damaging the environment above or below ground.
Both Arrow Energy, which operates in the Condamine Alluvium, and farmers such as Liza Balmain who are opposed to development, have provided submissions to the Queensland Parliament’s Primary Industries and Resources Committee.
At a parliamentary committee hearing in Dalby last month, Plains Farmers say the Bill’s removal of the RIDA process would stop them from having any say about how coal seam gas drilling occurs on their property.
“At present (the Bill) leaves landholders exposed with no clear checks or balances for future coal seam gas development on productive farmland,” Stuart Armitage from Cecil Plains said.
“This bill is discriminatory. It removes the RPI (Regional Planning Interests) Act from one of the most valuable agricultural regions in Queensland, the Condamine Alluvium, and from that region alone.”
Nangwee farmer Graham Clapham, who provided input into the drafting of the RPI Act in 2014, told the meeting that the RIDA process gives farmers an input into the coal seam gas development process.
“My family, and I personally, have always accepted that we cannot say no, as much as we would like to," he said.
"We cannot say no, but we can have input into what happens on our land.
“To remove that would be a tragedy and... it generates hostility and ill feeling.
“You would open up a can of worms that you do not want to go back to.”
Dalby farmer Ian Hayllor, who has cooperated productively with Arrow Energy for several years said the RIDA process has served farmers and Arrow reasonably well.
“We have to protect agricultural production. I believe we (farmers) were here first. We should have 100 per cent protection,” he said at the Dalby hearing.
“Our experience is that working together (with Arrow) we can improve production and capacity on our farms because of the income we get from compensation.
“The compensation income is greater than the impact.”
At another public hearing on Monday last week (April 27th) in Brisbane, Queensland Farmers Federation (QFF) CEO Jill Sheppard argued for the Bill to be amended to retain the RIDA process.
She also submitted that Bill should recognise and regulate any unintended gas migration as a pathway of impact to groundwater systems, under the Queensland Environmental Protection Act 1994.
Ms Sheppard further stated that QFF supported introducing strengthened dispute resolution path-ways, including referring to an independent Land Ombudsman.
In his submission, Cotton Australia General Manager Michael Murray urged the Committee to recommend the Bill be substantially amended to reinstate the RIDA protections.
“If those amendments are not made, Cotton Australia recommends the Bill be withdrawn,” he said.
Coal seam gas company Arrow Energy also argued against the Bill saying that instead of streamlining coal seam gas approvals, it does the opposite.
Arrow’s Vice President of External Affairs Matthew Jeffries said the Condamine Alluvium is already subject to comprehensive, robust and well-functioning regulatory protections.
“These include overlapping State and Commonwealth legislative frameworks, independent scientific oversight by the Office of Groundwater Impact Assessment, project-specific approval conditions, and stringent well construction standards,” Mr Jeffries said.
“Against this backdrop, Arrow considers that the Bill does not address any demonstrated regulatory gap or failure.
“In particular, the introduction of additional deemed conditions and compensation provisions risks duplicating existing obligations, increasing regulatory complexity and expanding compliance exposure without demonstrated evidence of additional environmental risk or regulatory failure.
“While certain elements of the Bill may streamline aspects of the approvals process, its overall effect is to increase regulatory burden in the absence of evidence-based policy justification.
“Arrow submits that the current framework is demonstrably fit for purpose and continues to effectively balance environmental protection, landholder rights and resource development.”
The Primary Industries and Resources Committee is due to table its report on the Bill to Parliament this Friday, May 8th.
