Pollution Control

This bill introduces a waste disposal levy in Queensland, starting at $70 per tonne from 4 March 2019, to discourage sending waste to landfill and boost recycling. The levy funds a $100 million Resource Recovery Industry Development Program and stops Queensland being used as a cheap dumping ground for interstate waste.

This bill bans single-use plastic straws, stirrers, plates, bowls and cutlery in Queensland to reduce plastic pollution. Healthcare facilities, pharmacies and schools are exempt so people with disabilities and healthcare needs can still access these items. The ban can be expanded to additional plastic products by regulation after public consultation.

This bill strengthens protections for the Great Barrier Reef by toughening regulations on agricultural and industrial activities that contribute to poor water quality. It expands mandatory farming standards across all Reef catchments and introduces a national approach to classifying threatened species in Queensland.

This bill modernises Queensland's waste laws by embedding the circular economy principle, banning outdoor balloon releases, removing the clean earth levy exemption, and requiring local councils to be transparent about how they spend waste levy payments. It was passed with amendment.

This bill overhauls Queensland's environmental regulation across multiple domains. It introduces ERA codes as a simpler way to regulate lower-risk environmental activities, creates a single tourism permission for operators working across parks and forests, strengthens enforcement powers for environmental and koala habitat offences, and improves protections for bore owners affected by resource operations.

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 creates a new Financial Provisioning Scheme for Queensland's mining and energy sector, replacing the old financial assurance system. It establishes a pooled fund where companies pay risk-based contributions, and introduces enforceable Progressive Rehabilitation and Closure Plans to ensure mined land is progressively restored during and after mining operations.

This bill puts Queensland's greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets into law — 30% reduction by 2030, 75% by 2035, and net zero by 2050. It creates a framework for planning how different sectors of the economy will reduce emissions, sets up an expert advisory panel, and requires the government to report progress to Parliament every year.

This bill strengthens Queensland's environmental protection laws by making regulation more proactive rather than reactive. It introduces the precautionary principle and polluter pays principle as core guiding principles, creates new offences for breaching environmental duties, establishes a duty to restore the environment after contamination, and streamlines enforcement tools into a single environmental enforcement order.

This bill sought to strengthen Queensland's ethanol mandate, which has never been met since it was introduced in 2017. It would have doubled penalties for fuel retailers not selling enough ethanol-blended petrol and required that E10 fuel contain at least 9% ethanol rather than the federally permitted minimum of just 1%. The bill was defeated at second reading and did not become law.

This bill modernises Queensland's environmental protection laws by reforming the environmental impact statement process, strengthening enforcement powers against repeat offenders, creating temporary authorities for emergencies, and banning mining in the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area. It also updates contaminated land management, waste regulation, and mine rehabilitation frameworks.