Office of Industrial Relations
OrganisationReferenced in 9 bills
Personal Injuries Proceedings and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2022
This bill cracks down on 'claim farming' — where third parties cold-call or pressure people into making personal injury or workers' compensation claims and sell their details to law firms. It also tightens rules on legal fees for speculative injury claims, reinstates a three-year timeframe for terminal workers' compensation, and fixes technical issues with Queensland's political donation caps.
Work Health and Safety and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023
This bill overhauls Queensland's workplace health and safety framework by implementing recommendations from two major reviews. It strengthens health and safety representatives, gives registered unions a direct role in workplace safety matters, makes it easier to prosecute the most serious safety offences by adding negligence as a fault element, and bans insurance against WHS fines.
Health and Other Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2023
This bill makes a range of changes across five health-related Acts to improve healthcare access, strengthen patient safety, and update health legislation. Key reforms include allowing nurses and midwives to perform early medical terminations of pregnancy, counting newborns as separate patients for maternity ward staffing ratios, and enabling better sharing of patient safety information across Queensland Health.
Electrical Safety and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025
This bill strengthens Queensland's electrical safety laws by giving the regulator clearer, more accountable powers to ban unsafe electrical equipment and by confirming that electricity distributors can legally issue defect notices for unsafe equipment found at properties. It also removes an uncommenced workplace health and safety provision before it takes effect.
Queensland Building and Construction Commission and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025
This bill modernises Queensland's building and construction licensing framework to support digital licences and electronic communications. It removes the requirement for the QBCC to issue licences as physical cards, allows documents to be served electronically, and streamlines safety incident reporting so licensees only need to notify one regulator instead of two.
Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2020
This bill makes it easier for first responders to claim workers' compensation for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It creates a presumptive system where PTSD in eligible workers is automatically assumed to be caused by their work, removing the burden on injured workers to prove the connection. This responds to evidence from Beyond Blue and other reviews showing first responders experience mental health conditions at substantially higher rates than the general workforce.
Trading (Allowable Hours) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2022
This bill simplifies Queensland's shop trading hours system, strengthens protections for retail workers against being forced to work extended hours, and makes permanent the COVID-era rules allowing school P&C associations and teacher registration investigators to meet remotely.
Electrical Safety and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024
This bill updates Queensland's electrical safety and workplace health and safety laws based on recommendations from five major reviews. It brings new technologies like e-scooters and battery storage systems under electrical safety regulation, strengthens industrial manslaughter laws to cover deaths of bystanders, makes it easier to prosecute serious safety breaches, and gives worker safety representatives new powers to document hazards.
Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024
This bill overhauls Queensland's workers' compensation system based on a 2023 independent review, while also updating industrial relations and labour hire licensing laws. It strengthens rehabilitation requirements, speeds up payments to injured workers, expands cancer protections for firefighters, and lays the groundwork for future gig worker coverage.