Applicable events

The Planning Minister has powers to declare an applicable event. The concept of the ‘applicable event’ ensures that the state government is able to make advance preparations or respond to emerging circumstances that affect a State interest under the Planning Act.

Once enacted, these powers are temporary and only apply for the duration of the declared event. The provisions commence when the Planning Minister declares that there is an event, such as a public health emergency or a natural disaster, that will affect state interests. The event is declared through a notice.

These provisions were first used to respond to the COVID-19 public health emergency, but now are a permanent part of our planning framework.  This ensures the planning framework can respond to other future events or disasters such as flood, cyclones, bushfires or public health pandemics.

Once an applicable event is declared by the Planning Minister, three types of powers become available for use:

Extension or suspension of planning framework periods under the Act

  • The Planning Minister can extend or suspend statutory timeframes to provide for actions, such as those that occur in development assessment, to still be undertaken in a timely manner.
  • The ability to extend or suspend the statutory timeframes assists local governments, businesses, industry and the state government to manage the impacts of the applicable event on their operations and ensures that community and industry confidence in the planning framework can be maintained.

Declarations of uses and classes of uses

  • The Planning Minister can make a declaration for certain uses or essential businesses to operate 24-hours a day, seven days a week to ensure that they can work around the clock to deliver vital goods and services to Queenslanders.

Temporary use licences

  • Any person can apply for a temporary use licence (TUL) to change or vary existing development approval conditions or other operating constraints which may prevent them from operating during the applicable event.
  • The TUL arrangements recognise that businesses may need to innovate or change how they operate in unprecedented circumstances.
  • A TUL authorises the use of premises within the jurisdiction of the Planning Act but does not remove the need to obtain any other approvals that might be required by local, state and/or Commonwealth jurisdictions.

Current applicable events register

There are currently no active applicable events.

Previous applicable events register

Last updated: 01 Jul 2022