664 days to say “No”. Tangled in red tape: Infrastructure planning in Southeast Queensland risks Brisbane 2032 Games gold

The Australian Telecommunications Alliance (ATA) has warned planning delays on the development of essential mobile telecommunications infrastructure in Southeast Queensland risk the state’s readiness to host the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The ATA has cited numerous examples of protracted planning delays that have frustrated the delivery of new, faster, higher capacity mobile coverage in key games locations, transport corridors, and residential growth areas, including:

• an application for new mobile infrastructure at Woombyte that took 664 days to be refused
• a site at Sippy Downs that took 481 days to be approved
• sites in Logan routinely taking more than 450 days to be reviewed
• a proposed critical mobile site at Rim Road, Buderim, designed to provide essential mobile coverage across northern Buderim, Maroochydore (including the planned Maroochydore Athlete’s Village), the Wises Road Corridor, parts of the Sunshine Motorway and 2,000 existing nearby homes that was ultimately refused after 377 days tangled in bureaucratic red tape.

Luke Coleman, ATA CEO, said: “Slow planning processes, bureaucratic red tape, and inconsistent planning outcomes are making it extremely difficult for mobile network operators to deliver essential mobile infrastructure where it is most desperately needed.”

“The great paradox is that surging population growth in parts of Southeast Queensland is creating increased demand for mobile services and simultaneously making it more difficult than it needs to be to deploy the infrastructure required to serve that population.”

“Mobile telecommunications infrastructure is often an afterthought, so by the time the need becomes desperate, communities have already been built, residents have settled in, and there is scarce land available in suitable locations to site this essential infrastructure. We are not asking for a free ride, or for shortcuts to be taken – the telecommunications industry is simply calling for the same early consideration that is given to other essential services such as electricity, water and transport.”

The Australian Telecommunications Alliance today published a detailed submission to the Department of State Development, Infrastructure and Planning as part of an early Review of the Southeast Queensland Regional Plan and Southeast Queensland Infrastructure Plan.

It is advocating for a much clearer policy nexus between the desired outcome of better digital connectivity and the physical infrastructure required to deliver more mobile services.

The ATA points to an average assessment timeframe for mobile telecommunications Development Applications across Queensland of more than 230 days. It is even worse on the Sunshine Coast, with industry data pointing to an average timeframe of approximately 329 days.

To remedy the situation, the ATA is calling for the revised Southeast Queensland Regional Plan to:

• require early consideration of fixed and mobile telecommunications requirements in new developments;
• encourage early engagement with mobile network operators and mobile network infrastructure providers;
• ensure that potentially suitable land for mobile facilities is considered and, where appropriate, safeguarded as part of master planning;
• integrate telecommunications planning into infrastructure sequencing; and
• ensure planning for new communities does not inadvertently create future mobile coverage or capacity gaps. This approach would help ensure new communities are digitally ready from the outset.

The Australian Telecommunications Alliance submission to the Department of State Development, Infrastructure and Planning is available here.