Public notices out of public view

A move by the Queensland Government to allow government agencies and developers to stop placing public notice advertisements in newspapers has been labelled a step backwards in political accountability.

Laws requiring the state government to publish Public Notices such as new mining leases or amendments to a land use plan in newspapers will be changed under the proposal to instead be uploaded to the department’s own website or online news sites.

Queensland Country Press Association president Phill Le Petit of Noosa Today said that by taking these notices out of the public eye there would be much less scrutiny of government and private development projects.

“Development applications regularly generate considerable…