Queensland parliament updates: Labor warns of ‘Newman-era attack on workers’

The deputy premier says criticisms of proposed industrial relations reforms are “scare campaigns”, claiming Queensland workers will be better off under the changes.

Jarrod Bleijie spoke in Newstead on Wednesday morning alongside representatives from groups supporting the legislation, including the Local Government Association of Queensland, Queensland Hotels Association, Business Chamber, Master Builders, Queensland Resources Council and Clubs Queensland.

“You’re going to see a mammoth campaign by the Labor Party,” he said.

“It’s going to be a lot of mistruths and misinformation, and I think everything they will be able to say … we will be able to debunk with facts.

Queensland Labor leader Steven Miles has accused Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie of reheating a “Newman-era attack on workers” through a bill introduced to parliament late last night.

Bleijie flagged the bill earlier in the day while tabling a government-commissioned review into the state’s workers’ compensation scheme and industrial relations laws, announcing the LNP would move to act on its recommendations immediately.

After coming to power with a limited industrial relations agenda, the government has put forward legislation which proposes to, among other things, hand Bleijie powers to terminate protected industrial action.

Amendments will also be made to open further avenues for an employer to apply to the industrial umpire to have such action suspended or terminated, “where public services are significantly impacted or the action is contrary to the public interest”.

Welcome back to our state parliament blog – and the final day of this sitting week.

After yesterday’s late sitting, we’ve got two bills due to pass today (establishing the Queensland Protection Commission, and another justice bill).

But first: the usual morning frivolity of ministerial statements and question time.

Follow along here! (Or catch up on the happenings of Tuesday, or Wednesday.)

The union representing prison staff has demanded the state government increase its workforce before passing new laws which experts say will put more detainees into a system they say is already at capacity.

The call comes ahead of the release of a parliamentary report into proposed breach of bail go to jail laws, which will include a mandatory year in prison for the new offence.

Together surveyed 620 prison officers across the state, with 93 per cent of respondents telling the union they can’t safely take more prisoners at current staffing levels, and three quarters of officers surveyed saying they already felt unsafe most of the time.

A Queensland Audit Office report from June 2025, cited by the union, found Queensland’s prison population of 11,278 was a 54 per cent rise over the past decade.

“The government can count beds, but our officers are telling us that’s not the same as having the capacity to run a prison safely,” assistant branch secretary Michael Thomas said.

“Every additional prisoner needs officers to supervise them, infrastructure that can support them and staff who can respond when something goes wrong.”