Magistrates Courts Act 1921
LegislationReferenced in 6 bills
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.
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.
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.
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 It also updates outdated sexual offence terminology and makes unrelated changes to the Coroners Act, Oaths Act, and Telecommunications Interception Act.
Public Records Bill 2023
This bill replaces the Public Records Act 2002 with a modernised law governing how Queensland's government records are created, managed and made accessible to the public. It updates definitions to cover digital records, strengthens protections against unlawful destruction of records, and recognises the importance of public records for Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples.