Health

This bill creates Resources Safety and Health Queensland as an independent statutory body to regulate safety in Queensland's mining, quarrying, explosives and petroleum industries. It implements recommendations from the Coal Workers' Pneumoconiosis inquiry, separating the safety regulator from the government department that promotes the mining industry.

This bill requires Queensland hospitals and aged care facilities to publicly report quality and staffing information so consumers can make informed choices. It also sets minimum staffing ratios for public aged care facilities and streamlines health complaint handling between the Health Ombudsman and national regulators.

This bill was introduced in February 2020 in direct response to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. It extends the maximum period for renewing a declared public health emergency from 7 days to 90 days, giving Queensland Health greater continuity in managing the pandemic response.

This bill changes when health practitioners must report colleagues they're treating to regulators, and increases penalties for people pretending to be registered health practitioners. The reporting changes aim to encourage practitioners with mental health or substance issues to seek treatment without fear of automatic career consequences.

This bill makes a wide range of health reforms to improve patient safety and expand access to healthcare. Key changes include allowing nurses and midwives to provide early medical terminations of pregnancy, counting babies as separate patients for midwife staffing ratios, requiring disclosure of serious patient safety risks identified by quality committees, and allowing Mental Health Court documents to be used in criminal proceedings.

This bill creates a new licensing system for pharmacy ownership in Queensland, replacing the outdated 2001 Act. It establishes an independent Queensland Pharmacy Business Ownership Council to regulate who can own pharmacies and enforce compliance. The bill retains existing restrictions limiting pharmacy ownership to pharmacists while adding new transparency measures and prohibiting pharmacies in supermarkets.

This bill extended Queensland's COVID-19 emergency powers from 31 December 2020 until 30 September 2021. It maintained the Chief Health Officer's ability to issue public health directions, continued hotel quarantine cost recovery, and preserved emergency provisions in the Mental Health Act.

This bill bans single-use plastic straws, stirrers, plates, bowls and cutlery in Queensland to reduce plastic pollution. Healthcare facilities and schools are exempt to ensure people with disabilities and healthcare needs can still access these items when required.

This bill amends nine health-related Acts to improve how Queensland's health system operates. It strengthens wellbeing protections for health workers, modernises cancer data collection, enables electronic recording of mental health tribunal proceedings, and streamlines several administrative processes including organ donation consent and school vision screening.

This bill transitions Queensland's disability services safeguards to the national NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission. From 1 July 2019, the Commonwealth takes over regulatory oversight of NDIS providers, including complaints handling, restrictive practices authorisation, and quality monitoring, while Queensland maintains safeguards for state-funded services.

This bill creates Health and Wellbeing Queensland, a new government agency dedicated to preventing chronic disease and improving the health of Queenslanders. The agency focuses on reducing risk factors like obesity, poor nutrition and lack of physical activity, with particular attention to closing the health gap for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, remote communities and disadvantaged areas.

This bill makes significant reforms across Queensland's health system, including banning conversion therapy by health service providers, embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health equity in law, and aligning private hospital licensing with national safety standards. It responds to expert reviews and national commitments to improve health outcomes.

This bill creates a portable long service leave scheme for Queensland's community services industry. Workers in this sector often move between employers due to short-term funding arrangements, making it hard to reach the 10 years of continuous service usually needed for long service leave. The scheme allows workers to accumulate leave credits across multiple employers, with entitlements payable after 7 years of industry service.

This bill makes various transport law changes to improve road safety, support people with mobility needs, and streamline administrative processes. It expands the types of motorised wheelchairs and mobility scooters that can be used legally, protects doctors who report unfit drivers, and modernises how speed camera revenue is spent on safety programs.

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 that first responders experience mental health conditions at 10 times the rate of the general workforce.

This bill extends Queensland's COVID-19 emergency laws from 31 December 2020 to 30 April 2021, allowing continued pandemic response measures. It also makes separate changes to how council vacancies are filled, supports artisan distillers, and extends the Small Business Commissioner role.

This bill creates a nationally consistent worker screening system for the NDIS to better protect people with disability from harm. It requires workers in risk-assessed roles to be screened before starting work, enables clearances to be recognised across all Australian states and territories, and introduces ongoing national criminal history monitoring.

This bill extends Queensland's Disability Parking Permit Scheme to include legally blind people and doubles the fine for misusing disability parking bays. It also makes technical updates to rail safety definitions to align with national law.

This bill establishes a voluntary assisted dying scheme in Queensland, allowing people with a terminal illness expected to cause death within 12 months to legally end their lives with medical assistance. It implements 197 recommendations from the Queensland Law Reform Commission, creating a framework with strict eligibility requirements, a staged assessment process, and strong safeguards.

This bill implements the Queensland Government's debt reduction and savings plan by restructuring government agencies and transferring some functions to the private sector or other departments. It transfers the land titles registry to a new private operator, abolishes Building Queensland, the Queensland Productivity Commission, and the Public Safety Business Agency, and changes how the National Injury Insurance Scheme Agency is governed.

This bill decriminalises termination of pregnancy in Queensland, removing it from the Criminal Code and treating it as a health matter. It allows women to access terminations through registered medical practitioners up to 22 weeks gestation, with additional safeguards for later terminations, and creates protected zones around clinics.

This bill replaces the nearly 80-year-old legislation governing the Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR), one of Australia's leading medical research organisations. It modernises governance arrangements, introduces integrity safeguards for Council members, and creates a framework for rewarding researchers when their work is commercialised.

This bill makes technical improvements to several health-related laws before they take full effect. It clarifies pharmacy ownership rules, moves dust lung disease reporting to a national system, allows mosquito traps to be left on properties to detect Japanese Encephalitis Virus, and fixes minor issues in mental health and radiation safety legislation.

This bill creates Queensland's first laws to regulate fertility clinics and establishes a donor conception register. It responds to failures in industry self-regulation, including cases where wrong donor sperm was used and donors fathered far more children than guidelines allowed. The law prioritises the welfare of people born through donor conception, giving them the right to know their genetic origins.

This bill authorised approximately $4.8 billion in emergency funding for Queensland's COVID-19 relief efforts. It provided $3.18 billion for the remainder of 2019-20 and $1.61 billion for early 2020-21 to protect jobs and support the economy during the pandemic.

This bill extended Queensland's COVID-19 public health emergency powers from 30 April 2022 until 31 October 2022. It maintained the Chief Health Officer's ability to issue public health directions for mask wearing, quarantine, and movement restrictions while allowing most temporary economic measures introduced during the pandemic to expire.

This bill modernises Queensland law to recognise trans and gender diverse people in police and health search procedures, while also making changes to the parole system and prisoner safety assessments. It passed with amendment in 2024.

This bill makes several changes to police and emergency services operations in Queensland. The major reform expands the Police Drug Diversion Program beyond cannabis to cover all dangerous drugs, treating minor drug possession as a health issue rather than a criminal matter. It also increases penalties for serious offences including life imprisonment for drug trafficking and higher penalties for evading police in dangerous circumstances.

This bill protects the title 'surgeon' so only medical practitioners with significant surgical training can use it. It responds to widespread consumer confusion in the cosmetic surgery industry, where any doctor could previously call themselves a 'cosmetic surgeon' regardless of their qualifications, putting patients at risk.

This bill ensures all disability service workers in Queensland undergo proper criminal history screening before providing services. It closes a gap by clarifying that self-employed workers (sole traders) must hold a yellow card, and enables Queensland to share criminal history information with other states as the NDIS rolls out nationally.

This bill modernises Queensland's birth, death and marriage registration system with significant reforms for trans and gender diverse people. It removes the requirement for surgery to change sex on a birth certificate, instead allowing people 16 and over to self-declare their sex with a supporting statement. It also recognises contemporary family structures by allowing same-sex parents to both be recorded as 'mother' or both as 'father'.

This bill amends over 20 Queensland Acts to respond to the COVID-19 public health emergency. It provides financial relief for businesses and individuals, expands emergency powers for health and corrective services, and gives government agencies operational flexibility during the pandemic. Most provisions were set to expire on 31 December 2020.

This bill overhauls how Queensland reviews the deaths of children known to child protection services. It requires multiple government agencies (not just Child Safety) to conduct reviews when a vulnerable child dies, and creates a new independent Child Death Review Board to identify systemic problems and publicly report on what needs to change.

This bill gives Queensland authorities emergency powers to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. It allows the Chief Health Officer to issue binding directions restricting movement and gatherings, order isolation and quarantine, and close facilities. It also provides flexibility for elections and planning approvals during the emergency.

This bill establishes the Queensland Academy of Sport as an independent statutory body, separate from the Department of Sport. The change is designed to give the Academy greater flexibility and agility in supporting elite Queensland athletes, particularly in preparation for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

This bill implements 26 recommendations from the 2023 Review of Queensland's workers' compensation scheme to improve support for injured workers. It requires faster rehabilitation planning, prevents secondary psychological injuries, expands cancer protections for firefighters, and creates a framework for future gig worker coverage. The bill also increases parental leave entitlements and requires superannuation contributions for Queensland public sector employees.

This bill dramatically strengthens Queensland's enforcement powers against illegal tobacco and nicotine vape sales. It extends business closure periods from 72 hours to 3 months, creates new criminal and civil penalties for landlords who allow illegal sales on their premises, and enables undercover operations to catch offenders.

This bill extended Queensland's COVID-19 emergency measures from September 2021 to April 2022, continuing public health powers, quarantine requirements, and economic protections while vaccines were being rolled out. It also improved the quarantine fee system by allowing prepayment and third-party liability arrangements for traveller cohorts like seasonal workers.

This bill was discharged and did not become law. It would have allowed people who are blind or have severe vision impairment to apply for disability parking permits in Queensland. Currently, only people with walking difficulties qualify, even though four other states and territories already include vision impairment.

This bill makes permanent several temporary COVID-19 measures across multiple areas of law. It modernises how Queenslanders can sign and witness important legal documents using electronic signatures and video links, improves access to domestic violence protection orders, and allows licensed restaurants to permanently offer takeaway wine with meals.

This bill decriminalises sex work in Queensland, removing criminal offences for sex work between consenting adults and abolishing the brothel licensing system. It implements the Queensland Law Reform Commission's recommendations to treat sex work as legitimate work while creating strong new offences to protect children from exploitation.

This bill modernises Queensland's guardianship laws to better protect adults who cannot make their own decisions due to illness, disability or age. It strengthens safeguards against abuse by attorneys and administrators, aligns the system with international human rights standards, and improves accountability when things go wrong. The bill also makes separate changes to integrity advice for public servants and corruption reporting by government corporations.

This bill modernises the governance of Queensland's 13 hospital foundations and allows industrial hemp to be grown for food products. It replaces the outdated 1982 legislation governing hospital foundations with modern rules that better reflect how these charitable bodies actually operate, while also enabling Queensland farmers to grow low-THC hemp for the food market following a national decision to permit hemp seed foods.

This bill modernises Queensland's plumbing and drainage laws by replacing the 2002 Act with a streamlined framework. It creates four categories of plumbing work with different approval requirements, introduces a new mechanical services licence for air-conditioning and medical gas work, and strengthens penalties for unlicensed or defective work to better protect public health and safety.

This bill reforms Queensland's system for authorising restrictive practices used with people with disability. It replaces decisions by guardians and tribunals with a new Senior Practitioner who makes all authorisation decisions based on clinical evidence and behaviour support plans, aiming to reduce and eventually eliminate the use of restraint, seclusion and containment.

This bill modernises Queensland's regulation of medicines, poisons and pest management chemicals by replacing laws dating back to 1937. It creates a new outcome-focused framework using licences and approvals, and establishes a real-time database to track prescriptions of high-risk medicines like opioids.

This bill adopts the Commonwealth Therapeutic Goods Act as a law of Queensland, ensuring all therapeutic goods manufacturers meet national safety and quality standards. It closes a regulatory gap that allowed small local manufacturers operating as sole traders or partnerships to produce unregulated medicines, herbal remedies and vitamin supplements.

This bill puts frontline health workers on Hospital and Health Boards and cracks down on illegal vaping. It requires each hospital board to include at least one doctor, nurse or allied health professional who actually works at that hospital. It also allows Queensland Health to immediately destroy seized vaping products rather than storing them for weeks, and lets courts make convicted sellers pay enforcement costs.

This bill overhauls Queensland's tobacco laws to reduce smoking rates and protect the community from second-hand smoke. It introduces a licensing scheme for tobacco sellers, cracks down on illicit tobacco, expands smoke-free public spaces, and strengthens protections for children.

This bill makes wide-ranging changes to eight Queensland health laws. The main reforms include strengthening oversight of IVF clinics while adding flexibility for families facing hardship, allowing the government to remove health board members more easily, requiring cosmetic surgery facilities to meet new national safety standards, and creating a legal framework to maximise organ donation opportunities.

This bill reforms several health-related regulatory frameworks in Queensland. It repeals the state's medicinal cannabis approval system (which duplicated Commonwealth processes), establishes a register to track occupational dust lung diseases like coal workers' pneumoconiosis, empowers health authorities to require public notices about pollution events, and ensures freehold retirement village residents receive timely payment when they leave.

This bill cracks down on the illegal vape and tobacco trade in Queensland by creating new offences, increasing penalties to up to 2 years imprisonment, and giving authorities power to close non-compliant businesses. It responds to a public health crisis with vaping among 12-17 year olds quadrupling since 2017, and supports the Commonwealth's national vaping ban.

This bill delivers on three 2024 Queensland election promises. It abolishes stamp duty for first home buyers purchasing new homes from May 2025, lets home buyers rent out rooms without losing their duty concession, and exempts medical practices from payroll tax on GP wages.

This bill reforms how cancelled or disqualified health practitioners can regain their registration, increases transparency about practitioners found guilty of sexual misconduct, and strengthens protections for people who report concerns. It amends the national framework regulating Australia's 16 registered health professions.

This bill reforms Queensland racing industry funding by increasing betting tax to 20% and guaranteeing that 80% of revenue flows to Racing Queensland, with minimum funding for country racing. It also establishes administrative systems for the mental health levy on large employers.

This bill would have strengthened patient safety by making it harder for health practitioners with serious misconduct to regain their registration, permanently publishing sexual misconduct findings on public registers, and protecting people who report concerns about practitioners. It lapsed when the 57th Parliament ended and did not become law.

This bill strengthens the national framework for regulating Australia's 800,000+ registered health practitioners. It gives regulators new powers to protect the public from dangerous practitioners, improves information sharing about risky practitioners, and requires the health system to provide culturally safe care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.

This bill extends Queensland's COVID-19 emergency laws until 30 September 2021 and gives local governments more flexibility during the pandemic. It covers extensions to temporary regulations across many areas of life, allows councils to adjust rates outside normal budget cycles, and creates new rules for holding COVID-safe local government elections.

This bill implements major reforms to Queensland's laws on domestic and family violence and sexual violence, following recommendations from the Women's Safety and Justice Taskforce. It creates a new criminal offence of coercive control (carrying up to 14 years imprisonment), introduces affirmative consent laws requiring active agreement to sexual activity, specifically criminalises 'stealthing', and establishes a diversion scheme for first-time DVO offenders.

This bill ended Queensland's COVID-19 emergency powers and replaced them with more limited, time-bound powers expiring on 31 October 2023. The Chief Health Officer retained authority to issue directions only for isolation, quarantine, masks and worker vaccination in vulnerable settings, with new requirements for parliamentary oversight and public justification.

This bill allows the United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture to visit and inspect Queensland's prisons, youth detention centres, mental health facilities, police watch-houses, and other places where people are detained. It implements Australia's international obligations under OPCAT, which aims to prevent torture and cruel treatment through independent monitoring.

This bill makes wide-ranging amendments to Queensland health legislation, with major reforms to mental health law including stronger rights for patients in electroconvulsive therapy decisions and transfers, better access to patient records for allied health professionals, improved support for victims of unlawful acts, and various technical updates across multiple Acts.