Land Management

This bill reinstates and strengthens Queensland's vegetation clearing laws, delivering on the government's election commitment to end broadscale tree clearing. It removes the ability to clear remnant vegetation for agriculture, extends regrowth protections to freehold and indigenous land, expands watercourse protections to all Great Barrier Reef catchments, and significantly increases penalties for unlawful clearing.

This bill requires large mining and gas projects in Queensland to share the benefits with the regional towns near them. It bans future projects from staffing their entire operational workforce as fly-in fly-out (FIFO), makes it illegal to discriminate against local residents when hiring, and requires every project to do a social impact assessment. It also permanently bans underground coal gasification (UCG), a controversial gas-extraction method.

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 would have created a separate Act to govern the Planning and Environment Court, which hears disputes about planning, development and environmental decisions. It moved the court out of the Sustainable Planning Act 2009 into its own legislation, and expanded the powers of an Alternative Dispute Resolution Registrar to handle simpler matters cheaply. The bill was part of a 2015 LNP planning reform package and did not become law.

This bill bundles changes across gambling, land, sport and transport laws. It cuts gaming machine tax for clubs with multiple premises, lets Queensland keno join interstate jackpot pools, allows the State to lease the beds of working rivers and lakes, streamlines stadium event advertising rules, and relaxes a toll freeze on the Logan and Gateway Motorways to fund a $450 million upgrade.

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 reforms the governance of Queensland's mining and resources safety regulator (RSHQ), expands the Land Access Ombudsman's dispute resolution role while keeping it government-funded, and streamlines mining tenement administration. It responds to a 2025 independent review that found gaps in RSHQ's oversight, accountability and enforcement.

This bill reverses 2013 changes that had extended sand mining on North Stradbroke Island (Minjerribah) out to 2035, restoring the original plan to end mining substantially by 2019. It also creates a new power for former mine operators across Queensland to re-enter land to finish rehabilitation after their mining leases expire.

This bill replaces the 2002 Stock Route Management Act with a new framework for managing Queensland's 72,000km stock route network that runs through 44 local government areas. It puts local councils firmly in charge as day-to-day managers of the network, lets them keep all fees and fines they collect, and brings stock travel, grazing and pasture harvesting under a single Act instead of four.

This bill makes a suite of administrative improvements to Queensland's Land Act 1994 and Land Title Act 1994. The biggest practical changes are replacing the current settlement notice with a nationally consistent priority notice to support electronic conveyancing, cutting red tape in titles registry processes, and allowing non-tidal watercourse or lake land to be dedicated as a community reserve with the adjoining owner's consent.

This bill would have ended sand mining on North Stradbroke Island (Minjerribah) by the end of 2024, with land rehabilitation allowed to continue until the end of 2029. It amended the North Stradbroke Island Protection and Sustainability Act 2011 to shrink where mining could occur and to block any lease renewals beyond 2029. The bill was discharged and did not become law.

This bill rolls back several 2013 changes to Queensland's nature conservation laws to strengthen protection of national parks. It restores 'conservation of nature' as the sole purpose of the Nature Conservation Act 1992, brings back three distinct classes of protected area with their own management rules, and restores the requirement for public consultation before management plans are changed.

This bill implements The Spit Master Plan for the Southport Spit on the Gold Coast, backed by $60 million in State funding. It fast-tracks road closures and land releases, expands the Gold Coast Waterways Authority to deliver community infrastructure, and fixes a Planning Act error that had blocked some property owners from claiming compensation for adverse planning changes.

This bill proposed two changes to Queensland's Vegetation Management Act 1999. It would have required the government to issue a formal written notice when it rejected a vegetation clearing application, giving applicants the right to seek an internal review. It also would have allowed graziers to apply to clear land to grow feed for livestock by removing grazing from the list of excluded activities. The bill was introduced by Shane Knuth MP and lapsed at the end of the 55th Parliament, so it did not become law.

This bill modernises Queensland's land valuation framework, which determines how property is valued for land tax, council rates, and state land rent. It gives the valuer-general new powers to make binding guidelines on valuation practices, streamlines the objection process by removing arbitrary monetary thresholds, and gives farmers more control over how their non-adjoining lots are valued.

This bill sets up a new independent Land Access Ombudsman to help landholders and resource companies resolve disputes about the agreements that govern mining, petroleum and gas activity on private land. It also gives the Land Court power to decide these disputes and preserves technical mining rules that were due to expire.

This bill reverses a set of yet-to-commence changes to Queensland's resource laws that would have reduced the public's right to object to mining projects and weakened protections for farmers and rural landholders. It restores community objection rights in the Land Court, writes protections for homes, schools and key farm infrastructure into primary legislation, and removes ministerial powers to grant mining leases over land without the landholder's consent.

This bill updates Queensland's positioning and mapping laws to adopt the new national standard (GDA2020), closes a growing 1.8-metre gap between GPS coordinates and government maps, and makes several unrelated improvements to state land management, Indigenous land grants, land titling, and Cape York Peninsula heritage protection.

This bill sought to amend the Vegetation Management Act 1999 to allow graziers to apply for vegetation clearing permits for feed production, and to give landholders a right to appeal when their clearing applications are rejected. It was a private member's bill introduced by Robbie Katter MP that failed at the second reading stage and did not become law.

This bill significantly expands the role of Economic Development Queensland (EDQ) to tackle Queensland's housing shortage. It makes delivering social and affordable housing a core part of EDQ's mandate, gives EDQ new powers to acquire land and direct infrastructure delivery, and restructures EDQ as a more independent body with its own board, CEO, and employing office.

This bill creates a new Rehabilitation Commissioner to independently oversee mine site rehabilitation in Queensland, strengthens the residual risk framework for managing former resource sites after mining companies hand back their environmental authorities, and establishes a dedicated fund to manage the payments mining companies make towards the long-term costs of looking after those sites.

This bill updates a range of land and resource management laws within the Queensland Resources portfolio. It streamlines lease conversions and renewals, modernises stock route management, updates surveying rules, improves vegetation management administration, and enables coal mining lease transfers under the Central Queensland Coal Associates Agreement.

This bill reinstates stronger vegetation clearing laws to slow land clearing and protect the Great Barrier Reef. It re-regulates high-value regrowth on freehold and indigenous land, stops new approvals for clearing native vegetation for high-value agriculture, and brings back riverine protection permits for destroying vegetation in waterways. Key clearing rules apply retrospectively from 17 March 2016 to prevent a rush of pre-emptive clearing.

This bill restores normal community objection and judicial review rights to bauxite mining projects at Aurukun on western Cape York. Since 2006, a special regime under the Mineral Resources Act 1989 had bypassed those rights for projects on Restricted Area 315. The bill brings Aurukun projects back in line with the standard mining approval process.

This bill amends the Environmental Protection Act 1994 so that when a mining or industrial company collapses or walks away from a polluting site, the government can force the people and companies behind it to pay for the clean-up. It was introduced urgently after several high-profile failures including the Yabulu Nickel Refinery.

This bill updates multiple regulatory frameworks within Queensland's Natural Resources, Mines and Energy portfolio. It strengthens explosives safety and security, protects Cape York Peninsula heritage land from mining, modernises State land compliance powers, facilitates electronic conveyancing, improves gas safety regulation, and enhances Indigenous land management options.

This bill creates a new type of protected area called a 'special wildlife reserve' that lets private landholders permanently protect their land with the same legal standing as a national park. It also strengthens Great Barrier Reef regulation and streamlines how conservation agreements are handled when land tenure changes.

This bill modernises the management of Queensland's state land, place naming, and resource authority obligations. It streamlines how reserves and trust lands are administered, gives trustees more autonomy, overhauls the place naming process to allow faster removal of offensive names, and requires resource companies to pay local government rates as a condition of their authority.

This bill creates a new kind of protected area in Queensland called a 'special wildlife reserve', letting private landholders lock in permanent, national-park-level protection over land of outstanding conservation value while keeping it in private ownership. It also makes sure existing conservation agreements on leasehold land are not lost when the lease is renewed, converted or transferred, and closes a small regulatory gap for activities straddling Queensland and Commonwealth waters in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

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 gives the Planning and Environment Court its own stand-alone Act instead of being buried inside the Sustainable Planning Act 2009. It keeps the existing court running, pairs with the Planning Bill 2015 to handle development disputes, and encourages more use of mediation and other alternative dispute resolution to settle cases faster and more cheaply.

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 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 is an omnibus package that makes changes across nine Queensland laws in the natural resources and mines portfolio. It strengthens explosives security, modernises gas safety, protects two Cape York properties from mining, gives Indigenous communities more flexibility over land and social housing, and updates state land compliance powers and property titling.