Hon Grace Grace MP

This bill strengthens Queensland's workplace health and safety laws by implementing recommendations from two major reviews. It enhances the powers and protections of health and safety representatives, makes it easier for registered unions to participate in safety matters, lowers the prosecution threshold for the most serious safety offences from recklessness to negligence, and bans insurance that covers workplace safety fines.

This bill creates a portable long service leave scheme for Queensland's community services industry. It allows workers who frequently change employers within the sector — due to short-term funding arrangements and contract-based employment — to accumulate long service leave credits across the industry rather than losing entitlements with each job change. The bill also fixes a loophole in the Industrial Relations Act 2016 so that employees dismissed due to illness are entitled to pro rata long service leave.

This bill overhauls Queensland's gambling regulation in response to major interstate inquiries that uncovered money laundering, criminal infiltration and other integrity failures at casinos operated by Crown and Star. It strengthens casino oversight, modernises gambling laws to allow cashless payments, creates a framework for wagering on computer-simulated events, and makes it easier for national charities to fundraise in Queensland.

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 that first responders experience mental health conditions at substantially higher rates than the general workforce.

This bill simplifies Queensland's retail trading hours framework by reducing the number of trading area categories and strengthening protections for retail workers who do not want to work extended hours. It also makes permanent the COVID-era arrangements allowing school P&C meetings and teacher registration investigations to be conducted by video call rather than in person.

This bill overhauls how disciplinary decisions by racing stewards are reviewed in Queensland's thoroughbred, harness and greyhound racing industries. It establishes an independent Racing Appeals Panel to replace the existing system of internal review by QRIC and external review by QCAT, aiming to resolve disputes within days rather than months. The bill also authorises the online publication of stewards' reports and makes several technical improvements to bookmaker licensing rules.

This bill implements 40 recommendations from the five-year review of Queensland's Industrial Relations Act 2016. It strengthens workplace sexual harassment protections, creates new minimum standards for gig economy courier drivers, modernises parental leave entitlements, requires gender pay gap transparency in collective bargaining, and tightens rules around who can claim to represent workers and employers.

This bill makes a range of improvements to Queensland's workers' compensation scheme following a five-yearly independent review, strengthens protections for apprentices and trainees, requires Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander representation on the TAFE Queensland Board, and repeals the now-redundant Commonwealth Games Arrangements Act 2011.

This bill updates Queensland's electrical safety and workplace safety laws across several areas. It modernises the electrical safety framework to cover emerging technologies like e-scooters and battery storage systems, strengthens the industrial manslaughter offence to protect bystanders as well as workers, adds negligence as a basis for prosecuting the most serious safety breaches, and gives worker representatives new powers to document workplace hazards with photos and testing equipment.

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.

This bill makes Christmas Eve a part-day public holiday in Queensland from 6pm to midnight. It recognises that Christmas celebrations often begin on the evening of 24 December and ensures workers are either able to refuse work after 6pm or receive penalty rates if they do work.

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.

This bill reforms Queensland's workers' compensation scheme based on a five-yearly independent review. It strengthens rehabilitation and return-to-work requirements, expands cancer coverage for firefighters, creates faster weekly payments for injured workers, introduces new enforcement tools, and lays groundwork for future gig worker coverage. It also increases flexible parental leave and adds superannuation as a Queensland employment standard.

This bill declared 22 September 2022 as a one-off public holiday in Queensland for the National Day of Mourning following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on 11 September 2022. It aligned Queensland with a national approach announced by the Prime Minister, ensuring all standard public holiday entitlements applied to the day.

This bill makes deliberate wage theft a criminal offence in Queensland, punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment for stealing and 14 years for fraud. It also creates a simpler, faster and cheaper process for workers to recover unpaid wages through the Industrial Magistrates Court, with free conciliation offered before matters go to a hearing.

This bill modernises Queensland's regulation of overseas student education, introduces statutory oversight for student exchange programs, implements the new senior assessment and ATAR system for Queensland schools, and fixes an unintended ban on Easter Saturday trading in regional towns.

This bill establishes a formal process for recognising exceptional teachers through 'Highly Accomplished Teacher' and 'Lead Teacher' certification. It empowers the Queensland College of Teachers to assess and certify teachers in State and Catholic schools against national professional standards, giving experienced educators a voluntary career pathway that does not require leaving the classroom.

This bill reduces the QUT Council from 22 to 15 members to improve governance efficiency and align with national best practice guidelines. It cuts the number of government-appointed and elected positions while increasing Council-appointed additional members, and requires student representation to include both undergraduate and postgraduate students.