Emergency Services

This bill restructures Queensland's fire and emergency services by splitting the former Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES) into two dedicated services — Queensland Fire and Rescue (QFR) for urban firefighting and Rural Fire Service Queensland (RFSQ) for bushfire management and rural brigades. It also strengthens disaster management coordination by clarifying the Police Commissioner's role, creating new recovery coordination positions, and expanding the Queensland Reconstruction Authority's functions. Additionally, it requires smoke alarms in all registered caravans and motorised caravans.

This bill restructures Queensland's emergency services by transferring the State Emergency Service and marine rescue functions from Queensland Fire and Emergency Services to the Queensland Police Service. It establishes a new State Disaster Management Group chaired by the Premier to provide faster strategic oversight during disasters, and makes consequential amendments across more than 20 pieces of legislation to ensure workers' compensation, civil liability protections, and Blue Card requirements continue for volunteers.

This bill establishes the Queensland State Emergency Service (SES) as a standalone organisation under its own Act, moving it out of the Fire and Emergency Services Act 1990 and under the control of the Queensland Police Service Commissioner. It is part of a broader reform of Queensland's emergency services following an independent review, and formalises the SES's role in rescue, search, severe weather response, and disaster resilience.

This bill establishes Marine Rescue Queensland (MRQ) as a dedicated statewide marine rescue service, unifying the existing volunteer Coast Guard flotillas and Volunteer Marine Rescue squadrons into one organisation under the Queensland Police Service. It is part of a broader reform of Queensland's emergency services following independent reviews that found the fragmented system led to duplication, unclear boundaries, and inconsistent training.

This bill makes operational improvements to the Queensland Police Service and Queensland Fire and Emergency Services. It reforms police discipline processes, introduces automatic dismissal of officers sentenced to imprisonment, creates stronger protections for confidential police information, streamlines weapons licensing, and modernises fire safety and emergency management laws.

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.

This bill makes changes across several unrelated areas of Queensland law. It clarifies sexual consent provisions in the Criminal Code following a Queensland Law Reform Commission review, bans online wagering sign-up inducements, strengthens alcohol-fuelled violence measures including longer police banning notices and tighter ID scanning, and ensures victims of solicitor dishonesty receive full compensation from the Legal Practitioners' Fidelity Guarantee Fund.

This bill makes several changes to policing and emergency services laws in Queensland. It expands the Police Drug Diversion Program so people caught with small quantities of any dangerous drug — not just cannabis — can be diverted to health services instead of going to court. It also increases the maximum penalty for drug trafficking to life imprisonment, creates tougher penalties for evading police in dangerous circumstances, and introduces a new offence for assaulting fire and emergency services workers.

This bill makes Jack's Law permanent and expands police powers to use hand held scanners to detect knives and weapons in public places across Queensland. It also extends terrorism preventative detention powers by 15 years, confirms Marine Rescue Queensland can receive charitable gifts, and validates past SES volunteer appointments.

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.