Somers said she looks forward to monitoring the unfolding discussion on a uniform system for the integrated planning act in Queensland and the growth in affordable housing. The UK has already undergone some of these changes, she said.

“I think Queensland is responding to the number of people who are moving up here per week, plus you have climate change, development pressures and what’s happening in the money markets,” said Somers. 

“I feel like I have come back to a system [in Australia] that is very much interested in how it is going to progress and become better,” she said in an interview.

Meanwhile, Annie Smeaton also joins Cooper Grace Ward as senior associate of employment and workplace relations practice.

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Smeaton has experience drawn from private practice firms and representation to government agencies such as the Queensland Government and the Department of Justice and Attorney General.