Department of Justice and Attorney-General
OrganisationReferenced in 33 bills
Victims' Commissioner and Sexual Violence Review Board Bill 2024
This bill establishes a Victims' Commissioner as an independent statutory officer to promote and protect the rights of victims of crime in Queensland. It also creates a Sexual Violence Review Board to identify and address systemic issues in how sexual offences are reported, investigated and prosecuted. The bill was recommended by the Women's Safety and Justice Taskforce and the Independent Commission of Inquiry into Queensland Police Service responses to domestic and family violence.
Forensic Science Queensland Bill 2023
This bill establishes Forensic Science Queensland as an independent statutory body responsible for providing forensic services to Queensland's criminal justice system. It responds to the 2022 Commission of Inquiry into Forensic DNA Testing, which found serious problems with DNA evidence handling and made 123 recommendations. Queensland becomes the first Australian state to have dedicated legislation governing forensic science services.
Public Trustee (Advisory and Monitoring Board) Amendment Bill 2021
This bill creates an independent advisory and monitoring board to oversee the Public Trustee of Queensland. It responds to the Public Advocate's 2021 report which found the Public Trustee needed greater transparency and accountability in how it manages the financial affairs of vulnerable Queenslanders, particularly people with impaired decision-making capacity.
Criminal Code (Child Sexual Offences Reform) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2019
This bill reforms Queensland's criminal justice response to child sexual abuse, implementing key recommendations from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. It creates mandatory reporting obligations for all adults, introduces new offences for possessing child abuse objects, strengthens sentencing for child sexual offenders, and establishes a pilot scheme to help vulnerable witnesses give evidence in court.
Transport Legislation (Road Safety and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2022
This bill makes a range of improvements to Queensland's transport laws. It broadens the types of road safety programs that can be funded from camera fine revenue, allows a wider range of motorised mobility devices to be used legally, extends legal protections for health professionals reporting unfit interstate drivers, streamlines court evidence rules for vehicle modification offences, and extends accommodation works powers to rail projects.
Body Corporate and Community Management and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023
This bill reforms Queensland's body corporate laws to address ageing unit complexes, pet ownership, smoking, off-the-plan property purchases, and scheme governance. It creates a new process for terminating uneconomic community titles schemes with 75% owner approval, strengthens buyer protections against sunset clause misuse in off-the-plan contracts, and clarifies residents' rights to keep pets and be protected from second-hand smoke.
Building Units and Group Titles and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2022
This bill strengthens protections for owners in older Queensland multi-owner developments (unit blocks, townhouses, mixed-use complexes) that are still governed by laws from the 1980s and 1990s. It brings these older body corporate laws closer into line with the more modern Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997 by improving governance standards, financial transparency, and dispute resolution. It also enables the Office of Fair Trading to issue infringement notices for gift card breaches.
Appropriation Bill 2022
This bill authorises the Queensland Government to spend $69.86 billion in the 2022-23 financial year across all state government departments. It is the annual legal mechanism that allows the government to fund public services including health, education, transport, policing and emergency services.
Criminal Justice Legislation (Sexual Violence and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2024
This bill implements the third tranche of legislative reforms recommended by the Women's Safety and Justice Taskforce, focusing on sexual violence and women and girls' experiences in Queensland's criminal justice system. It creates a new criminal offence to protect 16 and 17 year olds from sexual exploitation by adults in positions of authority, strengthens courtroom protections for victim-survivors, reforms evidence rules to make it easier to admit relevant past conduct in criminal trials, and extends non-contact orders from two to five years. The bill was passed with amendment.
Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024
This bill reforms Queensland's rental laws to strengthen protections for renters, stabilise rents and ease cost-of-living pressures. It also introduces mandatory continuing professional development for property agents, removes compulsory superannuation contributions for local government employees, and fixes technical issues with community titles scheme terminations.
Police Powers and Responsibilities and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024
This bill updates search and forensic procedure safeguards across Queensland law to recognise gender diversity, following the passage of the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 2023. It replaces sex-based requirements with gender-responsive ones, giving people being searched the right to express a gender preference. The bill also restricts how often prisoners can reapply for parole after refusal, expands who can assess at-risk prisoners, and clarifies planning rules for corrective services facilities.
Defamation (Model Provisions) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2021
This bill modernises Queensland's defamation laws to match nationally agreed reforms. It makes it harder to bring trivial defamation claims by requiring proof of serious harm, gives journalists and academics stronger defences when publishing on matters of public interest, and requires people to attempt to resolve disputes before going to court. It also fixes a heavy vehicle regulation issue before it causes problems for truck operators.
Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024
This bill reforms Queensland's workers' compensation scheme based on a five-yearly independent review. It strengthens rehabilitation and return-to-work requirements, expands cancer coverage for firefighters, creates faster weekly payments for injured workers, introduces new enforcement tools, and lays groundwork for future gig worker coverage. It also increases flexible parental leave and adds superannuation as a Queensland employment standard.
Meriba Omasker Kaziw Kazipa (Torres Strait Islander Traditional Child Rearing Practice) Bill 2020
This bill creates a legal framework to recognise Torres Strait Islander traditional child rearing practice (Ailan Kastom), under which children are permanently placed with cultural parents within the extended family. It establishes a new Commissioner to decide applications for cultural recognition orders that transfer legal parentage, so that a child's birth certificate and legal identity match their cultural reality. This is the first legislation of its kind in Australia.
Appropriation Bill (No. 2) 2021
This bill formally authorises $447.5 million in additional government spending that occurred during the 2020-21 financial year. The spending had already been incurred but required parliamentary approval under Queensland's Constitution. It is presented as a separate bill for timely transparency rather than being bundled with the next annual budget.
Justice and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2021
This bill makes permanent several temporary measures introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic across the justice portfolio. It modernises how legal documents are executed by allowing electronic signatures and video call witnessing, improves access to domestic and family violence protection orders, allows licensed restaurants to permanently sell takeaway wine with meals, and extends commercial lease protections.
Appropriation Bill 2021
This bill authorises the Queensland Government's budget for the 2021-22 financial year, appropriating $63.5 billion across all government departments and agencies. It also provides $31.8 billion in interim funding for the start of 2022-23 until the next budget bill passes.
Ministerial and Other Office Holder Staff and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2018
This bill gives the Director-General of the Department of the Premier and Cabinet and the Clerk of the Parliament explicit legal power to conduct criminal history checks on staff working in ministerial offices, opposition offices, electorate offices, and the Parliamentary Service. It formalises interim checking procedures that were already operating since December 2017 and aligns parliamentary staff with the criminal history check framework that already applies to Queensland public servants under the Public Service Act 2008.
Criminal Code (Decriminalising Sex Work) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024
This bill decriminalises sex work in Queensland by repealing the Prostitution Act 1999 and removing sex-work-specific criminal offences. Based on the Queensland Law Reform Commission's 47 recommendations, it replaces the existing brothel licensing system with a framework that treats sex work like any other lawful occupation, while introducing tough new offences to protect children from exploitation and prevent coercion.
Police and Other Legislation (Identity and Biometric Capability) Amendment Bill 2018
This bill amends six Queensland Acts to enable the state's participation in a national facial biometric identity matching system, strengthen police access to driver licence photos, increase penalties for explosive offences, and provide temporary extended liquor trading on the Gold Coast during the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2018
This bill improves the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) and strengthens consumer protections for motor vehicle buyers. It raises QCAT's jurisdictional limit for motor vehicle disputes from $25,000 to $100,000, reinstates statutory warranty coverage for older second-hand vehicles sold by dealers, and introduces conciliation as a new way to resolve disputes at QCAT.
Youth Justice and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2019
This bill reforms Queensland's youth justice system by creating stronger bail protections for children, reducing the time young people spend in custody on remand, and banning electronic tracking devices on children. It implements the Queensland Government's Youth Justice Strategy 2019-2023 and its principle that detention should be a last resort for young people.
Appropriation Bill 2023
This bill authorises the Queensland Government to spend $78.4 billion in the 2023-24 financial year across all government departments. It is the annual budget appropriation required by law, and also provides interim funding for early 2024-25 and covers unforeseen spending that occurred during 2022-23.
Working with Children (Risk Management and Screening) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2018
This bill implements Queensland's 'No Card, No Start' policy, requiring everyone to hold a blue card (working with children clearance) before starting child-related work. It modernises the blue card application process with online applications, creates a register of home-based care services to better monitor children's safety in foster care, kinship care and family day care settings, and expands the list of offences that permanently disqualify a person from working with children.
Appropriation Bill 2018
This bill authorises the Queensland Government to spend $53.2 billion from the Consolidated Fund in the 2018-19 financial year. It is the annual appropriation bill that gives every government department legal authority to access its budget allocation for delivering public services including health, education, transport, policing, and community support.
Betting Tax Bill 2018
This bill introduces a 15% point-of-consumption betting tax on the net wagering revenue of betting operators from bets placed by customers in Queensland. It replaces the previous point-of-supply wagering tax and aligns Queensland with similar reforms in other Australian states. The bill also removes outdated prohibitions on interstate interactive wagering.
Information Privacy and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023
This bill modernises Queensland's privacy and information access laws. It introduces mandatory data breach notification for government agencies, creates a single set of Queensland Privacy Principles to replace two existing sets, strengthens the Information Commissioner's enforcement powers, and supports the proactive release of Cabinet documents recommended by the Coaldrake Report.
Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2022
This bill authorises $2.82 billion in supplementary government spending for the 2021-22 financial year. It formally approves expenditure that exceeded original budget allocations across 14 Queensland Government departments and agencies, as required by Queensland's Constitution.
Appropriation Bill 2024
This bill authorises the Queensland Government to spend $90.4 billion in 2024-25 to fund all state government departments and services. It also provides $45.2 billion in interim supply for early 2025-26 and retrospectively authorises $6.15 billion in unforeseen expenditure from the previous year.
Appropriation Bill 2019
This bill authorises the Queensland Government to spend $54.7 billion from the Consolidated Fund for the 2019-20 financial year. It is the standard annual appropriation bill that gives 28 government departments and agencies the legal authority to spend their allocated budgets on services for Queenslanders, and provides interim supply of $27.3 billion for 2020-21.
Criminal Law (Coercive Control and Affirmative Consent) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023
This bill makes coercive control a criminal offence in Queensland and introduces an affirmative model of consent for sexual offences. It implements recommendations from the Women's Safety and Justice Taskforce and other inquiries to strengthen protections for victim-survivors of domestic, family and sexual violence across the criminal justice system.
Monitoring of Places of Detention (Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture) Bill 2022
This bill creates a legal framework for the United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture to visit and monitor Queensland detention facilities. It implements Australia's obligations under the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT), ratified in 2017, which aims to prevent torture and cruel treatment through independent international inspections of places where people are held against their will.
Appropriation (2020-2021) Bill 2020
This bill authorises the Queensland Government to spend approximately $60.86 billion in the 2020-21 financial year. It funds all government departments and services, and provides interim funding of $30.43 billion to keep government operating into early 2021-22 until the next budget is passed.