Simon and Richard worked with the Capricorn Conservation Council to make a submission on the Environmental Impact Statement of the proposed redevelopment of Great Keppel Island.  Their submission addressed specifically the economic impact assessment carried out by consultants Foresight Partners.  Our key points were:

The assessment has a number of limitations from the source report informing the EIS (by Foresight Partners) relating primarily to:

• the lack of a full cost-benefit analysis undertaken on the project, meaning the economic benefits have been presented and the costs ignored, and
• the inappropriate use of input-output (I-O) modelling using old data providing an assessment of economic impact that is outdated and difficult to have confidence in.

While the economic findings in the EIS are for the most part reasonable in what they present, the omission of a full assessment of both the economic benefits and the costs result in an incomplete economic analysis with the potential for significantly overstating benefits and ignoring costs.

You can read the full submission here.