Locals are being kept in the dark over a major development in Moreton Bay. 

Developers from the Walker Corporation have lodged plans to build around 3,600 apartments over protected wetlands in Queensland’s Moreton Bay region.

The apartment project is coupled with the redevelopment of parkland, a ferry terminal and a 200-berth marina.

The Redland City Council had claimed that the local community would benefit from $116 million in infrastructure, but only laid out $56 million worth of community infrastructure in an infrastructure agreement. 

So, locals wanted to know where the remaining $60 million was going. 

Queensland’s Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC) agreed in 2018 that the details should be made public under Right to Information (RTI) legislation.

However, following an appeal by the state government and Walker Corporation to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT), the tribunal has ruled that the release of the development agreement including the alleged community benefits would “constitute a breach of confidence”.

Lawyer Andrew Kwan from the Environmental Defenders Office represented the community group behind the push, Redlands2030.

He says that the development agreement with Walker Corporation includes a confidentiality clause that makes the whole agreement exempt from public disclosure laws.

“What this means is the door is essentially shut to any transparency of this and similar development agreements containing confidentiality clauses,” Mr Kwan has told the ABC.

“In turn then, it's almost impossible for the public to understand the purported public benefits of such projects, as against environmental and other costs.

“And an understanding of what those community infrastructure benefits would likely be appears to be an agreement quintessentially in the public interest.”

Walker Corporation has donated tens of thousands of dollars to the Queensland branch of the Labor Party. In its 2018 decision, the OIC said; “In circumstances where Walker [Group] has made large donations to each political party … this significantly furthers the requirement for transparency and accountability in decisions made by government”.

Greens MP for Maiwar, Michael Berkman, says; “It's not good enough in 2021 for us to have secret deals between governments and their donors”.

“For the very community that has the most at stake here to be denied access to this document, it's a sorry state of affairs.

“Knowing how far has the government gone to grease the wheels, simplify the process and make it even more profitable for them – we would have hoped to know any of those sort of terms of the agreement,” Mr Berkman said.

The development has been referred to the Commonwealth for environmental approvals. The Queensland Government is refusing to say how much was  spent on legal fees.