The Greens have a fully costed plan to create thousands of good secure jobs and fully fund public health and education, funded by making big mining corporations, banks and developers pay their fair share in tax. 

We can make Queensland fairer while also addressing the climate crisis and protecting Queensland’s forests, landscapes, rivers & oceans. 

 

Stopping Dangerous Global Warming

The science is very clear. We don’t have another four decades to waste while Labor and LNP politicians figure out whether they can afford to upset fossil fuel billionaires like Clive Palmer and Gautam Adani. 

The Greens have an ambitious plan to cut pollution to net zero, aiming for 2035, and the determination to make it happen. The Queensland Greens have a plan for: 

• 100% publicly owned renewable energy by 2030, to create 23,000 jobs across Queensland, mostly in the regions. Our plan would:
  • Reach 100% renewable energy by 2030 by building publicly owned renewable energy by investing $25 billion through Energy Queensland to build 20,000 MW of publicly owned wind, solar, and energy storage, including utility batteries and pumped hydro, over four years. 
  • End electricity privatisation in Queensland and establish Energy Queensland as a democratic, public authority responsible for all retail, network and generation in Queensland 
  • Unlock thousands of jobs in regional Qld by investing $6.4 billion in new transmission lines.
  • Create good, secure jobs: Ban the use of labour hire for renewable energy projects and guarantee leave entitlements and sick pay for every job
  • Establish a $2 billion fund to help communities establish cooperatively owned renewable energy projects to give communities direct ownership of renewables 
  • Ensure cheap battery storage for every household by establishing a $1 billion household and small business battery storage rebate scheme. 
  • Ensure a fair price for solar: Create a fairer feed-in tariff to ensure people get a fair price for their rooftop solar
  • It also includes planned, orderly phase out of existing coal power stations, with time to plan for the future - rather than leaving those communities out in the cold.
     
• No new coal and gas mining, and phase out fossil fuel exports like thermal coal and fracked gas by 2030 - that’s factored into our plan to raise royalties on all mining companies. 
  • We would use our massive investment in health, education and public infrastructure to create a just transition for fossil fuel-dependent communities. Workers and communities in coal towns who have sacrificed much to build our common prosperity, so we can’t leave them up to the whims of the market as coal declines. 
  • We would close the loopholes in Labor’s mining rehabilitation laws which allow almost all existing mines to leave behind toxic and dangerous “final voids”, and would extend those reforms to the gas industry.
     
• Decarbonise transport, including our plan for:
  • Free public transport for everyone in Queensland, along with extra buses and trains. 
  • Create high-quality safe, separated cycling infrastructure across Queensland. 
  • Boosting electric vehicles, with more charging infrastructure and State government fleet upgrades, with those vehicles powered by 100% clean energy by 2030.
     
• Build a green manufacturing base in Queensland including by:
  • Building a publicly owned and run “green steel” plant in Gladstone to be up and running within 5 years. That plant would be the basis for a green steel industry with 15,000 jobs. 
  • Publicly owned renewable energy factories, solar panels in Townsville creating 1,100 jobs and wind turbines in Rockhampton creating 425 jobs.
     
• Build energy efficient public housing as part of our plan for 100,000 public housing homes over 4 years, with tenant and community design panels with the power to direct the design and architecture of new developments. 

 

Safeguarding native forests 

The Greens voted for and still strongly support Queensland’s laws to stop broadscale land clearing and protect native forests. 

Native forests keep groundwater in balance, promotes rain in inland areas, provides habitat for wildlife and - crucially - takes carbon pollution out of the air. Without it, climate change will be far, far worse. All those things are at risk if the LNP win government in Queensland. 

We will work to strengthen Labor’s Vegetation Management Act, including by closing loopholes which leave 23 million hectares of high-value forest unprotected. The laws still provide exemptions for activities relating to urban development and mining, and that needs to change. 

 

Tripling Indigenous Ranger Jobs

The Greens strongly support the Indigenous Land and Sea Rangers program, and would triple the existing funding, increasing jobs across Queensland from 100 to 300. These jobs would be delivered with the same support, pay and conditions as the current program, in roles and areas decided in consultation with First Nations people. 

Part of their role would be to ensure cultural burning practices are reflected in our land management regime, which would also provide important protections for landscapes and wildlife affected by changing and increasingly hazardous bushfires. 

 

Restoring and safeguarding our environment 

The Greens would restore and safeguard our environment by:

• Expanding protected areas like national parks to cover 17% of the State, and expand joint management and First Nations ownership of national parks.
• This would be delivered via a $135 million per year funding boost to purchase new land, improve management of existing protected areas and fund conservation on private land. 
• Strengthening our laws to protect nature and create an independent Environment Protection Agency with adequate funding to enforce the law. 
• Protecting national parks from commercial development, particularly the granting of leases over national park land to profit-seeking corporations. 
• Safeguard our free-flowing rivers including the Lake Eyre Basin and Channel Country, especially to protect them from fracking for unconventional gas. 

 

Protecting the Great Barrier Reef

The Queensland Greens are committed to protecting the future of the Great Barrier Reef. In the last three years, half of the coral cover of the Great Barrier Reef has died from climate change and poor water quality. 

The joint State-federal Reef 2050 Long Term Sustainability Plan, including the actions and targets it contains to protect and restore the Great Barrier Reef.

The Greens will: 

• Support the enforcement of tough water quality regulations as well as continuing and boosting existing levels of spending on support for landholders. 
• Commit at $330 million over five years in funding to meet Reef water quality targets and protect the Reef and its tourism industry.
• Fully fund the delivery of the Queensland Sustainable Fisheries Strategy and create a net free zone in the northern Great Barrier Reef. 
• Commit $20 million for structural adjustment of the Queensland East Coast Inshore Fin Fish Fishery, prioritising the purchase and quota extinguishment of the three remaining offshore licences and a reduction in the number of inshore licences. 
• Implementing non-lethal shark control methods and ban shark nets, as well as extending the ban on drum lines through all Queensland waters.

 

Cutting down on waste and plastic pollution

The Greens will take action on the plastic pollution crisis by:

• Supporting the proposed Waste Reduction and Recycling (Plastic Items) Amendment Bill, with any amendments aimed at strengthening the Bill or at addressing concerns raised by people with a disability. 
• A review of the waste levy exemptions for all operators including private operators and local governments with a view to expanding the amount of waste subject to the levy. 
• The introduction of FOGO (food organics and garden organics) collections in every LGA that has a kerbside service. 
• Supporting the Commonwealth waste export ban by providing investment in resource recovery business opportunities in Queensland. 
• Ban the burning of trash or “waste to energy” for mixed wastes.