Work & Employment

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 bundles changes across five unrelated policy areas: restructuring the Brisbane 2032 Olympics governance authority, repealing Queensland's Path to Treaty Act to end the First Nations Treaty Institute and Truth-telling Inquiry, winding back workplace health and safety entry powers for union officials, clarifying planning powers for State Facilitated Development declarations, and strengthening the independence of the Public Sector Commissioner.

This bill makes two sets of changes. First, it strengthens Queensland's electrical safety framework by confirming electricity distributors can issue defect notices and by giving the regulator clearer powers to ban unsafe electrical equipment. Second, it removes an uncommenced provision that would have given workplace safety representatives a new way to request information from the regulator.

This bill modernises the Queensland Building and Construction Commission by removing the requirement for physical licence cards and enabling digital alternatives via the Queensland Digital Licence app. It also allows the QBCC to serve documents electronically and streamlines workplace safety reporting so that building industry licensees only need to notify one regulator of serious safety incidents, rather than reporting the same incident to both the QBCC and workplace safety regulators.

This bill reforms the national law governing heavy vehicles (trucks and other vehicles over 4.5 tonnes) to improve road safety, simplify regulation, and update penalties. It introduces a new legal duty for all heavy vehicle drivers to be fit to drive, requires transport operators to have safety management systems, and rebalances penalties so serious offences attract higher fines while minor paperwork errors are treated more leniently.

This bill amends five health-related laws to strengthen pharmacy ownership regulation, improve occupational disease tracking, enhance mosquito-borne disease surveillance, streamline Mental Health Commissioner appointments, and clarify radioactive waste disposal rules. The largest component prepares Queensland's pharmacy business ownership licensing framework for full commencement by March 2026.

This bill creates a dedicated Mining and Resources Coroner to investigate all accidental deaths at Queensland's coal mines, mines, quarries, and petroleum and gas sites. Every mining-related death will now require a mandatory public inquest to determine what happened and make recommendations to prevent similar fatalities. It delivers on a Queensland Government election commitment to re-establish oversight of fatal accidents on mine and quarry sites.

This bill cracks down on 'claim farming' — the practice of cold-calling people to pressure them into making personal injury or workers' compensation claims, then selling their details to law firms. It also tightens rules on legal billing in personal injury cases, confirms when terminally ill workers can access lump sum compensation, and fixes technical issues with Queensland's political donation caps.

This bill strengthens Queensland's workplace health and safety laws by implementing recommendations from two major reviews. It enhances the powers and protections of health and safety representatives, makes it easier for registered unions to participate in safety matters, lowers the prosecution threshold for the most serious safety offences from recklessness to negligence, and bans insurance that covers workplace safety fines.

This bill amends eight health-related Acts to strengthen protections for public health workers, modernise cancer data collection, enable electronic recording of Mental Health Review Tribunal proceedings, expand school vision screening, streamline organ donation consent, and update various administrative processes across Queensland's health system.

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 from Beyond Blue and other reviews that first responders experience mental health conditions at substantially higher rates than the general workforce.

This bill establishes a nationally consistent worker screening system for people working with Australians with disability under the NDIS, replacing Queensland's existing yellow card system. It ensures that screening clearances are portable across all states and territories, introduces ongoing national criminal history monitoring, and streamlines the process for workers who also need a blue card to work with children with disability.

This bill simplifies Queensland's retail trading hours framework by reducing the number of trading area categories and strengthening protections for retail workers who do not want to work extended hours. It also makes permanent the COVID-era arrangements allowing school P&C meetings and teacher registration investigations to be conducted by video call rather than in person.

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 40 recommendations from the five-year review of Queensland's Industrial Relations Act 2016. It strengthens workplace sexual harassment protections, creates new minimum standards for gig economy courier drivers, modernises parental leave entitlements, requires gender pay gap transparency in collective bargaining, and tightens rules around who can claim to represent workers and employers.

This bill updates Queensland's electrical safety and workplace safety laws across several areas. It modernises the electrical safety framework to cover emerging technologies like e-scooters and battery storage systems, strengthens the industrial manslaughter offence to protect bystanders as well as workers, adds negligence as a basis for prosecuting the most serious safety breaches, and gives worker representatives new powers to document workplace hazards with photos and testing equipment.

This bill overhauls safety and health laws for Queensland's resources sector — covering coal mining, metalliferous mining, quarrying, petroleum and gas, and explosives — following reviews into workplace deaths and the Queensland Coal Mining Board of Inquiry. It strengthens worker protections through mandatory critical controls, tighter competency requirements for safety-critical roles, modernised enforcement powers, and clearer industrial manslaughter provisions to close gaps in employer accountability.

This bill reforms Queensland's workers' compensation scheme based on a five-yearly independent review. It strengthens rehabilitation and return-to-work requirements, expands cancer coverage for firefighters, creates faster weekly payments for injured workers, introduces new enforcement tools, and lays groundwork for future gig worker coverage. It also increases flexible parental leave and adds superannuation as a Queensland employment standard.

This bill ensures Suncorp Group Limited keeps its headquarters in Queensland after selling its banking business to ANZ. It updates a 1996 law that was originally designed to keep the merged Suncorp-Metway group based in Queensland, applying strengthened requirements to Suncorp's continuing insurance business.

This bill declared 22 September 2022 as a one-off public holiday in Queensland for the National Day of Mourning following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on 11 September 2022. It aligned Queensland with a national approach announced by the Prime Minister, ensuring all standard public holiday entitlements applied to the day.

This bill decriminalises sex work in Queensland by repealing the Prostitution Act 1999 and removing sex-work-specific criminal offences. Based on the Queensland Law Reform Commission's 47 recommendations, it replaces the existing brothel licensing system with a framework that treats sex work like any other lawful occupation, while introducing tough new offences to protect children from exploitation and prevent coercion.

This bill makes wide-ranging changes to Queensland's anti-discrimination, sentencing and judicial laws. It strengthens workplace protections against sexual harassment and discrimination, adds new grounds on which people are protected from unfair treatment, and requires employers to actively prevent discrimination. It also increases penalties for violence against workers and clarifies judicial immunity.

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 clarifies and simplifies the trust account framework that protects subcontractor payments in Queensland's building and construction industry. It also implements governance reforms for the Queensland Building and Construction Commission, transfers qualification-setting powers to the department, and makes regulatory improvements across six building industry Acts.

This bill replaces the Public Service Act 2008 with a new Public Sector Act that creates a unified employment framework for the entire Queensland public sector. It implements recommendations from two independent reviews — the Bridgman Review into public sector employment laws and the Coaldrake Report on public sector culture and accountability — to make the public sector fairer, more diverse and better governed.

This bill makes wide-ranging amendments across Queensland's transport legislation. It transfers heavy vehicle regulatory services to the national regulator, strengthens road safety rules for e-scooters and bicycles on footpaths, introduces consistent safety duties for all road-based public passenger services, and modernises the process for dealing with toll demand notices.

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 enables the merger of QSuper and Sunsuper into Australia's second largest superannuation fund, with around $200 billion under administration. It retires the QSuper Board as trustee, moves the trust deed out of legislation to allow a new corporate trustee structure, and ensures the merged fund must remain headquartered in Queensland.

This bill sought to reform Queensland's Blue Card system for Indigenous communities by giving Community Justice Groups the power to approve restricted working with children clearances for community members who would otherwise be refused due to certain past criminal offences. It was a private member's bill introduced by Mr R Katter MP that failed at the second reading stage and did not become law.

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 reforms Queensland's building industry payment protections and regulatory framework. It replaces Project Bank Accounts with a simplified statutory trust system to protect subcontractor payments, strengthens the QBCC's ability to address fraud, introduces a demerit point system for building certifiers, enhances oversight of architects and engineers, and preserves review rights for retirement village transition plans.

This bill creates Resources Safety and Health Queensland (RSHQ), a new independent regulator for workplace safety in Queensland's mining, quarrying, explosives and petroleum and gas industries. It was introduced after an inquiry into coal workers' pneumoconiosis (black lung disease) found that having safety regulation inside the same department that promotes the mining industry created a conflict of interest. The bill separates safety regulation from industry promotion and strengthens prosecution and oversight arrangements.

This bill makes wide-ranging changes across Queensland's mining, energy and water sectors. It introduces industrial manslaughter offences for the resources industry, strengthens financial assurance requirements to prevent mining companies from abandoning sites without proper rehabilitation, streamlines resource authority approval processes, extends energy consumer protections, and increases transparency of water infrastructure charges in South East Queensland.

This bill creates a portable long service leave scheme for Queensland's community services industry. It allows workers who frequently change employers within the sector — due to short-term funding arrangements and contract-based employment — to accumulate long service leave credits across the industry rather than losing entitlements with each job change. The bill also fixes a loophole in the Industrial Relations Act 2016 so that employees dismissed due to illness are entitled to pro rata long service leave.

This bill makes a range of improvements to Queensland's workers' compensation scheme following a five-yearly independent review, strengthens protections for apprentices and trainees, requires Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander representation on the TAFE Queensland Board, and repeals the now-redundant Commonwealth Games Arrangements Act 2011.

This bill strengthens safety and health protections for workers across Queensland's coal mining, metalliferous mining, and quarrying industries. It was driven in part by the re-identification of coal workers' pneumoconiosis (black lung disease) and introduces higher penalties, new corporate accountability obligations, improved contractor management, expanded health surveillance, and stronger enforcement powers for mine inspectors.

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

This bill makes Christmas Eve a part-day public holiday in Queensland from 6pm to midnight. It recognises that Christmas celebrations often begin on the evening of 24 December and ensures workers are either able to refuse work after 6pm or receive penalty rates if they do work.

This bill sought to amend Queensland's Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 to make it unlawful to penalise someone for using traditional binary gender language like 'he', 'she', 'Mr', 'Mrs', 'husband' or 'wife'. It also aimed to protect organisations from being disadvantaged for only providing male/female facilities. The bill was introduced by Mr R Katter MP but failed at the second reading and did not become law.

This bill proposed giving Indigenous Community Justice Groups the power to approve Blue Cards (working with children checks) for community members who would otherwise be denied due to certain non-sexual criminal offences such as stealing, burglary, and drug offences. It was a private member's bill introduced by Mr R Katter MP. The bill's second reading failed and it did not become law.

This bill reforms Queensland's public service employment laws based on the independent Bridgman Review. It makes permanent employment the default for government workers, gives temporary and casual employees new rights to request conversion to permanent roles, and introduces positive performance management principles that require managers to support employees before resorting to discipline.

This bill makes deliberate wage theft a criminal offence in Queensland, punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment for stealing and 14 years for fraud. It also creates a simpler, faster and cheaper process for workers to recover unpaid wages through the Industrial Magistrates Court, with free conciliation offered before matters go to a hearing.

This bill reforms national heavy vehicle safety regulation and increases penalties for serious driving offences. It strengthens the safety obligations of heavy vehicle company executives, establishes a national database of heavy vehicles, increases penalties for careless driving causing death or serious injury, and simplifies drug driving testing procedures.

This bill makes wide-ranging amendments to laws governing land, explosives, gas safety, and mining within Queensland's Natural Resources, Mines and Energy portfolio. It introduces security clearances for people who handle explosives, modernises compliance powers for state land, protects Aboriginal freehold land on Cape York Peninsula from mining, supports Indigenous home ownership, facilitates electronic conveyancing, and addresses gas safety and abandoned mining infrastructure.

This bill creates a new independent Personalised Transport Ombudsman to investigate and help resolve complaints about taxis, ride-share and booked hire vehicle services in Queensland. It also updates transport legislation to support a new public transport ticketing system and makes various improvements to operator and driver accreditation requirements.

This bill makes a range of amendments to health and other portfolio legislation. It repeals Queensland's separate medicinal cannabis approval process in favour of the Commonwealth system, creates a register to track occupational dust lung diseases like black lung and silicosis, gives Queensland Health new powers to require public notification of pollution events, streamlines radiation safety licensing, clarifies rules for tissue removal in medical research including for children, and ensures retirement village residents with freehold units receive payment within 18 months of leaving.

This bill establishes a formal process for recognising exceptional teachers through 'Highly Accomplished Teacher' and 'Lead Teacher' certification. It empowers the Queensland College of Teachers to assess and certify teachers in State and Catholic schools against national professional standards, giving experienced educators a voluntary career pathway that does not require leaving the classroom.