General News
17 June, 2026
New moves to cut red tape
A NEW development and investment incentive policy for the Cairns region will enable Cairns Regional Council to use discretionary powers to influence where and when a project can begin.
The move would allow council to seek out areas where it wants capital development and provide in principle support to the developer to get the project moving.
A key feature of the new policy was the introduction of targeted infrastructure charge waivers to improve project viability and investment attractiveness.
In adopting the policy at the council meeting in May, councillors agreed to scrap its deferred payment of levied charges policy, which allowed developers to defer payment of infrastructure charges.
Council heard the policy had little impact and little uptake from the industry because of the changing nature of land sales “off the plan”.
It was also not an investment “incentive”, but a deferment of payment.
The policy had also caused internal issues for council staff, through drawn out administration requirements and had created an overall risk to council of non-payment and non-compliance issues.
The new policy simplified the council’s approach to development, by allowing infrastructure charge waivers to speed up development across Cairns, in particular, the CBD, Gordonvale and Babinda across housing and industry. The policy also required that to “access incentives”, developers had to “substantially” commence construction within two years and to ensure at least 80% of the construction workforce was local.
The policy was developed through consultation with industry over five weeks from April last year.
Cairns Mayor Amy Eden said the new approach would be simpler, more effective and better targeted.
“I particularly welcome the focus on encouraging activation within areas such as the Cairns CBD, Gordonvale and Babinda, while also supporting stronger in-fill residential development and more diverse housing outcomes,” she said. “This is about encouraging real projects, real investment and real economic outcomes for the Cairns community.”
