Industrial manslaughter laws to protect workers

INDUSTRIAL manslaughter will become an offence attracting lengthy jail time and significant fines in Queensland after legislation passed state parliament.

The Labor government’s bill, sparked by last year’s Dreamworld and Eagle Farm tragedies, passed 43 votes to 39 yesterday but with amendments blocking efforts to extend the reforms to the resources sector.

Under the laws, the maximum penalty for industrial manslaughter will be 20 years imprisonment for an individual, with a maximum fine of $10 million for a corporate offender.

The measures were prompted by the deaths of four people on Dreamworld’s Thunder Rapids Ride last October, which came three weeks after two workers who were crushed at a building site at Eagle Farm racecourse.

Industrial Relations Minister Grace Grace (pictured) said the laws reflected community expectations around how work-related fatalities should be treated.