Committee Details

COMMITTEE’S REPORT

The committee tabled its Report No. 41, 57th Parliament - State Emergency Service Bill 2023 on Friday, 15 March 2024   

View: Report

The purpose of the Bill is: 

Legislative reform of Queensland’s emergency services and disaster management arrangements will be progressed in two stages. The first stage consists of three Bills that will make the legislative amendments necessary to restructure emergency service arrangements as recommended in the Independent Review Report and meet certain recommendations made in the IGEM Review. This will be achieved by: 

• establishing Marine Rescue Queensland (MRQ) as a state-wide marine rescue service through the Marine Rescue Queensland Bill 2023;
• establishing the SES through the State Emergency Service Bill 2023;
• aligning MRQ and SES under the control of the QPS through the Emergency Services Reform Amendment Bill 2023 which will make the necessary administrative and consequential amendments for this to occur; and
• formally establishing the State Disaster Management Group within the Disaster Management Act 2003 through the Emergency Services Reform Amendment Bill 2023.

The importance of SES and marine rescue volunteers to the success and effectiveness of the SES and MRQ is acknowledged through the State Emergency Service Bill 2023 and the Marine Rescue Queensland Bill 2023. These Bills will establish the SES and MRQ in ‘standalone Acts’ which will emphasise the value of each organisation, promote volunteer engagement and provide a framework that outlines the purpose, functions and command structures of each organisation and the roles of their members. 

The Bill will achieve its objectives by establishing the SES through the new State Emergency Service Act 2023 (SES Act). The new SES Act will establish the SES by relocating and expanding upon a number of provisions currently outlined in the Fire and Emergency Services Act 1990.

View: Explanatory speech 
View: Bill 
View: Explanatory Notes 
View: Statement of compatibility 

Further information

Further information including written briefings, correspondence, response to submissions, transcripts will available under the Related Publications tab in due course. 

submissions

Submissions closed on Wednesday, 31 January 2024.  Submissions can be viewed under the ‘View Submissions’ tab. 

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