Guidance for the Resource Industry Project

⁠⁠⁠The Department of Environment and Science (DES), along with the Department of Resources (Resources), and the Office of the Coordinator-General (OCG) are responsible for a range of regulatory assessment functions, including:

• the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process, including Social Impact Assessments (SIA)
• the Progressive Rehabilitation and Closure Planning (PRCP) process; and
• the Environmental Authority (EA), Mining Lease (ML) and Petroleum Leases (PL) processes.
• Following a recent business process mapping exercise undertaken to support the Queensland Resource Industry Development Plan, it was identified that the amount and quality of information provided in various resource applications and/or environmental assessment documents submitted by industry is often deemed insufficient by agencies, which impacts the efficiency of the assessment processes.

Based on feedback from customers and agencies, there is uncertainty about what information is necessary/required at various stages of the assessment process, a lack of clarity about the level of detail needed, and differing expectations (both between proponents and agencies and between agencies) and understandings about the form and type of information required to be provided by customers.

The Queensland Government is seeking Proposals for the review of identified assessment processes to determine where information requirements and customer expectations were not met and why. It will also explore and collate customer experience and journey issues not addressed with recent business process mapping work through appropriate, focused and thorough data collected from: customers/applicants; their representatives and technical advisors; and Queensland government representatives.

The project will deliver:

• An improved understanding of the customers’ experience across each of the identified assessment processes (including all Queensland government touch points) delivered in the form of customer journey maps (CJMs);
• An improved understanding of the key areas where information requirements are not well understood and recommendations about how to improve the understanding for clients A list of processes which are, and are not (for example, legislative changes) able to be made more transparent and potentially more efficient;
• Revised and new guidance and training material that is appropriate to the context and identified customer and agency need;
• Improved pre-lodgement material to ensure a shared understanding of the assessment process from the outset; and
• Baseline metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of the goals set (e.g. to reduce number of days at information request stage).