Criminal Code
LegislationReferenced in 48 bills
Mineral and Energy Resources and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2020
This bill makes wide-ranging changes across Queensland's mining, energy and water sectors. It introduces industrial manslaughter offences for the resources industry, strengthens financial assurance requirements to prevent mining companies from abandoning sites without proper rehabilitation, streamlines resource authority approval processes, extends energy consumer protections, and increases transparency of water infrastructure charges in South East Queensland.
Domestic and Family Violence Protection and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025
This bill strengthens Queensland's response to domestic and family violence by giving police the power to issue 12-month protection directions without going to court, piloting GPS ankle bracelet monitoring for high-risk perpetrators, and expanding video-recorded evidence to all Magistrates Courts statewide. It also improves oversight of providers delivering DFV intervention programs.
Health and Other Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2023
This bill makes amendments across five health-related Acts to improve access to healthcare, strengthen patient safety, and modernise health legislation in Queensland. The most significant changes allow nurses and midwives to perform early medical terminations of pregnancy, count newborn babies as separate patients for maternity ward staffing ratios, and improve how patient safety information is shared across Queensland Health.
Police Powers and Responsibilities (Jack’s Law) Amendment Bill 2022
This bill extends and expands 'Jack's Law' -- police powers to scan people for concealed knives without a warrant. Named after 17-year-old Jack Beasley who was fatally stabbed in Surfers Paradise in 2019, the law now applies to all 15 safe night precincts across Queensland and all public transport stations and vehicles.
Police Powers and Responsibilities and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2022
This bill strengthens Queensland police powers across several areas: extending monitoring periods for convicted child sex offenders, expanding covert investigation tools for cybercrime, allowing civilians to assist in undercover police operations, and introducing new offences to crack down on hooning events and their spectators.
Expanding Adult Crime, Adult Time and Taking a Strong Stance on Drugs and Anti-Social Behaviour Amendment Bill 2026
This bill expands Queensland's youth crime laws, overhauls the drug diversion system, and creates new police powers in designated business precincts. It adds 12 new offences to the Adult Crime, Adult Time scheme so young offenders face adult penalties for more serious crimes, replaces the three-chance Police Drug Diversion Program with a stricter one-chance framework, and allows the Minister to declare business and community precincts where police have enhanced powers to address anti-social behaviour.
Criminal Code and Other Legislation (Double Jeopardy Exception and Subsequent Appeals) Amendment Bill 2023
This bill strengthens Queensland's criminal justice system in two ways: it allows convicted people to make further appeals when new evidence of their innocence emerges, and it expands the ability to retry people who were acquitted of serious crimes when fresh evidence comes to light. Queensland was one of the last Australian jurisdictions without a subsequent appeal framework, and the double jeopardy exception previously only applied to murder.
Disability Services and Other Legislation (NDIS) Amendment Bill 2019
This bill updates Queensland's disability services laws to work alongside the national NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, which commenced in Queensland on 1 July 2019. It ensures that important state-level protections for people with disability — including worker screening, authorisation of restrictive practices, coronial oversight of deaths in care, and community visitor programs — continue under the new national framework.
Making Queensland Safer Bill 2024
This bill implements the government's 'Making Queensland Safer Plan', centred on the 'adult crime, adult time' policy. It allows courts to sentence children to the same penalties as adults for 13 serious offences including murder, manslaughter, robbery and dangerous driving. It also removes the longstanding principle that detention should be a last resort for children and makes victim impact the primary consideration in youth sentencing.
State Emergency Service Bill 2023
This bill establishes the Queensland State Emergency Service (SES) as a standalone organisation under its own Act, replacing provisions previously contained in the Fire and Emergency Services Act 1990. It is part of a major reform of Queensland's emergency services that places the SES under the Queensland Police Service Commissioner and provides a dedicated legislative framework recognising the organisation's critical role in disaster response.
Justice and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2019
This bill makes a broad package of reforms across over 30 Acts in the Queensland justice portfolio. It modernises the coronial system, streamlines criminal proceedings, strengthens protections for vulnerable witnesses, closes gaps in the dangerous prisoners scheme, updates legal profession regulation, and clarifies court jurisdictional limits.
Justice and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023
This bill makes wide-ranging changes across more than 30 Queensland Acts covering the justice system, courts, the legal profession, elections, and criminal law. It introduces formal recognition of unborn children's deaths in criminal proceedings, reforms identification rules for defendants charged with sexual offences, strengthens oversight of Justices of the Peace, and modernises numerous administrative processes across Queensland's legal framework.
Youth Justice and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2021
This bill tightens bail for serious repeat youth offenders, trials electronic ankle monitoring for 16-17 year olds in limited areas, gives police new powers to scan for knives in Gold Coast entertainment precincts, and strengthens owner onus rules for hooning offences. It responds to a small cohort of recidivist young offenders responsible for nearly half of all youth crime, recent knife murders on the Gold Coast, and ongoing community concern about dangerous driving.
Criminal Code and Other Legislation (Ministerial Accountability) Amendment Bill 2019
This bill would have created criminal offences for Queensland Cabinet ministers who fail to declare conflicts of interest. It was a private member's bill introduced by then-Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington following a Crime and Corruption Commission investigation into allegations about the Deputy Premier. The bill lapsed at the end of the 56th Parliament and did not become law.
Crocodile Control and Conservation Bill 2024
This bill was discharged and did not become law. It would have established a Queensland Crocodile Authority based in Cairns to take charge of all crocodile management across the state. The bill responded to rising crocodile numbers and increasing attacks in North Queensland by creating 'zero-tolerance zones' in populated waterways and expanding commercial opportunities including egg harvesting and Indigenous land management rights.
COVID-19 Emergency Response Bill 2020
This bill was Queensland's second emergency legislative response to the COVID-19 pandemic, passed in April 2020. It created temporary powers to protect residential and commercial tenants from eviction, enabled Parliament and courts to operate remotely, established a Small Business Commissioner, and allowed legal documents to be witnessed electronically. All provisions expired on 31 December 2020.
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.
Strengthening Community Safety Bill 2023
This bill toughens Queensland's response to serious repeat youth offending, particularly involving stolen motor vehicles. It increases maximum penalties for unlawful use of motor vehicles to up to 14 years imprisonment, makes it a criminal offence for children to breach bail conditions, creates a new 'serious repeat offender' declaration for sentencing, and establishes multi-agency panels in legislation to coordinate support for high-risk young people.
Police Powers and Responsibilities and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023
This bill makes several changes to policing and emergency services law. Its centrepiece is a major expansion of the Police Drug Diversion Program, allowing people caught with small quantities of any dangerous drug to be diverted to health-based programs instead of going to court. It also increases the maximum penalty for drug trafficking to life imprisonment, creates tougher penalties for evading police in aggravated circumstances, and introduces a standalone assault offence for attacks on fire and emergency services workers.
Police Powers and Responsibilities (Making Jack’s Law Permanent) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025
This bill makes Jack's Law permanent and expands police powers to use hand held scanners to detect knives and other weapons across Queensland. It removes oversight requirements for scanning in designated locations, extends scanning to all public places, and also extends counter-terrorism detention powers for 15 years, confirms Marine Rescue Queensland's charitable status, and validates historical SES member appointments.
Justice and Other Legislation (COVID-19 Emergency Response) Amendment Bill 2020
This bill amends over 20 Queensland Acts to respond to the COVID-19 public health emergency. It provides temporary financial relief for workers, businesses, body corporate owners, and local governments, adjusts operational rules for health, disability, corrective services, and youth detention facilities, and creates new enforcement powers including court-ordered COVID-19 testing of people who cough, sneeze, or spit on others during an offence. Most provisions expired on 31 December 2020.
Police Powers and Responsibilities and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2019
This bill amends ten pieces of legislation to update police powers, strengthen domestic violence protections, give the Prostitution Licensing Authority proper enforcement tools, and modernise weapons licensing rules. It also clarifies that law enforcement access to electronic devices extends to cloud-based and social media information.
Corrective Services and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2020
This bill strengthens anti-corruption measures in Queensland prisons following the Crime and Corruption Commission's Taskforce Flaxton report, improves the parole system based on the Queensland Parole System Review, and tightens prisoner management rules. It also establishes a permanent firearms amnesty, clarifies rules for gel blaster and replica firearm possession, and increases penalties for assaults on corrective services officers.
Working with Children Legislation (Indigenous Communities) Amendment Bill 2018
This bill proposed giving Indigenous Community Justice Groups the power to approve Blue Cards (working with children checks) for community members who would otherwise be denied due to certain non-sexual criminal offences such as stealing, burglary, and drug offences. It was a private member's bill introduced by Mr R Katter MP. The bill's second reading failed and it did not become law.
Tobacco and Other Smoking Products (Dismantling Illegal Trade) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025
This bill significantly strengthens Queensland's ability to crack down on the illegal trade in tobacco, vapes and other nicotine products. It extends the time shops can be forced to close from 72 hours to three months, creates new offences for landlords who allow illegal trade on their premises, and gives Queensland Health powers to conduct covert 'test purchase' operations to catch illegal sellers.
Police Legislation (Efficiencies and Effectiveness) Amendment Bill 2021
This bill modernises Queensland Police Service operations by cutting red tape that takes officers away from frontline duties. It allows senior police to witness key documents instead of requiring a Justice of the Peace, expands powers to access locked digital devices during investigations, introduces faster saliva drug testing for officers after critical incidents, and updates firearms rules including extending temporary storage periods and supporting the permanent national firearms amnesty.
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.
Evidence and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2021
This bill makes changes across several areas of Queensland's justice system. It introduces shield laws to protect journalists' confidential sources in court, creates a framework for a pilot where police-recorded video statements can be used as evidence in domestic and family violence criminal proceedings, and establishes a process for viewing deceased persons' remains in criminal cases following the Daniel Morcombe inquest.
Police Service Administration and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2021
This bill modernises the security arrangements for Queensland government buildings by repealing the State Buildings Protective Security Act 1983 and moving its provisions into existing police legislation. It creates a single category of 'protective services officer' with standardised security powers and also streamlines identity card requirements for police officers working under Parks and Wildlife legislation.
Criminal Code and Other Legislation (Wage Theft) Amendment Bill 2020
This bill makes deliberate wage theft a criminal offence in Queensland, punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment for stealing and 14 years for fraud. It also creates a simpler, faster and cheaper process for workers to recover unpaid wages through the Industrial Magistrates Court, with free conciliation offered before matters go to a hearing.
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.
Guardianship and Administration and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2018
This bill modernises Queensland's guardianship laws to better protect adults who cannot make decisions for themselves, while also fixing unrelated issues with government integrity and corruption reporting. It implements recommendations from the Queensland Law Reform Commission's five-year review of guardianship law and the Age Friendly Community Action Plan.
Heavy Vehicle National Law and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2018
This bill reforms national heavy vehicle safety regulation and increases penalties for serious driving offences. It strengthens the safety obligations of heavy vehicle company executives, establishes a national database of heavy vehicles, increases penalties for careless driving causing death or serious injury, and simplifies drug driving testing procedures.
Emblems of Queensland and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023
This bill officially makes the Muttaburrasaurus langdoni Queensland's State fossil emblem and fixes several technical issues with parliamentary procedures, including validating remote committee participation back to 1998, protecting MP privacy during proxy votes, and clarifying the Speaker's authority over the parliamentary precinct on sitting days.
Respect at Work and Other Matters Amendment Bill 2024
This bill makes wide-ranging changes to Queensland's anti-discrimination, sentencing and judicial laws. It strengthens workplace protections against sexual harassment and discrimination, adds new grounds on which people are protected from unfair treatment, and requires employers to actively prevent discrimination. It also increases penalties for violence against workers and clarifies judicial immunity.
Defamation and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025
This bill modernises Queensland's defamation laws to address the realities of online publishing. It implements nationally agreed reforms that create clearer rules for when online platforms, search engines, internet service providers, and forum administrators can be held liable for defamatory content posted by their users. It also makes it safer to report matters to police by extending absolute privilege to those reports.
Domestic and Family Violence Protection (Combating Coercive Control) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2022
This bill strengthens Queensland's domestic and family violence laws by implementing key recommendations from the Women's Safety and Justice Taskforce. It recognises coercive control as a pattern of behaviour, modernises the stalking offence to cover technology-facilitated abuse, reforms court processes for competing protection order applications, and expands evidence rules so courts and juries better understand domestic violence dynamics. It also updates outdated sexual offence terminology and makes unrelated changes to the Coroners Act, Oaths Act, and Telecommunications Interception Act.
Environmental Protection (Powers and Penalties) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024
This bill strengthens Queensland's environmental protection laws by modernising the powers and penalties available to regulators and creating new obligations for polluters. It implements recommendations from a 2022 independent review that found existing tools were too reactive, and introduces proactive measures including a new duty to restore contaminated environments and an offence for breaching the general environmental duty.
Criminal Code and Other Legislation (Mason Jett Lee) Amendment Bill 2019
This bill sought to introduce mandatory minimum prison sentences for the murder of children and create a new criminal offence of 'child homicide'. Named after Mason Jett Lee, a toddler who was killed, it aimed to ensure sentencing for child deaths reflects community expectations and aligns with other Australian jurisdictions. The bill was defeated at the second reading and did not become law.
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.
Police Powers and Responsibilities and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2018
This bill makes wide-ranging changes to Queensland police powers and several other Acts. Its most significant reforms create new search powers for high-risk missing persons, strengthen the framework for investigating drivers who flee police, enable court-ordered access to locked electronic devices at crime scenes, and streamline parole board decision-making for serious offenders.
Criminal Code and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2019
This bill strengthens Queensland's criminal law response to child homicide, following a Sentencing Advisory Council inquiry that found community expectations were not being met. It requires courts to treat a child's vulnerability as an aggravating factor in manslaughter sentencing, expands the definition of murder to include reckless indifference to human life, and increases the maximum penalty for failing to supply necessaries to dependants from 3 to 7 years.
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.
Electoral Laws (Restoring Electoral Fairness) Amendment Bill 2025
This bill changes Queensland's electoral laws across six areas: it restricts more prisoners from voting, removes the ban on property developer donations for State elections, resets donation caps to apply each financial year instead of each parliamentary term, allows bank loans to fund State election campaigns, removes Electoral Commission oversight of party preselection ballots, and extends the period during which election material must carry authorisation details.
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.
Working with Children (Indigenous Communities) Amendment Bill 2021
This bill sought to reform Queensland's Blue Card system for Indigenous communities by giving Community Justice Groups the power to approve restricted working with children clearances for community members who would otherwise be refused due to certain past criminal offences. It was a private member's bill introduced by Mr R Katter MP that failed at the second reading stage and did not become law.
Queensland Community Safety Bill 2024
This bill introduces a comprehensive package of community safety measures across policing, criminal law, firearms regulation, youth justice, domestic and family violence, and road safety. It creates new offences and increases penalties for knife crime, dangerous driving, attacks on emergency workers, and posting criminal content online, while also modernising police operations through electronic document service and signatures.
Weapons and Other Legislation (Firearms Offences) Amendment Bill 2019
This bill proposed to crack down on firearms crime by introducing Firearm Prohibition Orders, creating new offences for shooting at buildings and possessing 3D gun blueprints, and significantly increasing penalties for weapons offences. It was a private member's bill introduced by Trevor Watts MP and lapsed at the end of the 56th Parliament without becoming law.