Mineral Exploration

This bill is an omnibus package that amends nine Acts. Its centrepiece is a 25 per cent payroll tax rebate on apprentice and trainee wages for three years, backed by $45 million. It also sets up the legal framework for electronic property conveyancing, creates a stamp duty concession for mining exploration farm-in deals, delays anti-bikie licensing rules by 12 months, and requires licensed plumbers to install water meters.

This bill makes wide-ranging amendments across the Natural Resources, Mines and Energy portfolio. It reforms mineral and petroleum exploration permits with a 15-year cap, strengthens water compliance penalties, introduces dispute resolution for state land sublease disputes, streamlines Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land administration, and supports the establishment of CleanCo as a government-owned clean energy generator.

This bill creates a new pooled Financial Provisioning Scheme that makes mining companies share the cost of protecting Queensland from unrehabilitated mine sites. It also requires every mine to prepare a binding Progressive Rehabilitation and Closure Plan with enforceable milestones, audited every three years.

This bill overhauls the State Development and Public Works Organisation Act 1971 to help the Queensland Government fast-track major projects, especially in the critical minerals sector. It creates a new class of 'State strategic projects' that can access faster approvals, easier land access and a powerful new 'modification order' that can change how other laws apply to a project. It also modernises infrastructure planning for resource regions and updates the Coordinator-General's land, investigation and enforcement powers.

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.