Health Legislation Amendment Bill 2026
Plain English Summary
Overview
This bill changes six Queensland health laws at once. It gives Queensland Health power to acquire land directly for new and expanded hospitals, makes a series of mental health law changes, bans pharmacy-supermarket links online, helps schools follow up on adolescent immunisations, requires hepatitis C RNA tests to be reported, and speeds up the destruction of seized illicit tobacco and vapes.
Who it affects
It affects landowners near hospitals, people in the mental health and forensic systems and the staff who care for them, pharmacy and supermarket businesses, families with school-age children, pathology labs, and illicit tobacco sellers.
Hospital land acquisition
Queensland Health currently has to go through the Department of Natural Resources and Mines to acquire land for hospitals when it cannot buy it privately. The bill gives the chief executive of Queensland Health a direct power to acquire land, by agreement or compulsorily, for a broad range of health infrastructure purposes.
- Queensland Health can directly acquire land for hospitals, ambulance services and related facilities to deliver the Hospital Rescue Plan (the 2025-26 Budget allocated more than $18 billion over five years for more than 2,600 new beds)
- The chief executive must take reasonable steps to buy or acquire the land by agreement before any compulsory acquisition
- Compensation and the taking process still follow the Acquisition of Land Act 1967
Mental health reform
The bill makes substantive and technical changes to the Mental Health Act 2016 covering forensic order reviews, information disclosure, short-term detention, and what happens when a person in the system is removed from Queensland under federal law.
- The review of forensic orders made by criminal courts moves from the Mental Health Review Tribunal to the Mental Health Court, which can then apply a non-revocation period to eligible orders
- The Chief Psychiatrist must make a safety-and-security policy for patients transferred from custody to inpatient mental health services
- The President of the Mental Health Review Tribunal may authorise members or staff to disclose personal information to lessen or prevent a serious risk to a person's life, health or safety (new section 787A)
- A new power allows detention of up to 72 hours to conduct an examination for a Chief Psychiatrist-initiated report
- New provisions (new chapter 15, part 6A) let staff assist Commonwealth officers with immigration detention or extradition, disclose personal information to them, and end or suspend forensic orders and treatment support orders for people deported, removed or extradited from Queensland
Pharmacy ownership protection
The Pharmacy Business Ownership Act 2024 already keeps pharmacies separate from supermarkets in physical stores. The bill extends this separation to the online environment to protect the community pharmacy model.
- Supermarkets cannot advertise or link to pharmacy businesses online
- Customers cannot buy pharmacy medicines, including scheduled medicines, through a supermarket app or website
- Pharmacies cannot offer pickup of online pharmacy orders from a participating supermarket
Adolescent immunisation
When an external provider runs the School Immunisation Program, privacy rules can stop it sharing student details back to the Hospital and Health Service for follow-up. The bill removes that barrier.
- External providers can share student information with Hospital and Health Services for follow-up purposes when requested
- Lets Hospital and Health Services contact families, clarify consent and schedule catch-up immunisations for year 7 and 10 students
Disease monitoring
The bill lets Queensland Health set more precise pathology reporting rules and requires hepatitis C RNA tests to be reported, so it can better tell active from cleared infections.
- Requires hepatitis C RNA tests (requests and results, including negative results) to be reported to Queensland Health
- Allows more granular reporting rules so labs only report clinically meaningful test types, reducing unnecessary reporting
Illicit tobacco forfeiture
Seized illicit tobacco and nicotine products currently have to be stored for at least eight weeks through a show-cause and appeal process. The bill extends the fast-track forfeiture already used for vapes to these products.
- Seized illicit tobacco and nicotine pouches can be forfeited and destroyed promptly without the eight-week storage period
- Removes the inconsistent treatment of associated 'compromised goods' seized alongside them
Bill Journey
Referenced Entities
Legislation
Organisations
Programs & Schemes
Places
Sectors Affected
Classified using AGIFT/ANZSIC Australian government standards