Helana Jones Centre
PlaceReferenced in 6 bills
Corrective Services (Emerging Technologies and Security) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2022
This bill modernises Queensland's corrective services and youth detention laws to address emerging security threats and improve emergency preparedness. It creates new criminal offences for flying drones over prisons and youth detention centres, authorises x-ray body scanners and surveillance devices, overhauls the emergency declaration framework to cover disasters and pandemics, and strengthens information sharing between corrective services and partner agencies.
Inspector of Detention Services Bill 2021
This bill creates an independent Inspector of Detention Services to oversee Queensland's prisons, youth detention centres, community corrections centres, work camps and police watch-houses. The Inspector, held by the Queensland Ombudsman, will conduct regular inspections and reviews of detention facilities and report findings directly to Parliament, with the aim of preventing harm and improving conditions for people in custody.
Public Health and Other Legislation (Extension of Expiring Provisions) Amendment Bill 2022
This bill extended Queensland's core COVID-19 public health emergency powers from 30 April 2022 to 31 October 2022 (or earlier if the Health Minister ended the emergency), while allowing most other pandemic-era modifications to business, court, and local government processes to expire. It preserved the Chief Health Officer's ability to issue public health directions such as mask mandates, quarantine requirements, and gathering restrictions, and continued COVID-19 measures in corrective services, disaster management, and mental health settings.
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.
Public Health and Other Legislation (COVID-19 Management) Amendment Bill 2022
This bill wound back Queensland's broad COVID-19 emergency powers and replaced them with a smaller set of temporary public health powers that expired on 31 October 2023. It allowed the Chief Health Officer to continue issuing directions about isolation, quarantine, masks and vaccination of workers in high-risk settings, but removed powers for border closures, lockdowns, gathering restrictions and general vaccination requirements.
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.