Planning Act 2016
LegislationReferenced in 36 bills
Vegetation Management and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2018
This bill reinstates stronger vegetation clearing laws in Queensland, reversing changes made in 2013 that loosened protections. It ends broadscale clearing of remnant vegetation for agriculture, extends protections for regrowth vegetation to freehold and Indigenous land, protects waterways in all Great Barrier Reef catchments, and significantly increases penalties for illegal clearing.
Local Government Electoral (Implementing Stage 1 of Belcarra) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2018
This bill bans political donations from property developers to politicians and political parties at both State and local government levels in Queensland. It also strengthens the rules for how local councillors must declare and manage conflicts of interest. The reforms implement the Government's response to the Crime and Corruption Commission's Operation Belcarra report, which investigated corruption risks in local government following the 2016 council elections.
Building Industry Fairness (Security of Payment) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2020
This bill reforms Queensland's building industry payment protections and regulatory framework. It replaces Project Bank Accounts with a simplified statutory trust system to protect subcontractor payments, strengthens the QBCC's ability to address fraud, introduces a demerit point system for building certifiers, enhances oversight of architects and engineers, and preserves review rights for retirement village transition plans.
Fisheries (Sustainable Fisheries Strategy) Amendment Bill 2018
This bill overhauls Queensland's fisheries laws to implement the Sustainable Fisheries Strategy 2017-2027. It introduces harvest strategies as the main tool for managing fish stocks, cracks down on the illegal sale of fish (black marketing) with new trafficking offences and stronger inspector powers, and formally recognises charter fishing and traditional fishing as distinct sectors.
Mineral and Energy Resources and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2020
This bill makes wide-ranging changes across Queensland's mining, energy and water sectors. It introduces industrial manslaughter offences for the resources industry, strengthens financial assurance requirements to prevent mining companies from abandoning sites without proper rehabilitation, streamlines resource authority approval processes, extends energy consumer protections, and increases transparency of water infrastructure charges in South East Queensland.
Building and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2022
This bill modernises Queensland's building and construction laws across several areas. It strengthens homeowners' rights to install solar panels free from aesthetic restrictions by developers and body corporates, expands the use of treated greywater in large buildings, improves subcontractor payment protections, and gives the Queensland Building and Construction Commission stronger regulatory and enforcement powers.
Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games Arrangements and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024
This bill bundles changes across five unrelated policy areas: restructuring the Brisbane 2032 Olympics governance authority, repealing Queensland's Path to Treaty Act to end the First Nations Treaty Institute and Truth-telling Inquiry, winding back workplace health and safety entry powers for union officials, clarifying planning powers for State Facilitated Development declarations, and strengthening the independence of the Public Sector Commissioner.
Police Service Administration and Other Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2022
This bill amends several Acts to improve operations for the Queensland Police Service and Queensland Fire and Emergency Services. It reforms the police discipline system, introduces automatic dismissal for officers sentenced to imprisonment, strengthens protections for confidential police information, streamlines weapons licensing, and modernises fire and emergency services legislation.
Greenhouse Gas Storage Amendment Bill 2025
This bill allows disused greenhouse gas exploration wells to be converted into water supply bores and given to rural landholders for free. After Queensland banned carbon storage in the Great Artesian Basin in 2024, the company CTSCo was left with wells that would normally be plugged and abandoned. This bill instead lets those wells be repurposed as a useful water resource for farming.
Major Sports Facilities and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025
This bill updates Queensland's major sports facilities and major events laws. It removes liquor licensing barriers so Gold Coast stadiums can host concerts until 10:30pm like Suncorp Stadium, significantly increases penalties for ticket scalping, modernises the Stadiums Queensland board, and improves the flexibility of event regulation. The bill was passed with amendment.
Major Sports Facilities and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025
This bill makes several changes to Queensland's major sports facilities and major events laws. It allows Gold Coast stadiums to host concerts until 10:30pm (matching Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane), significantly increases penalties for ticket scalping, modernises Stadiums Queensland's board governance, and updates advertising restrictions to cover drones.
Natural Resources and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2019
This bill makes a broad range of amendments across the Natural Resources, Mines and Energy portfolio. It caps mining exploration permits at 15 years, strengthens rural water compliance with higher penalties, simplifies Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land processes, modernises water authority board governance to improve gender balance, and supports the establishment of CleanCo as a new clean energy electricity generator.
Implementation of The Spit Master Plan Bill 2019
This bill enables the Queensland Government to implement The Spit Master Plan, a 2019 vision for transforming The Spit on the Gold Coast into improved public spaces with better community facilities and connections to The Broadwater. It backs the plan with $60 million in State funding and gives the Gold Coast Waterways Authority new powers to deliver capital works projects.
COVID-19 Emergency Response Bill 2020
This bill was Queensland's second emergency legislative response to the COVID-19 pandemic, passed in April 2020. It created temporary powers to protect residential and commercial tenants from eviction, enabled Parliament and courts to operate remotely, established a Small Business Commissioner, and allowed legal documents to be witnessed electronically. All provisions expired on 31 December 2020.
Public-Private Partnership (Transparency and Accountability) Bill 2024
This bill would have required the Queensland Government to be more open about Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) used to deliver major infrastructure. It responded to Queensland Audit Office findings that the public has limited visibility into whether these deals represent value for money, and to the Coaldrake review's recommendations about government transparency. The bill lapsed at the end of the 57th Parliament and did not become law.
Police Powers and Responsibilities and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024
This bill updates search and forensic procedure safeguards across Queensland law to recognise gender diversity, following the passage of the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 2023. It replaces sex-based requirements with gender-responsive ones, giving people being searched the right to express a gender preference. The bill also restricts how often prisoners can reapply for parole after refusal, expands who can assess at-risk prisoners, and clarifies planning rules for corrective services facilities.
Forest Wind Farm Development Bill 2020
This bill enables the construction and operation of a major wind farm of up to 226 turbines in Queensland State forests, and separately fixes planning controls for the Springfield development area in Ipswich. The wind farm component creates special tenure arrangements that override forestry and land laws to allow a $2 billion renewable energy project to coexist with existing plantation forestry in the Toolara, Tuan and Neerdie State forests.
Economic Development and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024
This bill transforms Economic Development Queensland (EDQ) from a primarily commercial development agency into one with an explicit mandate to deliver social and affordable housing. It gives EDQ new powers to acquire land, impose housing requirements on developers, invest in property assets, and lead coordinated urban renewal through new Place Renewal Areas. The bill also restructures EDQ as a more independent entity with its own CEO, board, and employing office.
Environmental Protection (Efficiency and Streamlining) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025
This bill reforms Queensland's environmental regulation to reduce red tape and improve responsiveness. It introduces a new risk-based system for classifying and regulating environmentally relevant activities, streamlines environmental impact assessments, strengthens groundwater protections for bore owners, and creates a single permit for tourism operators working across multiple public land tenures.
Economic Development and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2018
This bill updates a wide range of planning, development and disaster recovery laws in Queensland. It modernises how Priority Development Areas are managed and enforced, adjusts Building Queensland's business case thresholds, expands the Queensland Reconstruction Authority's role to cover all types of natural disasters, and makes numerous improvements to the planning framework.
Public Health and Other Legislation (Public Health Emergency) Amendment Bill 2020
This bill gave the Queensland Government broad emergency powers to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. It strengthened the Chief Health Officer's ability to issue enforceable public health directions, introduced on-the-spot fines for non-compliance, provided flexibility for elections and planning processes, and allowed Executive Council meetings to be held remotely. Most emergency provisions included a one-year sunset clause.
Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games Arrangements Amendment Bill 2024
This bill establishes the Games Venue and Legacy Delivery Authority, a new statutory body to build and deliver venues, monitor athlete villages, and coordinate government responsibilities for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The authority operates at arms-length from government with an independent board, but the State guarantees any financial shortfall when it is wound up after the Games.
Land and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2022
This bill makes a broad range of administrative and streamlining amendments to Queensland's land, resources and environmental legislation. It modernises outdated processes, improves state land management, reforms stock route governance, and updates how vegetation management data is maintained.
Integrity and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023
This bill strengthens Queensland's integrity and anti-corruption framework by implementing recommendations from Professor Peter Coaldrake's review of public sector culture and the Yearbury review of the Integrity Commissioner. It overhauls lobbying regulation, boosts the independence of five core integrity bodies, and extends the Ombudsman's reach to cover non-government organisations delivering public services.
Public Health and Other Legislation (Further Extension of Expiring Provisions) Amendment Bill 2021
This bill extends Queensland's temporary COVID-19 emergency laws from 30 September 2021 to 30 April 2022. It keeps in place the Chief Health Officer's powers to issue public health directions, require quarantine, and restrict movement, while also reforming the quarantine fee system to allow prepayment by prescribed traveller cohorts and third-party liability for fees.
Agriculture and Fisheries and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023
This bill makes sweeping changes across Queensland's agriculture, fisheries and animal management laws. It bans dangerous dog breeds, introduces statewide dog control rules with tough penalties including imprisonment, sets up camera and observer monitoring on commercial fishing boats to protect the Great Barrier Reef, strengthens biosecurity emergency powers, and reforms several other agricultural and animal welfare laws.
Criminal Code (Decriminalising Sex Work) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024
This bill decriminalises sex work in Queensland by repealing the Prostitution Act 1999 and removing sex-work-specific criminal offences. Based on the Queensland Law Reform Commission's 47 recommendations, it replaces the existing brothel licensing system with a framework that treats sex work like any other lawful occupation, while introducing tough new offences to protect children from exploitation and prevent coercion.
Mineral, Water and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2018
This bill makes wide-ranging changes to Queensland's mineral resources and water management laws. It improves dispute resolution between landholders and resource companies, requires climate change to be explicitly considered in water planning, recognises Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural values in water plans, and gives the government new emergency powers to address urgent water quality problems.
Plumbing and Drainage Bill 2018
This bill replaces Queensland's Plumbing and Drainage Act 2002 with a modernised framework that simplifies plumbing approvals, strengthens penalties for unlicensed work, and introduces a new licence for mechanical services workers including those installing hospital gas systems. It consolidates all technical plumbing standards into a single code and gives local governments updated enforcement powers.
Nature Conservation (Special Wildlife Reserves) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2018
This bill creates a new type of protected area called a 'special wildlife reserve' for privately owned or managed land with outstanding conservation value. It gives private land the same level of legal protection as a national park, banning mining, forestry, and fossicking while keeping the land in private ownership. The bill also ensures conservation agreements survive changes in land tenure and extends environmental regulation to cover activities straddling state and Commonwealth waters in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.
Land and Other Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2023
This bill makes wide-ranging changes to how Queensland manages state land, names places, and enforces rates payments by resource companies. It streamlines land administration processes, modernises the place naming framework to enable faster removal of offensive names and smooth transitions to new names like K'gari, and requires petroleum, gas, and geothermal companies to pay local government rates as a condition of their resource authorities.
Planning and Other Legislation (Make Developers Pay) Amendment Bill 2023
This bill would have removed state-imposed caps on infrastructure charges that local governments can levy on property developers. It lapsed at the end of the 57th Parliament and did not become law. Introduced by Greens MP Michael Berkman, it aimed to give councils the flexibility to charge developers the true cost of providing infrastructure like parks, footpaths, and flood mitigation in growing communities.
Housing Availability and Affordability (Planning and Other Legislation Amendment) Bill 2023
This bill amends Queensland's planning laws to address the housing availability crisis. It gives the State new powers to acquire land for development infrastructure, creates a streamlined 'state facilitated application' process for priority housing developments, introduces an Urban Investigation Zone to manage growth areas, modernises outdated Development Control Plans, reduces red tape for urban encroachment registrations, and updates various operational aspects of the planning framework.
Planning (Social Impact and Community Benefit) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025
This bill introduces a community benefit system requiring developers of prescribed projects (initially renewable energy developments) to assess social impacts and negotiate agreements with local governments before lodging planning applications. It also restructures the governance and delivery framework for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and makes administrative changes to Economic Development Queensland.
Local Government Electoral (Implementing Stage 2 of Belcarra) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2019
This bill implements the second stage of reforms arising from the Crime and Corruption Commission's Operation Belcarra investigation into corruption risks at several Queensland councils. It strengthens donation transparency, overhauls how councillors manage conflicts of interest, expands the State's power to intervene in local government, brings Brisbane City Council under the same rules as other councils, and changes local government elections to full-preferential voting.
Health and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2021
This bill makes broad amendments across Queensland's health legislation, with the most significant changes strengthening rights and protections for mental health patients. It reforms electroconvulsive therapy approval processes, adopts a stronger rights-based approach for patient transfers, improves support for victims of unlawful acts, and expands allied health professionals' access to patient information. It also allows health students to assist in pregnancy terminations and clarifies that human milk is not regulated as human tissue.