Construction

This bill restores workplace safety protections that were wound back in 2014 and re-establishes key electrical safety oversight bodies. It gives trained health and safety representatives the power to order unsafe work to stop, lets union safety inspectors enter workplaces immediately to investigate suspected breaches, and requires employers to notify the regulator when a worker is off for more than four days due to injury.

This bill overhauls Queensland's building industry payment protections by replacing project bank accounts with a new statutory trust system that holds subcontractor money in trust. It also cracks down on fraudulent behaviour in the industry, introduces a demerit point system for building certifiers, strengthens regulation of architects and engineers, and preserves review rights for retirement village transition plans.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This bill moves Labour Day back to the first Monday in May and the Queen's Birthday to the first Monday in October from 2016 onwards. It also lets people apply online for high risk work licences (for cranes, forklifts and scaffolding) by reusing driver licence photos, and consolidates the rules about digital photos and signatures across six transport and ID laws into one place.

This bill modernises Queensland's building and plumbing laws across several areas. It strengthens homeowners' rights to install solar panels and hot water systems free from aesthetic-based restrictions by developers and body corporates, expands permissible uses of treated greywater in large buildings, allows holding tanks for sewage and greywater under local government permits, and improves the QBCC's regulatory and enforcement powers.

This bill makes changes across five unrelated policy areas bundled into one piece of legislation. It restructures the 2032 Olympics infrastructure authority, repeals the Path to Treaty Act 2023 (ending First Nations treaty and truth-telling processes), winds back workplace safety entry powers for union officials, clarifies planning rules for State Facilitated Development, and strengthens the independence of the Public Sector Commissioner.

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.

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.

This bill sets up a mandatory licensing scheme for labour hire companies in Queensland to crack down on worker exploitation and restore confidence in the industry. Providers must be licensed, pass a fit and proper person test and report every six months, while businesses that use them must only engage licensed operators. A public register and a new inspectorate back the scheme up, with penalties of up to three years' imprisonment or $3,000+ penalty units for corporations.

This bill strengthens Queensland's building safety laws after the Melbourne Lacrosse Tower cladding fire and the Infinity cables recall. It makes every link in the building product supply chain - designers, manufacturers, importers, suppliers and installers - legally responsible for making sure products are safe and fit for purpose. It also gives the Queensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC) new powers to investigate, seize dangerous products, and share safety information with other regulators.

This bill amends Queensland's revenue and grants legislation to support home ownership and fix administrative issues across multiple tax laws. It ensures participants in the Boost to Buy and Help to Buy shared equity programs can access the same stamp duty concessions, First Home Owner Grant, and land tax exemptions as other home buyers.

This bill tightens Queensland's smoke alarm rules in response to the 2011 Slacks Creek house fire that killed 11 people. It requires every home to have photoelectric, interconnected smoke alarms powered by hardwiring or a 10-year lithium battery, phased in over a decade from 1 January 2017 to 1 January 2027.

This bill overhauls how subcontractors get paid in Queensland's building and construction industry. It creates 'Project Bank Accounts' that quarantine money owed to subcontractors in trust, combines existing security of payment laws into a single Act, and gives the Queensland Building and Construction Commission stronger powers to tackle unlicensed work and illegal phoenixing.

This bill introduces a new criminal offence of industrial manslaughter in Queensland, with up to 20 years jail for employers or senior officers whose negligence causes a worker's death and up to $10 million for companies. It follows a government review prompted by the Dreamworld and Eagle Farm worker fatalities and also creates an independent WHS Prosecutor, expands workplace safety dispute powers to the Industrial Relations Commission, and brings back Workplace Health and Safety Officers.

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.

This bill sought to create a comprehensive transparency framework for public-private partnerships (PPPs) used to deliver major Queensland infrastructure projects worth $10 million or more. Motivated by Queensland Audit Office findings and the Coaldrake review, it would have required government agencies to publish value for money assessments, justify commercial-in-confidence claims, and submit to regular Auditor-General reviews. This bill lapsed at the end of the 57th Parliament and did not become law.

This bill aimed to make photoelectric smoke alarms mandatory in every Queensland home, implementing recommendations from the coronial inquest into the 2011 Slacks Creek house fire that killed 11 people. Homeowners would have had three years to upgrade existing alarms. The bill was discharged and did not become law.

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 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.

This bill creates Building Queensland, an independent statutory body that provides expert advice to the Queensland Government on major infrastructure projects. It is modelled on the Commonwealth's Infrastructure Australia and was a 2015 election commitment. The body will assess business cases, publish cost-benefit analysis summaries, and maintain a priority pipeline of infrastructure proposals.

This bill establishes the Games Venue and Legacy Delivery Authority, a new statutory body to deliver venues, oversee village construction, and coordinate government responsibilities for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. It gives the authority significant powers including compulsory land acquisition, the ability to bypass normal planning processes, and the power to direct government agencies on transport infrastructure.

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.

This bill improves workers' compensation for Queensland coal miners and others with dust-related lung diseases, sets up a committee so families of workers killed or seriously injured at work have a formal voice, and strengthens electrical licensing safety rules. It responds to the re-identification of coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP) in Queensland.

This bill clarifies and simplifies Queensland's security of payment framework for the building and construction industry, which protects subcontractors from late or non-payment through project trust accounts and retention trust accounts. It also implements governance reforms for the QBCC and makes minor improvements to licensing and regulatory processes across six Acts.

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.

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.

This bill implements several 2024-25 State Budget revenue measures. It makes it cheaper for first home buyers by increasing stamp duty concession thresholds and doubling the First Home Owner Grant to $30,000, while raising surcharges on foreign and absentee property owners and extending payroll tax rebates for apprentice and trainee wages.

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.

This bill sets up the Cross River Rail Delivery Authority, a new independent statutory body to build the Cross River Rail project connecting Brisbane across the river by underground rail. The Authority will operate commercially, with power to compulsorily acquire land and to drive economic development around new stations, and will be wound up once the project is complete.

This bill replaces Queensland's Plumbing and Drainage Act 2002 with a new Plumbing and Drainage Act 2017, modernising how plumbing work is regulated. It streamlines how plumbing work is approved, toughens penalties for unlicensed work, and creates a new mechanical services licence that covers heating, air-conditioning and medical gas work in large buildings and hospitals.

This bill tightens the rules for money in Queensland local council elections and makes a range of technical fixes to planning and building laws. It lowers the donation disclosure threshold to $500, paves the way for real-time online donation reporting, and clarifies when council approval is needed alongside a private certifier's approval for building work.