Regional Queensland

This bill reforms the governance of Queensland's resources safety regulator, expands the Land Access Ombudsman's dispute resolution role, and modernises mining tenement administration. It responds to a 2025 review that found the current regulatory framework had limited oversight and accountability, unclear roles, and weaknesses in enforcement.

This bill allows disused greenhouse gas exploration wells to be converted into water supply bores and given to rural landholders for free. After Queensland banned carbon storage in the Great Artesian Basin in 2024, the company CTSCo was left with wells that would normally be plugged and abandoned. This bill instead lets those wells be repurposed as a useful water resource for farming.

This bill makes several changes to Queensland's major sports facilities and major events laws. It allows Gold Coast stadiums to host concerts until 10:30pm (matching Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane), significantly increases penalties for ticket scalping, modernises Stadiums Queensland's board governance, and updates advertising restrictions to cover drones.

This bill reforms Queensland's local government laws to reduce red tape for councils, strengthen the role of mayors, overhaul the conflicts of interest and councillor conduct frameworks, and clarify rules around councillor pay, leave and eligibility. It also formalises rating exemptions for Indigenous councils and makes it easier for disaster-affected councils to act during election caretaker periods.

This bill reforms Queensland's environmental regulation to reduce red tape and improve responsiveness. It introduces a new risk-based system for classifying and regulating environmentally relevant activities, streamlines environmental impact assessments, strengthens groundwater protections for bore owners, and creates a single permit for tourism operators working across multiple public land tenures.

This bill sought to create the Queensland Crocodile Authority, a new Cairns-based body responsible for managing all aspects of crocodile control across the state. It aimed to protect North Queenslanders from crocodile attacks by removing crocodiles from populated waterways, while expanding the commercial crocodile industry and empowering Indigenous landholders to manage crocodiles on their land. The bill's second reading failed and it did not become law.

This bill rewrites Queensland's energy planning laws by repealing renewable energy targets and replacing them with a flexible, market-driven approach focused on affordability, reliability and sustainability. It renames the Act from the Energy (Renewable Transformation and Jobs) Act 2024 to the Energy (Infrastructure Facilitation) Act 2024, streamlines transmission investment processes, creates a framework to deliver the CopperString project connecting North and North West Queensland to the national grid, and abolishes three statutory advisory bodies.

This bill introduces a community benefit system requiring developers of prescribed projects (initially renewable energy developments) to assess social impacts and negotiate agreements with local governments before lodging planning applications. It also restructures the governance and delivery framework for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and makes administrative changes to Economic Development Queensland.

This bill establishes the regulatory framework for Queensland's hydrogen industry by allowing hydrogen and other renewable gases to be transported through pipelines. It amends gas supply and petroleum laws to provide a clear pathway for hydrogen projects, supporting Queensland's goal of becoming a major renewable hydrogen exporter.

This bill makes amendments across five health-related Acts to improve access to healthcare, strengthen patient safety, and modernise health legislation in Queensland. The most significant changes allow nurses and midwives to perform early medical terminations of pregnancy, count newborn babies as separate patients for maternity ward staffing ratios, and improve how patient safety information is shared across Queensland Health.

This bill establishes the Queensland State Emergency Service (SES) as a standalone organisation under its own Act, replacing provisions previously contained in the Fire and Emergency Services Act 1990. It is part of a major reform of Queensland's emergency services that places the SES under the Queensland Police Service Commissioner and provides a dedicated legislative framework recognising the organisation's critical role in disaster response.

This bill establishes Marine Rescue Queensland (MRQ) as a single, statewide marine rescue service, replacing the two existing volunteer organisations that currently provide marine rescue in Queensland. It places MRQ under the Queensland Police Service and creates a clear command structure from state to local level, with standardised training, equipment, and operations.

This bill establishes the Brisbane Organising Committee for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games as an independent statutory body responsible for planning, organising and delivering the Games. It creates a governance framework with a board of directors representing all three levels of government, the Australian Olympic Committee and Paralympics Australia, and sets out the committee's functions, financial accountability requirements and eventual dissolution.

This bill amends the Liquor Act 1992 to create a new artisan producer licence tailored for Queensland's independent craft brewers and artisan distillers. It allows these small producers to sell their products on-premises, online, by wholesale, and at promotional events like farmers markets. The bill was introduced to support the industry's recovery from COVID-19, which saw nationwide craft brewery sales drop by 67 per cent.

This bill extends beekeeping in specified Queensland national parks for 20 years until 31 December 2044, delivering a government election commitment. It also creates new offences for impersonating rangers, strengthens enforcement powers for park officers, updates governance arrangements for the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, and consolidates administrative provisions from regulations into the Nature Conservation Act.

This bill updates Queensland's land valuation system to keep pace with an increasingly complex property market. It gives the valuer-general new powers to issue binding guidelines, streamlines the objection process so all landowners are treated equally regardless of property value, and gives farmers more choice over how their land is valued.

This bill was discharged and did not become law. It would have established a Queensland Crocodile Authority based in Cairns to take charge of all crocodile management across the state. The bill responded to rising crocodile numbers and increasing attacks in North Queensland by creating 'zero-tolerance zones' in populated waterways and expanding commercial opportunities including egg harvesting and Indigenous land management rights.

This bill would have established a Queensland Crocodile Authority based in Cairns to take charge of all crocodile management across the state. It aimed to make North Queensland waterways safer by creating zero-tolerance zones where crocodiles would be killed or relocated within 48 hours, while also building a commercial crocodile industry and empowering Indigenous landholders to manage and profit from crocodiles on their land. This bill lapsed at the end of the 57th Parliament and did not become law.

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 establishes Queensland's first Cross-Border Commissioner, a new statutory role dedicated to helping communities along Queensland's borders with New South Wales, South Australia, and the Northern Territory. The Commissioner will work across governments to resolve issues caused by different state regulations and improve service delivery for border residents, with a priority focus on disaster management capacity along the Queensland-NSW border.

This bill reforms Queensland's framework for managing the coexistence of resource, renewable energy, and agricultural industries. It introduces a major new system for managing coal seam gas induced land subsidence, expands the roles of key coexistence institutions, streamlines regulatory processes across resources legislation, and modernises the Financial Provisioning Scheme for mining rehabilitation.

This bill makes a broad range of administrative and streamlining amendments to Queensland's land, resources and environmental legislation. It modernises outdated processes, improves state land management, reforms stock route governance, and updates how vegetation management data is maintained.

This bill makes sweeping changes across Queensland's agriculture, fisheries and animal management laws. It bans dangerous dog breeds, introduces statewide dog control rules with tough penalties including imprisonment, sets up camera and observer monitoring on commercial fishing boats to protect the Great Barrier Reef, strengthens biosecurity emergency powers, and reforms several other agricultural and animal welfare laws.

This bill makes wide-ranging changes to how Queensland manages state land, names places, and enforces rates payments by resource companies. It streamlines land administration processes, modernises the place naming framework to enable faster removal of offensive names and smooth transitions to new names like K'gari, and requires petroleum, gas, and geothermal companies to pay local government rates as a condition of their resource authorities.

This bill puts Queensland's greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets into law, committing the state to cut emissions by 30% by 2030, 75% by 2035, and reach net zero by 2050. It creates a framework for planning how key industries will reduce their emissions, establishes an expert advisory panel, and requires annual progress reports to Parliament. The bill was passed with amendment.

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 20-year-old animal welfare laws following a comprehensive review, a racehorse welfare inquiry, and an audit of RSPCA oversight. It introduces tougher penalties for animal neglect, bans harmful devices and practices, requires CCTV at livestock slaughter facilities, strengthens inspector accountability, and creates a new accreditation scheme for cattle procedures.

This bill increases the tax on betting operators from 15 to 20 per cent and directs 80 per cent of the revenue to Racing Queensland, creating a more sustainable funding model for the racing industry. It also guarantees at least $20 million per year for country thoroughbred race meetings and makes administrative changes to support the rollout of the mental health levy on large employers from 1 January 2023.

This bill amends coal mining safety laws and several resources Acts. It creates practical exceptions to the requirement that safety-critical positions at coal mines be filled by direct employees of the mine operator, and it supports Queensland's critical minerals sector by allowing rent deferrals for new mining leases. It also strengthens enforcement powers against non-compliant resource companies.

This bill strengthens how non-urban water take is measured and reported in Queensland, implementing the state's strengthened water measurement policy. It introduces requirements for measurement devices, measurement systems, measurement plans, and near real-time telemetry to ensure water is accurately accounted for, particularly in the Murray-Darling Basin. The bill also improves water licence administration, water authority governance, and drinking and recycled water regulation.

This bill modernises Queensland's environmental protection laws by amending the Environmental Protection Act 1994 and several related Acts. It streamlines regulatory processes for environmental authorities and impact assessments, strengthens compliance powers for environmental inspectors, creates temporary authority provisions for emergency situations, improves contaminated land management, and bans mining in the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area.

This bill lapsed and did not become law. It was a private member's bill introduced by Mr R Katter MP in response to Glencore's announcement that it would close the Mount Isa copper mine, cutting around 1,200 jobs. The bill sought to amend the 1985 agreement between Queensland and Mount Isa Mines Limited to prevent the company from ceasing copper mining without government approval.

This bill reinstates stronger vegetation clearing laws in Queensland, reversing changes made in 2013 that loosened protections. It ends broadscale clearing of remnant vegetation for agriculture, extends protections for regrowth vegetation to freehold and Indigenous land, protects waterways in all Great Barrier Reef catchments, and significantly increases penalties for illegal clearing.

This bill overhauls Queensland's fisheries laws to implement the Sustainable Fisheries Strategy 2017-2027. It introduces harvest strategies as the main tool for managing fish stocks, cracks down on the illegal sale of fish (black marketing) with new trafficking offences and stronger inspector powers, and formally recognises charter fishing and traditional fishing as distinct sectors.

This Greens private member's bill would have banned all coal mining in Queensland's Galilee Basin, including terminating Adani's existing mining leases for the Carmichael mine. It was based on the 2018 IPCC report finding that coal must be phased out globally by 2050 to limit dangerous climate change. The bill lapsed and did not become law.

This bill establishes Health and Wellbeing Queensland as a new statutory body dedicated to preventing chronic disease and improving the health of Queenslanders. With an initial budget of $32.955 million, it takes a multi-sector approach to tackling obesity, poor nutrition and physical inactivity, with a particular focus on reducing health inequity for disadvantaged communities, remote areas, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

This bill strengthens Queensland's laws to protect the Great Barrier Reef from agricultural and industrial pollution, and updates how the state classifies threatened species. It expands regulation of farming practices across all Reef catchment areas to reduce nutrient and sediment run-off that harms coral and marine ecosystems.

This bill makes wide-ranging amendments to laws governing agriculture, animal welfare, biosecurity, forestry, fisheries, racing, and other areas. Most notably, it significantly increases penalties for trespassing on agricultural land and strengthens biosecurity obligations, prompted by a wave of animal activist protests on farms. It also improves protections for animals in hot vehicles, expands farm debt mediation access, and clarifies the Racing Integrity Commission's powers.

This bill sought to create a Queensland Crocodile Authority based in Cairns to manage saltwater crocodile populations across the state. It responded to growing community concern about increasing crocodile numbers and attacks in North Queensland, with 25 recorded attacks between 1985 and 2015 (seven fatal) and three attacks in the year before the bill was introduced (two fatal). The bill's second reading failed and it did not become law.

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 enables the construction and operation of a major wind farm of up to 226 turbines in Queensland State forests, and separately fixes planning controls for the Springfield development area in Ipswich. The wind farm component creates special tenure arrangements that override forestry and land laws to allow a $2 billion renewable energy project to coexist with existing plantation forestry in the Toolara, Tuan and Neerdie State forests.

This bill cuts liquor licence fees by 90% for pubs located in very remote parts of Queensland. It recognises that hotels in remote communities are often the only social gathering place and struggle financially due to small populations and seasonal income fluctuations.

This bill reforms Queensland's framework for rehabilitating land disturbed by mining and resource activities. It creates a statutory Rehabilitation Commissioner to independently advise on best practice rehabilitation and publicly report on how well mine sites are being restored. It also overhauls the residual risk framework so the State can better manage former resource sites after companies hand back their environmental authorities, including establishing a dedicated fund to pay for ongoing management and remediation.

This bill modernises Queensland's regulation of overseas student education, introduces statutory oversight for student exchange programs, implements the new senior assessment and ATAR system for Queensland schools, and fixes an unintended ban on Easter Saturday trading in regional towns.

This bill establishes a Financial Provisioning Scheme to protect Queensland from the cost of cleaning up mine sites when resource companies fail to rehabilitate the land. It replaces the old individual financial assurance system with a pooled fund model, where companies pay annual contributions based on their risk level, and introduces enforceable Progressive Rehabilitation and Closure Plans to ensure mined land is progressively restored throughout the life of a mine.

This bill modernises the governance of Queensland's 13 hospital foundations and separately allows Queensland farmers to grow industrial cannabis (hemp) seeds for food. It repeals the outdated Hospitals Foundations Act 1982 and introduces updated rules for how foundations are run, funded, and overseen, while amending the Drugs Misuse Act 1986 to enable the hemp seed food industry.

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 implements revenue measures from the 2019-20 Queensland Budget. It raises land tax rates on large corporate landholdings and foreign owners, increases the petroleum royalty rate from 10% to 12.5%, adjusts payroll tax thresholds and rates, and provides targeted tax relief for regional employers and businesses that employ apprentices and trainees.

This bill sought to create three new criminal offences in the Criminal Code targeting trespass on business premises and transport infrastructure. It was a private member's bill introduced by Mr D Last MP that lapsed at the end of the 56th Parliament and did not become law.