Cost of Living

This bill implements 2025-26 State Budget measures and makes amendments across seven Acts. It extends the doubled First Home Owner Grant and the payroll tax rebate for apprentice and trainee wages, introduces windfall tax provisions to protect state revenue if foreign property surcharges are struck down by courts, clarifies SPER registration fees, validates a renewable energy generation authority transfer, and reforms Budget Estimates hearings.

This bill was discharged and did not become law. It sought to make 50 cent public transport fares permanent across Queensland's Translink network by amending the Transport Operations (Passenger Transport) Act 1994. Introduced by the Opposition following a six-month trial that began in August 2024, which saw an 18.3% increase in patronage and saved commuters over $181 million in fares.

This bill removes stamp duty for first home buyers purchasing new homes or vacant land in Queensland, lets home buyers rent out part of their property without losing their duty concession, and exempts medical practices from payroll tax on wages paid to GPs. It delivers on commitments made during the 2024 State Election campaign.

This bill introduces two transport affordability measures for Queenslanders. It creates a fuel price cap system that limits daily petrol price increases to 5 cents per litre and requires retailers to lock in next-day prices by 2pm. It also protects 50-cent public transport fares by requiring any future increase to be approved by a vote in Parliament.

This private member's bill proposed a two-year freeze on all residential rents in Queensland at August 2022 levels, with ongoing caps of 2% every two years thereafter. It responded to record rent increases (over 20% annually in Brisbane) and near-zero vacancy rates across the state. This bill was discharged and did not become law.

This bill proposed an Empty Homes Levy to tackle Queensland's housing crisis by taxing vacant residential properties and undeveloped land at 5% of their capital improved value each year. Modelled on Vancouver's empty homes tax, which reduced vacancies by 24%, it aimed to push an estimated 20,600 vacant homes back onto the rental market over four years. This was a private member's bill introduced by Dr Amy MacMahon MP (Member for South Brisbane). It was discharged and did not become law.

This bill reforms Queensland's body corporate laws to address ageing unit complexes, pet ownership, smoking, off-the-plan property purchases, and scheme governance. It creates a new process for terminating uneconomic community titles schemes with 75% owner approval, strengthens buyer protections against sunset clause misuse in off-the-plan contracts, and clarifies residents' rights to keep pets and be protected from second-hand smoke.

This bill creates the legal foundation for Queensland's transition from coal-fired to renewable electricity generation. It legislates renewable energy targets of 50% by 2030, 70% by 2032, and 80% by 2035, commits to public ownership of energy assets, establishes frameworks to build new transmission infrastructure and Renewable Energy Zones across the state, and creates a $150 million fund to support workers at coal-fired power stations through the transition.

This bill implements the major revenue measures from the 2022-23 Queensland State Budget. It introduces a mental health levy on large employers, increases coal royalty rates during high-price periods, reforms land tax to account for interstate landholdings, and provides various stamp duty exemptions for small businesses, deceased estates and retirement visa holders.

This bill reforms Queensland's rental laws to strengthen protections for renters, stabilise rents and ease cost-of-living pressures. It also introduces mandatory continuing professional development for property agents, removes compulsory superannuation contributions for local government employees, and fixes technical issues with community titles scheme terminations.

This bill reforms Queensland's laws governing manufactured homes in residential parks to better protect home owners from excessive rent increases and difficulty selling their homes. It caps annual site rent increases at the higher of CPI or 3.5 per cent, bans market rent reviews, creates a buyback scheme for unsold homes, and introduces new transparency requirements for park operators. The reforms respond to concerns from approximately 38,000 home owners across 203 residential parks in Queensland.

This bill establishes the Queensland Food Farmers' Commissioner, an independent statutory office created in response to the Supermarket Pricing Select Committee's recommendations. The Commissioner will support Queensland farmers in their dealings with major supermarkets by improving price transparency, addressing power imbalances, and providing a safe avenue for complaints about unfair supplier practices.

This bill authorises $2.267 billion in additional government spending to fund energy rebates on Queensland household power bills. The government fast-tracked the funding as unforeseen expenditure within the 2023-24 financial year to deliver urgent cost of living relief.

This bill enables the federal Help to Buy shared equity scheme to operate in Queensland by referring specific legislative powers to the Commonwealth Parliament. Under the scheme, the Australian Government will contribute up to 40 per cent of the purchase price for a new home or 30 per cent for an existing home, helping low to middle income earners buy a home with as little as a 2 per cent deposit. Queensland is the first state to pass this legislation.

This bill modernises Queensland's fines enforcement system and makes changes across several unrelated policy areas. It centralises the handling of camera-detected and tolling fines under a single agency (SPER within the Queensland Revenue Office), extends land tax concessions to Special Disability Trusts, reforms how the Residential Tenancies Authority is funded, and updates confidentiality rules for state penalties and taxation officials.

This bill implements several revenue measures from the 2023-24 Queensland State Budget and makes technical changes to state tax laws. It introduces tax concessions to encourage large-scale build-to-rent housing with affordable housing components, extends payroll tax relief for regional businesses and employers of apprentices, simplifies land tax for homeowners, and clarifies that state tax refunds can only be obtained through the statutory process.

This bill permanently establishes a Queensland Small Business Commissioner to provide advice, support, and dispute resolution services for small businesses. It replaces the temporary commissioner role created during the COVID-19 pandemic with a permanent statutory office, making Queensland consistent with every other mainland state.

This bill implements revenue measures from the 2024-25 Queensland State Budget. It makes home ownership more affordable for first home buyers by increasing stamp duty concession thresholds and doubling the First Home Owner Grant to $30,000, while increasing taxes on foreign property investors and absentee landowners, and extending payroll tax relief for employers of apprentices and trainees.

This bill introduces a waste levy on waste delivered to landfill sites in Queensland, starting at $70 per tonne from March 2019. It aims to discourage landfill disposal, encourage recycling, stop interstate waste dumping, and fund a $100 million resource recovery program. Households are protected from direct cost increases through annual payments to local governments.

This bill makes three changes to Queensland's electricity laws: it sets clear rules so Solar Bonus Scheme customers can add batteries without losing their 44c/kWh feed-in tariff, it lets apartment and caravan park residents choose their own electricity retailer, and it allows regional households and small businesses to return to Ergon Retail after switching to a private retailer.

This bill improves the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) and strengthens consumer protections for motor vehicle buyers. It raises QCAT's jurisdictional limit for motor vehicle disputes from $25,000 to $100,000, reinstates statutory warranty coverage for older second-hand vehicles sold by dealers, and introduces conciliation as a new way to resolve disputes at QCAT.

This bill makes it a criminal offence to engage in 'claim farming' — the practice of cold-calling people after car accidents to pressure them into making insurance claims, then selling their details to lawyers for a fee. It strengthens the Motor Accident Insurance Commission's powers to investigate and prosecute claim farming by law firms and intermediaries, and requires additional claimant information to help detect fraudulent activity in the CTP insurance scheme.

This bill makes wide-ranging changes to Queensland's revenue laws, implementing 2017 election commitments and 2018-19 Budget measures. It increases duties on foreign property buyers and luxury vehicles, extends the First Home Owners' Grant, raises land tax for large landholdings, extends payroll tax relief for apprentice and trainee employers, modernises primary production tax exemptions, and introduces an online land tax portal.