MINING in the Galilee Basin is closer than ever after Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk asked the Coordinator-General to oversee the approvals process for Adani's Carmichael mine.
Ms Palaszczuk said she, like much of the central Queensland community, was "fed up" with approval delays concerning Adani's environmental management plans.
The move negates weeks of commentary from various government officials declaring the Department of Environment and Science overseeing the approvals process would not be rushed into any decisions.
"I'm asking for the two parties, Adani and the independent regulator (Department of Environment and Science) to sit down with the Coordinator-General and I want them to work out a definitive timeframe on decisions around these reports," Ms Palaszczuk said.
Adani is awaiting approval on its groundwater management plan, while the state government rejected its black-throated finch management plan earlier this month.
Rockhampton Regional Council Mayor Margaret Strelow commended the Premier's intervention and said she felt like "doing a victory dance" to mark the occasion but would not hold back on the planned Day of Action on May 24, which seeks to focus attention on neglected regional areas.
She also denied the Premier's announcement was less about appeasing the community and more about damage control after federal Labor's vote was decimated at the election last weekend.
"I want to praise and appreciate the Premier's leadership. It might've been better a little earlier but that took guts," Councillor Strelow said.
"I think she stepped up and copped it on the chin and she said what she needed to say and I couldn't have written a better script myself.
"But our Day of Action will still go on. This was always about more than just Adani. It's about the regions getting a fair go."
Queensland's Minister for State Development, Manufacturing, Infrastructure and Planning Cameron Dick rejected claims public servants had caused unnecessary delays.
"It is easy to criticise public servants but those I have met and dealt with have been most professional. It is also noteworthy mining started in the Bowen Basin in 1936 and we know the geology there, and the water there," Mr Dick said.
"There is no mine in the Galilee so the department was right in ensuing they progressed cautiously. Nonetheless I am delighted the Premier has asked the Coordinator-General to meet with the two proponents."
Similarly, Rockhampton-based MP Barry O'Rourke said Ms Palaszczuk's action was to be applauded.
Senator Matt Canavan, who was the Minister for Resources in the previous federal government, said Ms Palaszczuk should meet with Adani rather than the course of action she was undertaking.
"They have been working on this Adani mine for eight years, they've had the management plans that are in contention at the moment for the past 18 months," Mr Canavan said.
"The Premier has to just approve the mine. No more talk Annastacia, just approve the mine."
"If the Premier says she is fed up with the lack of progress with Adani, the Premier needs to answer, how long has she been fed up with her own government and why hasn't she done something about it before today.
"And what she is saying today, is not very much at all ... she is saying she wants to have a meeting ... the Premier has announced today that the solution to jobs in north and central Queensland is to have a meeting."
Adani CEO Lucas Dow, hopeful the announcement was not a red herring, warned a lag of more than two weeks would be nothing more than another delaying tactic.
"We have been asking for clarity of process and timing from the Queensland Labor government in relation to the approvals of our outstanding management plans for more than seven months," Mr Dow said.
"Any timeframe for a decision on these outstanding management plans longer than the next two weeks is nothing more than another delaying tactic by the Queensland Labor government designed to delay thousands of jobs for regional Queenslanders.
"The Queensland Labor government has been reviewing these management plans for over two years now.
"We have been put through the highest level of scrutiny on these plans, and overcome every hurdle along the way and these plans have been approved at the federal level already.
"It is time to get the Carmichael Project done."