Qld to bring back civil unions

Straight and same-sex couples in Queensland will be able have formal ceremonies to mark civil unions again under proposed state laws.

Laws restoring state-sanctioned civil partnership ceremonies, which were scrapped by the Liberal National Party government in 2012, will be introduced to state parliament on Thursday.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says every Queensland couple, no matter what their gender, deserves the right to hold a ceremony to mark their legal partnerships.

"We know how important that recognition is to all couples, not only because it gives their relationship official legal status, but because it allows them an official declaration of their love and devotion," she told parliament.

The previous Newman government rushed through legal changes to remove civil partnership ceremonies within three months of forming government in March 2012.

Instead, couples could only register their relationships with Births, Deaths and Marriages.

Couples have also had to end their relationships in the same way, without a former divorce-style process, since the LNP changed the laws.