Hon Grace Grace MP

This bill strengthens workplace health and safety laws by giving workers and their representatives more power to address unsafe conditions, making it easier to prosecute the most serious safety breaches, and stopping companies from insuring against safety fines. It implements recommendations from two major reviews of Queensland's work health and safety system.

This bill creates a portable long service leave scheme for Queensland's community services industry. Workers in this sector often move between employers due to short-term funding arrangements, making it hard to reach the 10 years of continuous service usually needed for long service leave. The scheme allows workers to accumulate leave credits across multiple employers, with entitlements payable after 7 years of industry service.

This bill implements reforms across gambling, wagering and charitable fundraising sectors following casino integrity failures in other states. It strengthens casino regulation with new duties and penalties up to $50 million, modernises gambling laws for cashless payments, allows betting on simulated racing events at retail outlets, extends New Year's Eve gaming hours, and lets nationally-registered charities fundraise in Queensland without separate state approval.

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 that first responders experience mental health conditions at 10 times the rate of the general workforce.

This bill simplifies Queensland's retail trading hours framework and strengthens protections for retail workers who don't 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.

This bill reforms how decisions by racing stewards are reviewed in Queensland. It creates a new independent Racing Appeals Panel to hear appeals faster than the current system, limits further appeals to serious cases only, and authorises publication of stewards' reports online to improve transparency.

This bill implements major reforms to Queensland's industrial relations system following a five-year review. It strengthens workplace sexual harassment protections, creates a framework for minimum standards for gig economy courier drivers, modernises parental leave, and enhances equal remuneration requirements in enterprise bargaining.

This bill improves Queensland's workers' compensation scheme based on an independent review, while also strengthening protections for apprentices and trainees, requiring Indigenous representation on the TAFE Queensland Board, and repealing the now-redundant Commonwealth Games Act.

This bill modernises Queensland's electrical safety and workplace safety laws. It updates electrical safety definitions to cover new technologies like e-scooters and battery storage systems, strengthens industrial manslaughter laws to protect the public, adds negligence to serious safety offences, and gives safety representatives new powers to photograph and test workplace hazards.

This bill reforms Economic Development Queensland (EDQ) to help address Queensland's housing supply shortage. It gives EDQ expanded powers to deliver social and affordable housing, creates new 'Place Renewal Areas' for coordinated urban renewal, grants compulsory land acquisition powers, and restructures EDQ as an independent statutory body with its own board and CEO.

This bill makes Christmas Eve a part-day public holiday in Queensland from 6pm to midnight. It gives workers the right to refuse work after 6pm or to receive penalty rates if they do work, recognising that Christmas celebrations often begin on Christmas Eve.

This bill establishes the Games Venue and Legacy Delivery Authority to ensure Queensland can deliver venues, villages, and infrastructure for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games on time and on budget. The authority will operate independently with its own board but ultimately the State guarantees to cover any financial shortfall.

This bill implements 26 recommendations from the 2023 Review of Queensland's workers' compensation scheme to improve support for injured workers. It requires faster rehabilitation planning, prevents secondary psychological injuries, expands cancer protections for firefighters, and creates a framework for future gig worker coverage. The bill also increases parental leave entitlements and requires superannuation contributions for Queensland public sector employees.

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. It ensured all standard public holiday entitlements applied to the day.

This bill makes deliberate wage theft a criminal offence punishable by up to 10 years in prison. 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 court.

This bill makes four unrelated sets of changes: it modernises the regulation of schools providing education to overseas students, creates a new statutory framework for student exchange programs, implements major reforms to senior secondary assessment including external exams and ATARs from 2019, and fixes an error that banned 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 career pathway that doesn't require leaving the classroom.

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