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COMMITTEE’S REPORT

The committee tabled its report on 12 August 2022. The Bill was passed with amendment on 28 October 2022.

ABOUT THE BILL 

On 23 June 2022, Hon Grace Grace MP, Minister for Education, Minister for Industrial Relations and Minister for Racing, introduced the Industrial Relations and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2022 into the Queensland Parliament.  The Bill was referred to the Education, Employment and Training Committee for detailed consideration.   

View:  Bill
View:  Explanatory Notes
View:  Statement of Compatibility
View:  Explanatory Speech

As set out in the explanatory notes, the Bill’s primary objective is to give effect to Queensland Government response to the recommendations of the Five-year Review of Queensland’s Industrial Relations Act 2016 – Final Report. The report, government response and other information about the five-year review are available from the Office of Industrial Relations website. 

The amendments in the Bill related to the review are intended to:

• strengthen protections against workplace sexual harassment
• support effective representation of employees and employers by registered industrial organisations and maintain the integrity of the registration framework for industrial organisations
• update the Queensland Employment Standards to ensure that Queensland workers have access to entitlements which are equal to or more favourable than the equivalent entitlement under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth)
• empower the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission to set minimum standards for independent courier drivers
• update the collective bargaining framework to ensure access to arbitration by a single Commissioner during enterprise bargaining negotiations, and include equal remuneration as an aspect of good faith bargaining, and
• remove a number of redundant or superfluous provisions, including the provisions enabling the recovery of historical employee overpayments by Queensland Health.

The Bill also makes complementary amendments to the Industrial Relations Act 2016 (the IR Act) and the Associations Incorporations Act 1981 (the AI Act) to clarify the ability of an entity to represent industrial interests, where the entity is not a registered organisation under the IR Act but is incorporated under the AI Act. 

The Bill also amends the:

• Anti-Discrimination Act 1991
• Public Trustee Act 1978, and
• Associations Incorporation Regulation 1999.

TIMELINE