Grace Grace

Ignazia Graziella"Grace"Grace(néeFarfaglia) (born 12 August 1958) is an Australian politician andunionistfrom the state ofQueensland. She has been a member of theLegislative Assembly of Queenslandfor the seat ofMcConneland its predecessor seat,Brisbane Central, for all but two years since 2007.
Grace was a cabinet minister in thePalaszczukandMilesLaborGovernments from 2015 to 2024. She was also General Secretary of the Queensland Council of Unions from 2000 to 2007.
Grace was born inBrisbanein 1958. She is the daughter ofItalianmigrants Salvatore and Concetta Farfaglia, whoarrived in Australiain the early 1950s.Her father arrived first and cut cane in north Queensland to pay for her mother's fare to come over from Sicily. Grace attendedAll Hallows Schoolin Fortitude Valley.
Grace's father Salvatore suffered a serious workplace injury at a tannery that rendered him unable to work, which inspired her later involvement in the union movement. She had a career as an official in several unions and served as anindustrial relationsadvisor to theKeating government. Grace was elected as the first female General Secretary of theQueensland Council of Unionsin 2000 and served in that role until 2007.
She married Michael Grace in 1985 and has one child.
Grace was first elected to the State Parliament at the2007 Brisbane Central state by-electionfollowing the resignation ofPremierPeter Beattie. Grace was re-elected in2009but lost the seat to theLiberal National Party'sRobert Cavallucciin2012. She won back the seat of Brisbane Central at the2015state election. After the seat was renamed McConnel, she was re-elected again in2017,2020and2024.
Grace was a notable supporter of theBlighGovernment's decision to legislatecivil partnershipsfor same-sex couples in Queensland, and voted to reinstate them in 2015 after civil partnerships were ended by theNewmanLNP Government.New FarmandFortitude Valley, the main centres for Brisbane's LGBTIQ+ community, are both in her electorate and she has built close ties with gay rights organisations.
Later as an MP and minister in the Palaszczuk Government she supported further reforms including legalising same-sex adoptions;equalisation of the age of consent in Queensland;a Queensland Government apology to people convicted of homosexual offences beforehomosexuality was legalised in 1990and passing legislation to allow for those historic convictions to be expunged;a ban on gay conversion therapies;and passing legislation to modernise birth certificates to better recognise trans and gender-diverse Queenslanders, including allowing people to have their gender accurately documented without undergoing sexual reassignment surgery.
Following a commitment made by Grace and the Labor Party at the 2015 state election   public sexual health services were restored at Biala, Brisbane's only free sexual health clinic. Biala's funding and staffing has been significantly cut by the Newman LNP Government in 2013.
Grace campaigned in the 2015 state election to prevent the sale ofFortitude Valley State Schoolafter it was closed in 2013 by the Newman Government and earmarked for private property development. As Education Minister she opened a new school, Fortitude Valley State Secondary College, on the site in 2020. This was the first inner-city Brisbane school to be built in over 50 years and the first vertical school in Queensland.
In 2016, Grace supported a campaign which succeeded in restored public access to the riverfront boardwalk at Mactaggarts Place inTeneriffeafter a fence was erected by body corporate of private apartment building Mactaggarts Place.
Grace advocated for the $31.5 million redevelopment ofBallymore Stadiumthat was completed in 2023. This established the National Rugby Training Centre as the new national headquarters of theAustralian national women's rugby union team, and a new training base for theQueensland Reds.
Inconscience votes, Grace supported theTermination of Pregnancy Bill 2018,which decriminalisedabortion in Queensland, and theVoluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2021, which legalisedvoluntary assisted dying.
In 2015 Grace was elected Deputy Speaker of the Queensland Legislative Assembly until being appointed as a cabinet minister in thePalaszczuk Government. In December 2015, following a cabinet reshuffle she was sworn in as Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations, Minister for Racing and Minister for Multicultural Affairs.
During the government'ssecond term(2017–2020) Grace was made Minister for Education and Minister for Industrial Relations. Following the 2020 state election, she maintained theserolesand was made Minister for Racing for a second time.
Grace has served continuously as Minister for Industrial Relations since December 2015 and passed significant legislative reforms that made Queensland the first Australian State to establish a scheme to licence thelabour-hireindustry in 2017;makeindustrial manslaughteran offence in 2017;makewage-thefta criminal offence;and to introduce entitlements for Queenslandpublic sectorworkers to 10 days paid domestic and family violence leave in 2016 and 10 days reproductive health leave in 2024.
Grace also reformed Queensland's trading hours arrangements in 2017, by reducing 99 different trading-hour zones to four core trading hours areas to provide better certainty for workers and businesses;and established Easter Sunday and Christmas Eve after 6PM aspublic holidaysin Queensland.
In 2018 Grace was the first minister in the country to advocate for a national ban on the use, supply, importation, and manufacture ofengineered stoneto protect workers fromsilica and dust diseases. All Australian jurisdictions agreed to a national ban in December 2023.
As Education Minister, Grace oversaw the Cooler Cleaner Schools Program thatair-conditionedevery classroom, library and staff room inQueensland state schools, and placed almost 200,000 solar panels on roof tops of over 900 state schools by 2022, which contributed 61.4 megawatts towards Queensland's renewable energy target.
Grace announced that Queensland children would have access to free kindergarten in sessional kindergartens and long day care services for 15 hours per week, 40 weeks per year, from 2024.
In 2023 Grace announced a $35 million investment to provide vending machines with free period products to any Queensland state school that wanted one.
Following thesuccession of Premier Steven Miles, Grace became Minister for State Development and Infrastructure, Minister for Industrial Relations and Minister for Racing in theMiles Governmenton 18 December 2023.
As State Development Minister, Grace has responsibility for the2032 Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games. In December 2023 the Miles Government commissioned an independent review into Games venue infrastructure, led by former Brisbane Lord MayorGraham Quirk. The Review made 30 recommendations, including a proposal to build 'greenfield'  55,000-seat stadium inVictoria Parkin Brisbane with an estimated $3.4 billion cost. The Miles Government accepted 27 of the Review's recommendations in March 2024, but it rejected the proposal to build a stadium in Victoria Park. Grace said of the proposal: "Victoria Park is highly-valued by the community, and we have no plans to spend billions of dollars to encroach into that green space."
The Miles Government was defeated at the2024 state electionand Labor became theOpposition. Grace was appointed to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Minister for Trade, Industrial Relations, Olympic and Paralympic Games and Racing.
Grace was awarded the Knight of theOrder of the Merit of the Italian Republicby the Consul of Italy in 2021.