APPENDIX O Social Impact Assessment Technical Report NORTH STAR TO NSW/QUEENSLAND BORDER ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT 0 INLAND RAIL Inland Rail North Star to Border Project Appendix O: Social Impact Assessment Technical Report Inland Rail: North Star to NSW/Queensland Border Social Impact Assessment Prepared for and in association with: Future Freight Joint Venture Level 8, 540 Wickham Street Fortitude Valley QLD 4006 PO Box 1307 Fortitude Valley QLD 4006 Australia T +61 7 3553 2000 F +61 7 3553 2050 Prepared by: Elliott Whiteing Pty. Ltd. PO Box 77 Cooroy, QLD 4563 1 Table of Contents Summary .................................................................................................................................4 1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................15 1.1 Purpose of the Social Impact Assessment ......................................................................... 15 1.2 Area of influence ................................................................................................................. 15 2 Legislation, policy and guidelines ................................................................................17 2.1 Environmental Planning and Assessment Act ................................................................... 17 2.2 Guidelines ........................................................................................................................... 19 2.3 Regional and Council plans ................................................................................................ 21 3 Methodology ...................................................................................................................26 3.1 Stakeholder engagement ................................................................................................... 26 3.2 Scoping ............................................................................................................................... 27 3.3 Social baseline.................................................................................................................... 28 3.4 Impact assessment ............................................................................................................. 28 3.5 Social Impact Management Plan ........................................................................................ 33 3.6 Data quality ......................................................................................................................... 33 4 Proposal description and SIA Scope ............................................................................35 4.1 Current situation ................................................................................................................. 35 4.2 Proposal history .................................................................................................................. 35 4.3 Proposal description ........................................................................................................... 35 4.4 Social Impact Assessment scope ....................................................................................... 39 4.5 Areas of social influence..................................................................................................... 47 5 Social environment ........................................................................................................53 5.1 Surroundings and property ................................................................................................. 53 5.2 Communities ....................................................................................................................... 59 5.3 Housing and accommodation ............................................................................................. 71 5.4 Community values .............................................................................................................. 76 5.5 Employment and industry ................................................................................................... 79 5.6 Social infrastructure ............................................................................................................ 85 5.7 Health and wellbeing .......................................................................................................... 89 6 Stakeholder engagement .............................................................................................103 6.1 EIS engagement process ................................................................................................. 103 6.2 Social Impact Assessment engagement .......................................................................... 104 6.3 Stakeholder issues ........................................................................................................... 106 6.4 Stakeholder inputs on mitigations .................................................................................... 110 7 Potential impacts and benefits ....................................................................................112 7.1 Surroundings .................................................................................................................... 112 7.2 Personal and property rights ............................................................................................ 121 7.3 Community and culture ..................................................................................................... 125 7.4 Employment and Businesses ........................................................................................... 129 7.5 Housing and accommodation ........................................................................................... 136 7.6 Access to services and infrastructure .............................................................................. 139 7.7 Health and wellbeing ........................................................................................................ 142 2 7.8 Impacts of proposal decommissioning ............................................................................. 151 7.9 Cumulative impacts .......................................................................................................... 151 8 Social Impact Management Plan .................................................................................155 8.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 155 8.2 Community and stakeholder engagement ....................................................................... 158 8.3 Workforce management ................................................................................................... 165 8.4 Housing and accommodation ........................................................................................... 168 8.5 Health and community wellbeing ...................................................................................... 171 8.6 Local business and industry participation ........................................................................ 174 8.7 Monitoring and reporting................................................................................................... 177 8.8 SIMP reviews .................................................................................................................... 178 9 Impact assessment ......................................................................................................182 10 Conclusions ..............................................................................................................196 10.1 Distributional equity .......................................................................................................... 196 10.2 Residual risks ................................................................................................................... 197 10.3 Proposal benefits .............................................................................................................. 198 11 References ................................................................................................................200 Annex A - Review Questions ....................................................................................................... 205 Figures Figure 1 Areas of social influence ................................................................................................. 48 Figure 2 Study area and Statistical Area 1 areas ......................................................................... 60 Figure 3 Unemployment Rate (per cent), June Quarter 2016 – June 2019 ................................. 82 Figure 4: Number of unemployed people - LGA and proposal region, June 2016 – June 2019 ... 131 Tables Table 1 Secretary’s Environmental Assessment Requirements – socio-economic, land use and property impacts ................................................................................................................................ 17 Table 2 Social Impact Assessment Guideline principles ............................................................. 19 Table 3 Regional planning context for Social Impact Assessment ............................................. 22 Table 4 Local planning context .................................................................................................... 24 Table 5 Social Impact Assessment engagement objectives ......................................................