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The RSHLA Act 2024

More protection for Queensland’s resources workers’ safety and health

The Resources Safety and Health Legislation Amendment Act 2024 (the Act) has introduced preventative and proactive reforms to improve the Queensland resources sector’s safety and health performance to reduce the occurrence of fatalities and serious accidents.

The reforms were informed by:

• a Review of all fatal accidents in Queensland’s mines and quarries from 2000 to 2019 (Brady Review)
• the Queensland Coal Mining Board of Inquiry finalised in May 2021
• the Queensland Government’s mining industry-wide safety resets in 2019 and 2021.

Notably, the package of reforms implements the final recommendations for Resources Safety and Health Queensland (RSHQ) from the Queensland Coal Mining Board of Inquiry which investigated the Grosvenor mine explosion and the coronial inquest into the death of Gareth Dodunski.

The key reform areas under the Act aim to:

• facilitate high reliability organisation behaviours within the resources sector
• modernise regulatory enforcement powers
• ensure Queensland’s resources safety and health legislation is contemporary and effective.

The changes will begin over the next five years to allow industry implementation.

To support the changes to the resources safety Acts, the Resources Safety and Health Legislation Amendment Regulation 2024 amends the resources safety Regulations with those changes commencing at the same time as the changes under the resources safety Acts.

Changes commencing on 1 September 2024

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