Land, Explosives and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2017
Plain English Summary
Overview
This bill is an omnibus package that makes changes across nine Queensland laws in the natural resources and mines portfolio. It strengthens explosives security, modernises gas safety, protects two Cape York properties from mining, gives Indigenous communities more flexibility over land and social housing, and updates state land compliance powers and property titling.
Who it affects
Explosives workers, gas industry workers and companies, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, people buying or selling property, state land lessees, and Traditional Owners of the Shelburne Bay and Bromley properties on Cape York.
Indigenous land and housing
Makes it easier for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to have their own corporation hold land, and opens up new ways to price social housing in discrete communities.
- A Registered Native Title Body Corporate can be granted or transferred land even where native title has not been formally determined
- The price of a social housing dwelling on Indigenous land can be set by agreement between the housing department and the trustee, not just by a valuation methodology
Cape York protection
Permanently locks in current protections against mining, petroleum and gas activity at Shelburne Bay and Bromley on Cape York Peninsula.
- No mining, petroleum or gas interest can be applied for or granted over the specified parcels of Aboriginal freehold land at Shelburne Bay (Wuthathi) and Bromley
- Any undecided applications for mining interests over the protected land are taken to have been withdrawn
Explosives security
Creates a new security clearance system for people who handle explosives and introduces automatic licence consequences for respondents to domestic violence orders.
- New 5-year security clearance required before you can access security-sensitive explosives
- Licence or security clearance is automatically suspended or cancelled if you become a respondent to a domestic violence order, police protection notice or release conditions
- New offences with penalties up to 200 penalty units for things like contempt of a board of inquiry or not reporting incidents
- Privilege against self-incrimination is removed for explosives incident investigations (with evidential immunity safeguards)
Land Act compliance
Authorised officers get a modern suite of inspection and enforcement powers, and the State gets clear tools to deal with dangerous or unwanted buildings on state land.
- New entry, search, seizure, document production and vehicle-stopping powers for authorised officers
- Safety notices allow the State to require dangerous structures on state land to be repaired, fenced off or demolished
- If the occupier does not act, the State can do the work and recover costs as a debt
- Failure to comply with a compliance notice attracts penalties up to 400 penalty units
Paper title and e-conveyancing
Removes the legal effect of paper certificates of title to clear the way for electronic conveyancing.
- Paper certificates of title lose legal effect from 1 July 2019
- Regulation-making power allows mandatory use of the Electronic Lodgement Network for lodging instruments
Gas safety
Modernises gas safety regulation, including who can be an operator, how safety information is reported, and how gas devices are approved.
- Confirms a gas operating plant operator can be a corporation, not just an individual
- Replaces annual safety reports with real-time information notices about operating plant
- Creates a transparent statutory process for appointing gas device approval authorities
- Consolidates LPG delivery, bulk fuel storage and cylinder storage into one 'fuel gas delivery network' category
Abandoned gas plant and overlapping tenure
Creates a process for dealing with gas operating plant left behind with no tenure or environmental authority, and tidies up the coal and coal seam gas overlapping tenure framework.
- Chief executive can authorise a person to enter land and remediate abandoned gas plant
- Clarifies arbitration scope and transitional provisions for overlapping coal and coal seam gas tenures
Other land and property changes
Aligns the foreign land ownership register with the Duties Act and lets certain marine leases on regulated islands become rolling term leases.
- 'Foreign person' definitions aligned with Duties Act 2001
- Marine term leases tied by covenant to a tourism lease on regulated islands can become rolling term leases
Bill Journey
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Sectors Affected
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