Queensland has created new industrial manslaughter laws following last year’s deaths at Dreamworld.

Senior executives of corporations could be charged under the new laws if someone dies at their workplace.

The Queensland Government says it is ensuring that no-one is above the law when it comes to workplace fatalities.

Industrial Relations Minister Grace Grace said the deaths of two workers at the Eagle Farm Racecourse and the deaths of four visitors to the Dreamworld theme park last year showed the need for stronger punishment.

“We owe it to the victims of these tragedies and their loved ones to ensure Queensland has strong industrial manslaughter laws to protect people on the job backed by strong penalties for employers proven to be negligent,” Ms Grace told parliament.

“No one should be above the law and that's what this bill seeks to achieve.

“This isn't about favouring unions as those opposite side claims, it's about saving lives and holding negligent employers to account.

“It's simply not good enough that a company and its senior officers can negligently cause the death of a worker and evade justice due to the veil of corporate anonymity.”

The state’s Opposition did not support the laws, which it says the Labor Government only took on at the insistence of the CFMEU.

Opposition Industrial Relations spokesperson Jarrod Bleijie said the punishments in existing legislation were enough.

“People are currently being prosecuted … the current laws are working,” Mr Bleijie said.

“Make no mistake this is a union payback.

“Everything we've seen from this Minister for Industrial Relations with her background in the union indicates the legislation we have in this is a pay off to the union movement.”

Gold Coast criminal lawyer Bill Potts says the new legislation makes legal action against companies by unions easier.

“There can be no doubt that the unions or plaintiff lawyers who are seeking to sheet home blame — not merely to individuals but to companies — will find some comfort in this law,” Mr Potts told the ABC.

“And this is one of the reasons the law society took the view that the present law already covered the field.

Mr Potts said the measures could go further than just punishment, and help to deter rogue companies from creating unsafe workplaces in the first place.

“Any death in the workplace is one too many,” he said.

“The question is going to be is whether this law will succeed in reducing the number of deaths and succeed in ensuring companies have better work cultures designed to prevent the loss of life of either workers or in the case of Dreamworld innocent victims seeking to have a day of fun.”