Environmental Protection Act 1994
LegislationReferenced in 55 bills
Education (Accreditation of Non-State Schools) Bill 2017
This bill replaces Queensland's 2001 law on non-State school accreditation with a modernised framework. It streamlines how independent and Catholic schools become accredited, gives the Non-State Schools Accreditation Board responsibility for deciding government funding eligibility, and strengthens inspection and investigation powers.
Vegetation Management and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2018
This bill reinstates and strengthens Queensland's vegetation clearing laws, delivering on the government's election commitment to end broadscale tree clearing. It removes the ability to clear remnant vegetation for agriculture, extends regrowth protections to freehold and indigenous land, expands watercourse protections to all Great Barrier Reef catchments, and significantly increases penalties for unlawful clearing.
Strong and Sustainable Resource Communities Bill 2016
This bill requires large mining and gas projects in Queensland to share the benefits with the regional towns near them. It bans future projects from staffing their entire operational workforce as fly-in fly-out (FIFO), makes it illegal to discriminate against local residents when hiring, and requires every project to do a social impact assessment. It also permanently bans underground coal gasification (UCG), a controversial gas-extraction method.
Waste Reduction and Recycling (Waste Levy) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2018
This bill introduces a waste disposal levy in Queensland, starting at $70 per tonne from 4 March 2019, to discourage sending waste to landfill and boost recycling. The levy funds a $100 million Resource Recovery Industry Development Program and stops Queensland being used as a cheap dumping ground for interstate waste.
Fisheries (Sustainable Fisheries Strategy) Amendment Bill 2018
This bill overhauls Queensland's fisheries management by introducing harvest strategies as the key tool for managing fish stocks, strengthening enforcement against black marketing of seafood, and formally recognising charter fishing and Indigenous fishing in the law. It implements the Queensland Sustainable Fisheries Strategy 2017-2027, backed by $20.9 million in funding for better monitoring, compliance and stakeholder engagement.
Planning and Development (Planning for Prosperity) Bill 2015
This bill was a complete rewrite of Queensland's planning laws, aimed at replacing the 700-page Sustainable Planning Act 2009 with a simpler, faster system. It simplified development categories, cut State planning instruments from four to two, increased maximum fines for illegal development to over $500,000, and gave councils new powers over party houses. The bill was introduced by the Newman LNP government shortly before the 2015 election and did not pass; Queensland's planning system was instead replaced by the Labor government's Planning Act 2016.
Planning and Development (Planning for Prosperity—Consequential Amendments) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2015
This bill changes 67 Queensland Acts so they line up with a proposed new planning system (the Planning and Development Bill 2015 and Planning and Environment Court Bill 2015) that would have replaced the Sustainable Planning Act 2009. Most changes are technical — swapping old planning terms for new ones — but the bill also streamlines environmental approvals for major coordinated projects and clarifies the Coordinator-General's power to authorise entry onto land in State Development Areas such as the Galilee Basin.
Mineral and Energy Resources and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2020
This bill makes wide-ranging changes to Queensland's resources, energy, and water laws. It introduces industrial manslaughter offences for the mining and resources sector, reforms how the State manages mine rehabilitation and abandoned mines, tightens scrutiny of who can hold resource authorities, extends energy consumer protections, and increases transparency of water infrastructure charges in South East Queensland.
Water Legislation (Dam Safety) Amendment Bill 2016
This bill updates Queensland's dam safety laws after community concerns about how flood releases from Callide Dam and Wivenhoe Dam were handled in 2015. It makes dam owners responsible for warning downstream communities (not just notifying them), gets local councils more involved in checking dam emergency plans, and lets dam owners lower water levels when engineers find safety risks. It also cuts red tape for small dam owners and reduces overlap with workplace and mining safety laws.
Sustainable Ports Development Bill 2015
This bill protects the Great Barrier Reef by tightly controlling port development along the Queensland coast. It confines new port facilities and capital dredging to four priority ports (Abbot Point, Gladstone, Hay Point/Mackay and Townsville) and bans sea dumping of port dredge spoil in the World Heritage Area. Each priority port must have a long-term master plan and a port overlay that sets consistent rules across local planning schemes.
North Stradbroke Island Protection and Sustainability and Others Acts Amendment Bill 2015
This bill reverses 2013 changes that had extended sand mining on North Stradbroke Island (Minjerribah) out to 2035, restoring the original plan to end mining substantially by 2019. It also creates a new power for former mine operators across Queensland to re-enter land to finish rehabilitation after their mining leases expire.
Payroll Tax Rebate, Revenue and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2015
This bill is an omnibus package that amends nine Acts. Its centrepiece is a 25 per cent payroll tax rebate on apprentice and trainee wages for three years, backed by $45 million. It also sets up the legal framework for electronic property conveyancing, creates a stamp duty concession for mining exploration farm-in deals, delays anti-bikie licensing rules by 12 months, and requires licensed plumbers to install water meters.
Environmental Protection (Great Barrier Reef Protection Measures) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2019
This bill strengthens protections for the Great Barrier Reef by toughening regulations on agricultural and industrial activities that contribute to poor water quality. It expands mandatory farming standards across all Reef catchments and introduces a national approach to classifying threatened species in Queensland.
Nature Conservation and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2015
This bill rolls back several 2013 changes to Queensland's nature conservation laws to strengthen protection of national parks. It restores 'conservation of nature' as the sole purpose of the Nature Conservation Act 1992, brings back three distinct classes of protected area with their own management rules, and restores the requirement for public consultation before management plans are changed.
Greenhouse Gas Storage Amendment Bill 2025
This bill allows greenhouse gas exploration wells in the Great Artesian Basin to be converted into water supply bores for local landholders, rather than being plugged and abandoned. It was introduced after the 2024 ban on greenhouse gas storage in the Great Artesian Basin ended the only exploration permit (EPQ10), held by CTSCo, leaving several wells that need to be decommissioned.
Major Sports Facilities and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025
This bill updates Queensland's laws for major sports facilities and events. It allows Gold Coast stadiums to host concerts until 10:30pm by removing restrictive liquor licensing noise conditions, increases penalties for ticket scalping, and modernises the governance of the Stadiums Queensland board.
Waste Reduction and Recycling (Strengthening the Container Refund Scheme) Amendment Bill 2026
This bill overhauls the governance of Queensland's Container Refund Scheme — the 10-cent bottle and can return program — following a parliamentary inquiry that found significant weaknesses in how the scheme is run. It gives the government much stronger oversight of the scheme coordinator (currently Container Exchange), requires an independent board majority, and expands the scheme's purpose to include supporting environmental and community programs.
Natural Resources and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2019
This bill makes wide-ranging amendments across the Natural Resources, Mines and Energy portfolio. It reforms mineral and petroleum exploration permits with a 15-year cap, strengthens water compliance penalties, introduces dispute resolution for state land sublease disputes, streamlines Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land administration, and supports the establishment of CleanCo as a government-owned clean energy generator.
COVID-19 Emergency Response and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2020
This bill extends Queensland's COVID-19 emergency response legislation from 31 December 2020 to 30 April 2021, keeping in place temporary measures across tenancy, court proceedings, health, and other areas. It also reforms by-election procedures during the pandemic, allows artisan distillers to sell spirits directly to the public, changes how local government councillor vacancies are filled, and bolsters youth detention centre staffing powers.
Regional Planning Interests (Condamine Alluvium) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2026
This bill protects the Condamine Alluvium, a large underground water aquifer in southern Queensland's Darling Downs, from potential harm caused by coal seam gas (CSG) extraction. It introduces mandatory water quality conditions for new CSG wells, expands landholder compensation rights for ground subsidence, and requires gas companies to get landholder agreement before drilling directional wells.
Mineral and Energy Resources (Financial Provisioning) Bill 2017
This bill creates a new pooled Financial Provisioning Scheme that makes mining companies share the cost of protecting Queensland from unrehabilitated mine sites. It also requires every mine to prepare a binding Progressive Rehabilitation and Closure Plan with enforceable milestones, audited every three years.
Land Access Ombudsman Bill 2017
This bill sets up a new independent Land Access Ombudsman to help landholders and resource companies resolve disputes about the agreements that govern mining, petroleum and gas activity on private land. It also gives the Land Court power to decide these disputes and preserves technical mining rules that were due to expire.
Property Law Bill 2023
This bill replaces Queensland's nearly 50-year-old Property Law Act 1974 with a modernised framework for property transactions. It introduces a statutory seller disclosure scheme requiring sellers to provide standardised information to buyers before contract signing, facilitates electronic conveyancing and electronic deeds, and simplifies rules governing mortgages, leases, co-ownership, and trusts.
Mineral and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2016
This bill reverses a set of yet-to-commence changes to Queensland's resource laws that would have reduced the public's right to object to mining projects and weakened protections for farmers and rural landholders. It restores community objection rights in the Land Court, writes protections for homes, schools and key farm infrastructure into primary legislation, and removes ministerial powers to grant mining leases over land without the landholder's consent.
Mineral, Water and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2017
This bill reshapes how Queensland landholders and resource companies resolve disputes over mining and gas activity on private land, and modernises water planning laws to address climate change, First Nations cultural values, and urgent water quality emergencies. It bundles these changes with a large set of streamlining amendments to eight resource and water Acts.
Waste Reduction and Recycling and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023
This bill modernises Queensland's waste laws by embedding the circular economy principle, banning outdoor balloon releases, removing the clean earth levy exemption, and requiring local councils to be transparent about how they spend waste levy payments. It was passed with amendment.
Environmental Protection (Efficiency and Streamlining) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025
This bill overhauls Queensland's environmental regulation across multiple domains. It introduces ERA codes as a simpler way to regulate lower-risk environmental activities, creates a single tourism permission for operators working across parks and forests, strengthens enforcement powers for environmental and koala habitat offences, and improves protections for bore owners affected by resource operations.
Economic Development and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2018
This bill makes wide-ranging changes to Queensland's planning, development and disaster management laws. It streamlines how priority development areas are managed, updates Building Queensland's infrastructure assessment thresholds, expands the Queensland Reconstruction Authority's role to cover all natural disasters rather than just floods, and improves various planning processes.
Justice and Other Legislation (COVID-19 Emergency Response) Amendment Bill 2020
This bill made temporary amendments to over 20 Queensland Acts as the state's third legislative response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It addressed issues that could not be dealt with under the existing COVID-19 Emergency Response Act 2020 modification framework, providing financial relief for workers, property owners and businesses, strengthening public health and emergency powers, and enabling corrections, disability and mental health services to operate safely during the emergency. Most provisions expired on 31 December 2020.
Environmental Protection and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2020
This bill creates a new Rehabilitation Commissioner to independently oversee mine site rehabilitation in Queensland, strengthens the residual risk framework for managing former resource sites after mining companies hand back their environmental authorities, and establishes a dedicated fund to manage the payments mining companies make towards the long-term costs of looking after those sites.
Mineral and Energy Resources and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024
This bill overhauls Queensland's framework for managing the coexistence of resources, renewable energy and agricultural industries. It creates a new system for assessing and compensating CSG-induced subsidence damage to farmland, broadens Queensland's coexistence institutions to cover renewable energy, modernises the Financial Provisioning Scheme for mine rehabilitation, and streamlines regulatory processes across more than a dozen resources-related Acts.
Land and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2022
This bill updates a range of land and resource management laws within the Queensland Resources portfolio. It streamlines lease conversions and renewals, modernises stock route management, updates surveying rules, improves vegetation management administration, and enables coal mining lease transfers under the Central Queensland Coal Associates Agreement.
Public Health and Other Legislation (Further Extension of Expiring Provisions) Amendment Bill 2021
This bill extended most of Queensland's temporary COVID-19 emergency laws until 30 April 2022, continuing the legal basis for public health directions, quarantine requirements, and support measures across multiple sectors. It also reformed the quarantine fee system to allow prepayment and third-party liability, and clarified that quarantine directions could be issued electronically.
State Development and Public Works Organisation and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2015
This bill restores the right of community members to formally object to mining projects' environmental authorities, even when the Coordinator-General has already set the conditions. It also clarifies that Land Court judges, registrars, lawyers and witnesses have full legal immunity when handling mining objection matters, fixing uncertainty caused by a recent Supreme Court decision.
Environmental Protection (Chain of Responsibility) Amendment Bill 2016
This bill amends the Environmental Protection Act 1994 so that when a mining or industrial company collapses or walks away from a polluting site, the government can force the people and companies behind it to pay for the clean-up. It was introduced urgently after several high-profile failures including the Yabulu Nickel Refinery.
Mineral and Energy Resources (Financial Provisioning) Bill 2018
This bill creates a new Financial Provisioning Scheme for Queensland's mining and energy sector, replacing the old financial assurance system. It establishes a pooled fund where companies pay risk-based contributions, and introduces enforceable Progressive Rehabilitation and Closure Plans to ensure mined land is progressively restored during and after mining operations.
Mineral, Water and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2018
This bill makes wide-ranging amendments to Queensland's mineral resources, petroleum, and water laws. It reforms how landholders and resource companies resolve compensation disputes, requires climate change and Indigenous cultural values to be formally considered in water planning, creates temporary access to strategic water reserves, and gives the government emergency powers to address urgent water quality threats.
Plumbing and Drainage Bill 2018
This bill replaces Queensland's 16-year-old plumbing and drainage laws with a modern framework. It simplifies the approval process by creating four clear categories of plumbing work, strengthens penalties for unlicensed and defective work, and introduces a new licence for mechanical services workers who install heating, cooling and medical gas systems.
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' that lets private landholders permanently protect their land with the same legal standing as a national park. It also strengthens Great Barrier Reef regulation and streamlines how conservation agreements are handled when land tenure changes.
Agriculture and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2015
This bill updates 10 Queensland agriculture laws with mostly technical changes — clearing the way for drone-based crop spraying, tightening controls on feeding animal products to livestock, speeding up exotic disease responses, simplifying pet microchip rules, and realigning company director liability with national principles. It also stops the automatic repeal of rules that manage the state's 38 remaining forest reserves, keeping them in place until those lands can be transferred to new tenures.
Waste Reduction and Recycling Amendment Bill 2017
This bill creates the legal framework for Queensland's plastic shopping bag ban and container refund scheme, both starting 1 July 2018. It also strengthens the rules that govern when waste materials can be reused as resources.
Nature Conservation (Special Wildlife Reserves) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2017
This bill creates a new kind of protected area in Queensland called a 'special wildlife reserve', letting private landholders lock in permanent, national-park-level protection over land of outstanding conservation value while keeping it in private ownership. It also makes sure existing conservation agreements on leasehold land are not lost when the lease is renewed, converted or transferred, and closes a small regulatory gap for activities straddling Queensland and Commonwealth waters in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.
Medicines and Poisons Bill 2019
This bill replaces Queensland's 80-year-old medicines and poisons laws with a modern regulatory framework. It consolidates the Health Act 1937, Health (Drugs and Poisons) Regulation 1996, and Pest Management Act 2001 into a single, outcomes-based system that is easier for health practitioners and businesses to follow while better protecting public safety.
Local Government (Councillor Conduct) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023
This bill reforms Queensland's local government councillor conduct complaints system, implementing recommendations from a parliamentary committee inquiry. It introduces a new preliminary assessment process, compulsory councillor training, a vexatious complainant scheme, and greater transparency for conduct investigations. The bill also modernises advertising requirements, amends the Queen's Wharf Brisbane Act, and updates Moreton Bay City Council references.
Water (Local Management Arrangements) Amendment Bill 2016
This bill changes Queensland's water laws to let SunWater's regional channel irrigation schemes be handed over to new entities owned and run by the irrigators who use them. It sets up a formal transfer process, starting with the Emerald, Eton, St George and Theodore schemes, and provides tax exemptions, staff protections and rules for moving assets, contracts and licences across to the new operators.
Environmental Protection (Underground Water Management) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2016
This bill tightens the environmental assessment of underground water taken by mining and petroleum projects, improves protections for landholders whose water bores are damaged by resource activities, and fixes gaps in how local councils enforce heritage laws. It also creates a transitional 'associated water licence' process for mining projects that were partway through approval when Queensland's 2014 water reforms commenced.
Environmental Protection (Powers and Penalties) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024
This bill strengthens Queensland's environmental protection laws by making regulation more proactive rather than reactive. It introduces the precautionary principle and polluter pays principle as core guiding principles, creates new offences for breaching environmental duties, establishes a duty to restore the environment after contamination, and streamlines enforcement tools into a single environmental enforcement order.
Nature Conservation and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025
This bill puts the legal framework in place for government electronic systems to automatically issue low-risk environmental and nature conservation permits. It also retrospectively confirms that permits issued automatically since 2017 are legally valid, giving certainty to the thousands of permit holders who have relied on them.
Planning Bill 2015
This bill replaces Queensland's entire planning and development system with a simpler framework, repealing the Sustainable Planning Act 2009 and introducing a new Planning Act. It reduces red tape, streamlines how councils make planning schemes, clarifies the rules for approving or refusing development applications, and increases penalties for breaking planning laws.
Planning (Consequential) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2015
This bill updates 68 other Queensland laws so they work with the new Planning Act 2016 and Planning and Environment Court Act 2016, which together replace the Sustainable Planning Act 2009. It mostly changes terminology and cross-references, removes duplicated or outdated planning steps, and sets transitional rules so any application already lodged is finished under the old system.
Environmental Protection and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2022
This bill modernises Queensland's environmental protection laws by reforming the environmental impact statement process, strengthening enforcement powers against repeat offenders, creating temporary authorities for emergencies, and banning mining in the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area. It also updates contaminated land management, waste regulation, and mine rehabilitation frameworks.
COVID-19 Emergency Response and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2021
This bill extends Queensland's temporary COVID-19 emergency legislation to 30 September 2021, gives local governments flexibility to adjust rates mid-year, creates a framework for holding COVID-safe local government by-elections and fresh elections, and extends temporary remote meeting arrangements for councils.
Housing Availability and Affordability (Planning and Other Legislation Amendment) Bill 2023
This bill reforms Queensland's planning laws to help deliver more housing faster, particularly in growth areas of South East Queensland. It gives the State new powers to acquire land for development infrastructure, fast-track priority housing applications, and create zones to manage growth areas, while also modernising planning processes and reducing red tape for businesses affected by urban encroachment.
Planning (Social Impact and Community Benefit) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025
This bill introduces a community benefit system requiring developers of large-scale projects (primarily renewable energy) to assess social impacts and negotiate community benefit agreements with local governments before seeking planning approval. It also overhauls governance and planning approvals for Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games venues and infrastructure, and makes administrative changes to Economic Development Queensland.
Health and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2021
This bill makes wide-ranging amendments to Queensland's health legislation, with the most significant reforms to the Mental Health Act 2016. It strengthens the rights of people receiving mental health treatment by replacing 'best interests' tests with a rights-based approach, improves safeguards around electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), enables international patient transfers, and aligns confidentiality provisions across health agencies.