According to the available data on NEATS, PEP-11's application...

According to the available data on NEATS, PEP-11's application which was lodged in a valid state on the 23/01/2020, is the application with the most days spent in the Joint Authority for Decision status of all the progressing and completed applications over the last 12months from today. https://public.neats.nopta.gov.au/ApplicationTracking

Common sense would tell you that the next application which requires a 'Joint Authority' decision would be PEP-11. However, as we have seen, there have been 23 other applications which have enjoyed special preferential treatment over the top of PEP-11 and they were granted an approval as seen here: 55628393. There is no more action NOPTA can take on PEP-11's January 2020 application until the Joint Authority have made their decision. This means the Joint Authority are the ones that are delaying PEP-11's progress. I believe this delay is on purpose and the only explanation falls to those who are intimately involved in the political process:

"...I think because the Nationals federally are really no longer the party for rural and regional and farmers, they are really the fossil fuel and mining party, umm, and they do that at all costs, so yes, there is a fear, that the reason why Keith Pitt has not ruled out PEP-11 is because this is part of their horse trade and is a little bit of you know, ‘a you can’t tell me what to do, I’m in Queensland and I’m going to ruin your coast down there’. So, I think there is a bit of a power play going on..." Zali Steggall said (STOP PEP-11: Northern Beaches Virtual Town Hall Tuesday, 17 August 2021)

' “So he’s trying to wait until after the next election and slip it through,” Mr Conroy said.' (https://www.2hd.com.au/2021/08/12/license-limbo-still-no-decision-on-pep11/)

"The longer this goes on for, the more likely that they will, the minister will approve it." -Bruce Robertston (Northern Beaches Townhall)

"...I think the time frames we are dealing with here with PEP-11 are much shorter than that so I’m focused on the here and now..." and "...How it works is the license is expiring or has just expired, so obviously when a license is still in effect without appropriating someones property or having to compensate them, you can't cancel a license..." -Dave Sharma (STOP PEP-11: Eastern Suburbs Virtual Town Hall Wednesday, 18 August 2021)

I am pretty sure Dave Sharma also suggested in August 2021 that he thought Keith Pitt would decide on PEP-11 in the coming months, but I fail to remember where he said that. (will update this thread if I can find it later).