In Queensland, change of law may derive from several sources:
• federal government
• state government
• local government
• independent regulatory agencies.
In reality, state government has no greater influence with the federal government than a private party.
Similarly, while state government may have initially determined the regulatory regime that is applicable to a project, they may not (without legislation) intrude upon the statutory independence of its regulatory agencies. A similar situation applies to local government, who exercise independent jurisdiction under subordinate legislation pursuant to the Local Government Act 1993.
This means that state government is not in the position it is often perceived to be, to control change of law risk.
Government does not assume all change in state law risk simply because the changes relate to state-controlled laws. As a general position, government will only assume the risk of changes to state law that are discriminatory - that is, where such changes are directed specifically or exclusively to the particular project. Furthermore, for the reasons discussed above, government generally does not accept the risk of change in federal or local government laws or other regulatory requirements.