Our role as a regulator

Queensland’s land, vegetation and mineral resources are vital for our economic, social, environmental and cultural wellbeing.

Our role is to ensure that these resources are managed fairly and responsibly to support sustainable economic prosperity and just outcomes for everyone.

Each year we identify our highest priorities in the areas of mineral resource management, land management and vegetation management to ensure our regulatory approach is targeted and proportionate.

To achieve this, our department administers a range of laws that govern how these resources are accessed and used, and ensures that people understand what they need to do to comply with these laws. This gives all Queenslanders confidence that our resources are being managed fairly and responsibly.

Find out more in our:

Land resources

Our compliance focus areas for native vegetation management and use of state land

Georesources

Our compliance focus areas for fossicking, and mineral, coal, petroleum and gas exploration and production

Our regulatory approach

Our regulatory approach includes 5 strategies to guide how we consistently approach our regulatory activities: guide, inform, enable, monitor and enforce.

We address regulation across a continuum, from guiding and informing, through to enforcement.

We promote voluntary compliance through a range of educational activities aimed at building the capacity and capability of our customers, stakeholders and the community, including:

providing clear, timely information and tools about what our customers and stakeholders need to do to comply with the legislation
engaging with them to achieve awareness and building capacity and positive stakeholder and public sentiment through site visits, meetings, workshops and events
promoting and reinforcing good regulatory and business practices, including promoting the benefits of complying and the potential consequences of non-compliance.

Where compliance is not achieved, our response is calibrated according to the likelihood and severity of harm caused, and is guided by the following principles:

consistent and fair: we have a consistent and fair approach to how we achieve compliance
proactive and risk-based: we use an outcomes-focused, targeted, risk-based approach to inform our compliance activities
supportive: we encourage our customers, stakeholders and the community to do the right thing and we empower staff to make decisions within our regulatory and governance framework
adaptive: we monitor our progress and adjust our actions, as needed
accountable and transparent: we do what we say we are going to do, we are transparent in our decision making and we talk openly about our priorities, activities and the results of our work
safe and well: we support safety and wellbeing for our staff and communities
responsive: we are timely in how we communicate about our regulatory role and how we respond to non-compliance.

More information

Last updated: 18 April 2024
Last reviewed: 21 February 2023