Queensland is shaking up renewable energy project approvals.
The Planning (Social Impact and Community Benefit) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025 will introduce a powerful new planning regime. Wind farms and large-scale solar projects are to be required to undertake a Social Impact Assessment (SIA) and negotiate a Community Benefit Agreement (CBA) before development applications can even be lodged.
For developers, this is not a gentle nudge toward better engagement. It is a regulatory hard stop. No SIA, no CBA, no application.
In this article, Moulis Legal’s Christopher Hewitt and Caroline Faeh set out the key elements of the new planning regime, and how industry can prepare and enable success in their project planning.
Private projects are now public events
Projects that generate more than 1 MW or cover more than 2 hectares (meaning most wind and solar farms) will be captured under the new rules. They must:
- submit a detailed Social Impact Assessment - this will identify how the project will affect local communities, including housing, employment, services, amenity, and wellbeing.
- negotiate a Community Benefit Agreement – this document, entered into with the relevant local council, will detail agreed benefits to local communities, and could include infrastructure upgrades, community services, or other tangible investments.
This is not simply box-ticking. The SIA must identify social risks and outline strategies to mitigate or offset them. The CBA must demonstrate how the developer is contributing to the local area in response to those risks and the broader project footprint.
And a warning to developers thinking of lodging first and dealing with the community later - forget it. The development application will not even be considered "properly made" unless both documents are submitted.
The CBA becomes a public document. Councils must report annually on how the funds or services are used. This is not informal goodwill, it's a binding part of the project narrative.
Money burning before sod turning
The reforms reflect the Queensland government’s new energy transition philosophy: yes, these are essential changes, but only on terms that regional communities and councils accept.
The experience of the Moonlight Range Wind Farm illustrates how serious this is. In early 2025, Queensland’s new Planning Minister used extraordinary powers to call in and cancel the $1 billion project near Rockhampton. This was a project that had already cleared significant hurdles. But the Minister ruled it did not align with the Government’s new direction, which was to prioritise local impacts and benefits. Community concerns around vegetation clearance, housing pressure and lack of local economic return sealed its fate.
For developers, the message is clear. Assuming local support, or thinking that minor community contributions and consultations will get you to the sod turning, won’t.
Look before you leap onto the bright side
Legally, this is a substantive change. Community engagement and social licence are now fully embedded in the planning process as a statutory requirement. You must engage, disclose, and agree - all before lodging.
And there is definitely a silver lining for those developers who approach the tasks required in a professional and well-supported way. Projects with well-executed SIAs and CBAs will face fewer objections, fewer appeals, and better long-term relationships with host communities. The upfront investment will pay off by building-in project resilience from the get-go.
Commercially, the implications are considerable:
- timeline risks - lodging a development application is no longer possible without an SIA and CBA. Negotiating a CBA with council could take months, and delays here could affect power purchase agreement milestones or financing timelines.
- cost considerations - the SIA process requires social planners, economists, legal advisors and more. CBAs often result in binding financial commitments. Councils can charge cost-recovery fees for their time, including for mediation.
- planning and design adjustments - the SIA may require a project rethink on worker accommodation, transport logistics, or site boundaries to address amenity, housing and cultural values.
Planets didn’t align for the Jupiter Wind Farm
The importance of genuine community engagement is underscored by the failure of the Jupiter Wind Farm proposal near Tarago in New South Wales.
Proposed as a 54 turbine project between Canberra and Goulburn, Jupiter was met with local resistance from day one. Residents feared visual impacts, noise, and changes to rural character. Over 400 objections were submitted. Critics (fairly or not) claimed the developers ignored local feedback.
Despite technical feasibility and government interest in expanding wind generation, the project languished in the assessment stage for years. By 2018, facing imminent rejection by the NSW Planning Department, the developer withdrew the application. The costs sunk into land access, environmental studies, and design, were lost.
How to succeed
The industry is entering a phase where project feasibility needs to be assessed with an economic development - rather than project development - mindset. A technically viable project is not enough. A commercially bankable project is not enough. If the project does not overtly demonstrate social value and genuine local alignment, it may not proceed at all.
This means:
- effective early engagement – get in ahead of statutory consultation periods to initiate stakeholder engagement. Begin discussions with local residents, Traditional Owners, local government authorities, and relevant service providers during the early stages of site identification and project design. Early engagement enables developers to understand local context, address emerging concerns, and build trust with affected communities.
- genuine social assessment - undertake a comprehensive and evidence-based assessment of the potential social impacts of the project. This includes identifying groups who may be adversely affected and examining key issues such as housing availability, community amenity, cultural heritage, workforce integration, and social cohesion. A robust social impact assessment informs both risk mitigation and community benefit planning.
- designing for benefit - embed benefit-sharing as a core element of project strategy. Consider how the project can deliver lasting, tangible value to the host community beyond its economic contribution. Whether through infrastructure, services, funding programs or partnerships, the benefits must be responsive to identified community needs and proportionate to the scale and nature of project impacts.
- smart contracting – CBAs, once negotiated, will be legally binding instruments. Ensure all commitments are clearly articulated, realistically achievable, and properly documented. Legal advice should be sought to structure CBAs that are enforceable and tailored to the unique dynamics of the project and its stakeholders, while aligning with statutory planning requirements.
Importantly, the reforms are not about making development impossible. They do not give communities veto rights, nor do they allow third parties to later challenge CBAs or SIAs in court. But they do make it impossible to bypass engagement.
Broader considerations require broadminded advisors
Lawyers are not enough, and we are not only lawyers. Bringing a renewable energy project to fruition involves a team of collaborative professionals who are not confined by convention.
Our infrastructure, sustainability and energy experience extends to the orchestration of major energy and infrastructure investments, and greenfield and brownfield developments, where the final product is the development application, and the final success the development approval.
We have experience in contentious approval procedures and have helped shape community engagement strategies that work. We know how to integrate social planning with project contracting, and how to negotiate CBAs that are meaningful yet manageable.
We also understand what is coming next. Queensland is only the beginning. Across Australia, the trend is the same - stronger expectations of public benefit, greater transparency, and deeper regional engagement.
Our Head of Commercial, Christopher Hewitt, has led and advised on numerous social impact assessments and engagement strategies for nationally and state-significant infrastructure projects across Australia.
Moulis Legal recently played a pivotal role in the Eku Big Canberra Battery transaction, further strengthening our growing track record in supporting the renewable energy transition. Our team advises across the full project lifecycle, with experience including:
- Advising on the development of solar and wind projects such as Ararat Wind Farm, Barcaldine Solar, DeGrussa Solar, Manildra Solar, Mount Majura Solar, Royalla Solar, Sapphire Wind Farm, SunEdison Solar, and Williamsdale Solar
- Providing strategic procurement advice to Goldwind for the supply of wind towers to the 500MW Gulf of Suez 2 wind farm in Egypt, led by a consortium comprising ENGIE, Orascom Construction, Toyota Tsusho Corporation, and Eurus Energy
- Acting as legal counsel for the establishment and national rollout of NYSE-listed electric vehicle brand ZEEKR Intelligent Technology in Australia
- Reviewing energy legislation and advising on regulatory frameworks to support the ACT Government’s hydrogen transition and its 2045 net-zero emissions target (in collaboration with ITP Thermal)
We work at the intersection of energy policy, law, investment, and social licence—where innovation aligns with community expectations and sustainable outcomes.
