Legislation Status Check

With the Queensland Parliament having been dissolved by proclamation on 29 October, ahead of the impending Queensland Election, the status of some of the Bills considered in the final sitting weeks of the last Parliament have been unclear.
The Property Council examines the fate of the most relevant Bills to the state’s property industry below.

Passed and assented:

• Work Health and Safety and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2017
  The Bill, which was passed by Parliament, establishes an independent statutory office for work health and safety prosecutions, introduces an offence of industrial manslaughter, and amends right-of-entry provisions. The commencement date for a majority of the amendments will be 1 July 2018.

Passed, but awaiting Royal Assent:

• Building Industry Fairness (Security of Payment) Bill 2017
  The Property Council has been advised that this legislation will be presented for Assent very shortly. The Bill contains a two-stage adoption process which will see the requirement for mandatory Project Bank Accounts rolled-out across Queensland. An initial stage, slated to begin on 1 January 2018, will see the requirement applied to government building and construction projects between $1 million and $10 million. A second stage, to begin 1 January 2019, will expand the application of mandatory PBAs to all building and construction projects over $1 million. These dates cannot be proclaimed until after the election, however, it is not anticipated that the election result will affect these timeframes.
• Housing Legislation (Building Better Futures) Amendment Bill 2017
  The Queensland Parliament has passed this Bill which will amend the Housing Act 2003, Manufactured Homes (Residential Parks) Act 2003, Residential Services (Accreditation) Act 2002, Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008, and Retirement Villages Act 1999. However, this Bill is also awaiting Royal Assent. Many of the forms and regulatory requirements which will be needed to support these reforms are yet to be developed by the Government. These will be subject to a consultation process in 2018.

Lapsed:

• Local Government Electoral (Implementing Belcarra) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2017
  The Bill, which seeks to give effect to the Government’s proposed ban on political donations from property developers, has lapsed and will need to be reintroduced by the Government if they are re-elected. However, the threat of a retrospective application of the donation ban to 12 October 2017, when this Bill was introduced, has resulted in a de facto ban on property developer political donations throughout the current election campaign.
• Electricity and Other Legislation (Batteries and Premium Feed-in Tariff) Amendment Bill 2017
  The Government was unable to pass this Bill before the Parliament was dissolved, resulting in it also having lapsed. Amendments proposed in the Bill would have had the effect of removing the restriction placed on ‘receivers’ having to connect to the local distribution network, in order to access retail market offers from an authorised retailer. This Bill formed part of the new national regulatory framework for retail competition in embedded electricity networks, which is due to commence on 1 December 2017. Advice is being sought from the Government on what components of the new national regulatory framework will commence on 1 December, and which will have to wait until the next Parliament can pass a similar amendment Bill.

A full list of the status of Bills in the previous Parliament can be found on the Parliament’s website.