Dr Anthony Lynham MP

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.

This bill creates Resources Safety and Health Queensland (RSHQ), a new independent regulator for workplace safety in Queensland's mining, quarrying, explosives and petroleum and gas industries. It was introduced after an inquiry into coal workers' pneumoconiosis (black lung disease) found that having safety regulation inside the same department that promotes the mining industry created a conflict of interest. The bill separates safety regulation from industry promotion and strengthens prosecution and oversight arrangements.

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.

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.

This bill updates Queensland's spatial positioning standards to the new national Geocentric Datum of Australia 2020 (GDA2020) across 13 pieces of legislation. It also streamlines state land management, creates a faster pathway for Traditional Owners to receive freehold land under Indigenous Land Use Agreements, and extends the Cape York Peninsula region boundary to support Aboriginal land ownership near the Daintree National Park.

This bill strengthens safety and health protections for workers across Queensland's coal mining, metalliferous mining, and quarrying industries. It was driven in part by the re-identification of coal workers' pneumoconiosis (black lung disease) and introduces higher penalties, new corporate accountability obligations, improved contractor management, expanded health surveillance, and stronger enforcement powers for mine inspectors.

This bill makes three changes to Queensland's electricity laws: it sets clear rules so Solar Bonus Scheme customers can add batteries without losing their 44c/kWh feed-in tariff, it lets apartment and caravan park residents choose their own electricity retailer, and it allows regional households and small businesses to return to Ergon Retail after switching to a private retailer.

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.

This bill makes wide-ranging amendments to laws governing land, explosives, gas safety, and mining within Queensland's Natural Resources, Mines and Energy portfolio. It introduces security clearances for people who handle explosives, modernises compliance powers for state land, protects Aboriginal freehold land on Cape York Peninsula from mining, supports Indigenous home ownership, facilitates electronic conveyancing, and addresses gas safety and abandoned mining infrastructure.