QLD planning resource · Objection submission from $99

Objecting to a development application in Queensland

Queensland objectors have a right that Victorians and New South Welshmen would envy: if the application is approved, you can appeal it to the Planning and Environment Court. But the right is bought, not given — it exists only if your submission was “properly made”, a term the Planning Act defines precisely. Get one element wrong and the submission still gets read, but the appeal right is gone.

Queensland residents and neighbours who have seen a public notice sign or received notice of an impact assessable development application, and want the submission to preserve every right it can.

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First question: is the application even notified?

Queensland does not publicly notify every development application. Under the Planning Act 2016, only applications requiring impact assessment go through public notification. Code assessable applications — which is most of what gets built in an established suburb where the proposal is consistent with the zone — are assessed against the scheme's benchmarks without any public notice, and there is no submission stage to take part in.

This is the most common reason a Queensland resident finds out about a development only when construction starts. It is not an oversight by the council. If no notice went up, the application was almost certainly code assessable, and the answer to “why wasn't I told” is the assessment category rather than any failure of process. Ask the assessment manager which category the application falls into — it is the first thing that determines whether you have any role at all.

Where the application is impact assessable, notice must be given and anyone other than the applicant or a referral agency may make a submission. Under section 53 the notice must state the day by which submissions must be made, and that day must be at least 15 business days after the notice is given — or at least 30 business days where the application includes a variation request. Those are minimums: a council may allow longer, and where the development assessment rules require notice in more than one way the period starts the day after the last notice is given. So the period is the one printed on the notice, not a figure from a general guide.

“Properly made” is a defined term, and it is where the right lives

Schedule 2 of the Planning Act 2016 defines a properly made submission, and every element has to be satisfied. The submission must be signed in hard copy by each person who made it, or given electronically in the way stated in the notice. It must be received during the period fixed for making the submission. It must state the name and residential or business address of all the people who made it. And it must state its grounds, and the facts and circumstances relied on to support those grounds.

That last element is the one that is most often half-done, and it is the most substantively demanding. The Act does not simply ask for your grounds; it asks for the facts and circumstances supporting them. “The building is too tall” is a complaint. “The proposal is 14 metres where the zone code's acceptable outcome is 8.5 metres, and the additional height casts shadow across the private open space at the rear of our lot from mid-afternoon in June” is a ground with the facts and circumstances attached.

A submission that misses an element is not thrown away — the assessment manager will usually still read and consider it. What it loses is the appeal right, and it loses it silently. Nobody tells you at the time. You find out when the approval issues and you go to lodge an appeal.

Signed in hard copy by each person making it, or given electronically in the way the notice states
Received during the period fixed for making submissions — not after it
States the name and residential or business address of every person making it
States its grounds, and the facts and circumstances relied on to support those grounds
Made to the assessment manager named in the notice
A joint submission should name the principal submitter, who is the person the decision notice goes to

What the assessment manager can act on

An impact assessable application is assessed against the whole of the planning scheme, which is broader than the code assessable test. The relevant zone code, any overlay codes triggered by the site's mapping, the development codes, and the strategic framework all come into it, and the assessment runs against the assessment benchmarks and the overall outcomes those codes set.

Frame each ground against a benchmark. Name the code, name the performance outcome or acceptable outcome, state what the proposal does instead, and state the effect on you. That is both what the Act's “grounds, and the facts and circumstances” requirement asks for and what a submission has to look like to survive into an appeal, because the grounds you raise in the submission are the ones that frame any later proceeding.

The usual exclusions apply. The value of your property is not an assessment benchmark. Neither is the identity of the applicant, nor commercial competition with your business. Construction-period noise and dust are managed by conditions rather than by refusing the application. Where one of these is the real concern, there is almost always an assessable impact underneath it — amenity, character, traffic, overshadowing — and that is the one to argue.

The appeal right your submission buys

If the application is approved, an eligible submitter may appeal the decision to the Planning and Environment Court. Schedule 1 of the Planning Act allows the appeal to the extent the decision relates to any part of the application that required impact assessment, or to a variation request. An eligible submitter is a submitter whose submission was not withdrawn before the application was decided and who has not told the assessment manager they will not be appealing — and a submitter, in turn, is a person who made a properly made submission.

The appeal period is 20 business days after notice of the decision is given to you, under section 229(3)(h). The decision notice goes to each principal submitter, so a joint submission should name one. Twenty business days is roughly four weeks of working days, and it is firm — the Planning and Environment Court Act gives the Court power to extend the appeal period, but an extension is a discretionary indulgence rather than something to plan around.

This is a genuinely stronger position than an objector holds in New South Wales, where third-party merits appeals are confined to designated development, and it is stronger than Victoria in a different way: no equivalent of Victoria's deemed-to-comply exemption strips the right away because the proposal met a list of standards. The trade-off is that Queensland front-loads the formality. The right is real, and it is conditional on paperwork done correctly weeks earlier.

If the council never decides

An applicant whose application is not decided has an appeal right of their own against the deemed refusal, and under section 229(3)(b) that appeal may be started at any time after the deemed refusal happens rather than within a fixed window. If an application you objected to disappears into the Planning and Environment Court without a council decision, that is generally what has happened.

A submitter's position in that situation is as a party to the applicant's appeal rather than as an appellant. Your properly made submission is still what gives you standing to be involved, which is another reason to get it right at the start rather than treating it as a formality.

Real example

Worked example — the submission that kept its appeal right, and the one that did not

Two neighbours object to the same impact assessable childcare centre. The first emails the council a paragraph about traffic and noise, unsigned, with no address, three days after the notified period closed. The second lodges within the period through the channel named in the notice, gives her full name and residential address, and sets out two grounds — the traffic generation against the relevant code's performance outcome, and the acoustic impact on her bedroom windows against the overlay code — each with the facts relied on. Both submissions are read and considered; the assessment report addresses both sets of concerns. The application is approved. Only the second neighbour is an eligible submitter, and only she has 20 business days to take it to the Planning and Environment Court. The difference was not the strength of the concern. It was the date, the signature, the address and the facts.

The statutory basis

Public notification and submissions are governed by the Planning Act 2016 (Qld). Section 53 requires public notification of an impact assessable development application and sets the minimum submission period: at least 15 business days after the notice is given, or at least 30 business days where the application includes a variation request, with a longer period where prescribed by regulation. Section 53(5) starts the period the day after the last notice where the development assessment rules require notice in more than one way, and section 53(6) allows any person other than the applicant or a referral agency to make a submission.

“Properly made submission” is defined in Schedule 2 of the Act: signed in hard copy by each submission-maker or given electronically in the way stated in the notice, received during the period fixed for making the submission, stating the name and residential or business address of all submission-makers, and stating its grounds and the facts and circumstances relied on to support them. “Submitter” means a person who makes a properly made submission, and “eligible submitter” adds that the submission was not withdrawn before the application was decided and that the submitter has not given notice they will not appeal.

Appeal rights are in section 229 and Schedule 1. Schedule 1 Table 2 item 2 allows an eligible submitter to appeal a decision to approve an application, to the Planning and Environment Court, to the extent the decision relates to a part of the application that required impact assessment or to a variation request. Section 229(3)(h) sets the appeal period at 20 business days after notice of the decision is given to the person; section 229(3)(b) allows an appeal against a deemed refusal at any time after it happens. These provisions were read from the Planning Act 2016 as current at 3 September 2026. This page is general information about the process, not advice on a particular application.

Planning Act 2016 (Qld) s 53(4), (5)

Submission period — at least 15 business days, or at least 30 where the application includes a variation request

Planning Act 2016 (Qld), Sch 2 — “properly made submission”

Signed, in time, naming every submission-maker and their address, and stating grounds plus the facts and circumstances relied on

Planning Act 2016 (Qld), Sch 1 Table 2 item 2

An eligible submitter may appeal a decision to approve, so far as it relates to impact assessment or a variation request

Planning Act 2016 (Qld) s 229(3)(h)

The appeal period — 20 business days after notice of the decision is given to the person

Planning Act 2016 (Qld) s 229(3)(b)

An appeal against a deemed refusal may be started at any time after the deemed refusal happens

Planning Act 2016 (Qld) s 53(6)

Any person other than the applicant or a referral agency may make a submission

Frequently asked questions

What is a properly made submission in Queensland?

A submission meeting every element of the Schedule 2 definition in the Planning Act 2016: signed in hard copy by each person making it or given electronically in the way the notice states, received during the submission period, stating the name and residential or business address of all of them, and stating its grounds and the facts and circumstances relied on to support those grounds. Meeting all of it is what preserves your right to appeal an approval.

How long do I have to make a submission?

The notice states the day submissions close, and that date governs. The Act sets the minimum: at least 15 business days after the notice is given, or at least 30 business days where the application includes a variation request. Where the assessment rules require notice in more than one way, the period starts the day after the last notice is given, and councils may allow longer than the minimum.

Can I appeal if the development is approved?

Yes, if you are an eligible submitter — which means your submission was properly made, you did not withdraw it before the application was decided, and you have not told the assessment manager you will not appeal. The appeal goes to the Planning and Environment Court, within 20 business days after notice of the decision is given to you. It is limited to the extent the decision relates to a part of the application that required impact assessment, or to a variation request.

Why wasn't I notified about the development next door?

Most likely because the application was code assessable rather than impact assessable. Only impact assessable applications are publicly notified in Queensland, so a proposal that sits consistently within its zone generally proceeds without any public notice or submission stage. Ask the assessment manager which category the application fell into — it determines whether you had any role at all.

What happens if my submission misses one of the requirements?

The assessment manager will usually still read and consider it, so your concerns are not wasted. What is lost is the appeal right, and it is lost silently — nobody tells you at the time. You discover it when the approval issues and you go to lodge an appeal. That is why the formal elements are worth getting right even when they feel like bureaucracy.

What counts as a valid ground in Queensland?

A ground tied to an assessment benchmark: the zone code, any overlay codes triggered by the site's mapping, the development codes and the strategic framework, argued against the relevant performance or acceptable outcomes and overall outcomes. Property value, the applicant's identity, commercial competition and construction-period disruption are not benchmarks and cannot be acted on.

Do more submissions produce a better outcome?

Not directly — the assessment manager weighs the application against the benchmarks, not the headcount. What matters is that each submission is properly made and argues against a benchmark, because that is both what carries weight in the assessment and what preserves each submitter's own appeal right.

What does it cost to object?

Making a submission to the assessment manager is free. Appealing to the Planning and Environment Court attracts the Court's own filing fees. What we charge for is the writing — taking your concerns and the notified proposal and returning a submission that satisfies the properly-made requirements and argues the grounds against the benchmarks, in your own name.

Objection submission from $99 — ready when you are

A submission to the assessment manager written in your name — the formal requirements satisfied, and your grounds argued against the benchmarks that apply to the site.

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