Public Health Act 2005
LegislationReferenced in 31 bills
Health Transparency Bill 2019
This bill creates a new framework for publicly reporting quality, safety and staffing information about Queensland hospitals and aged care facilities. It also sets minimum staffing levels in public aged care homes and reforms the health complaints system to improve coordination between the Health Ombudsman and the national health practitioner regulator, AHPRA.
Public Health (Declared Public Health Emergencies) Amendment Bill 2020
This bill was introduced in February 2020 in direct response to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. It extends the maximum period for renewing a declared public health emergency from 7 days to 90 days, giving Queensland Health greater continuity in managing the pandemic response.
Work Health and Safety and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023
This bill strengthens Queensland's workplace health and safety laws by implementing recommendations from two major reviews. It enhances the powers and protections of health and safety representatives, makes it easier for registered unions to participate in safety matters, lowers the prosecution threshold for the most serious safety offences from recklessness to negligence, and bans insurance that covers workplace safety fines.
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.
Public Health and Other Legislation (Extension of Expiring Provisions) Amendment Bill 2020
This bill extended Queensland's COVID-19 emergency powers from 31 December 2020 until 30 September 2021. It maintained the Chief Health Officer's ability to issue public health directions, continued hotel quarantine cost recovery, and preserved emergency provisions in the Mental Health Act.
Building and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2022
This bill modernises Queensland's building and construction laws across several areas. It strengthens homeowners' rights to install solar panels free from aesthetic restrictions by developers and body corporates, expands the use of treated greywater in large buildings, improves subcontractor payment protections, and gives the Queensland Building and Construction Commission stronger regulatory and enforcement powers.
Health and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2022
This bill amends eight health-related Acts to strengthen protections for public health workers, modernise cancer data collection, enable electronic recording of Mental Health Review Tribunal proceedings, expand school vision screening, streamline organ donation consent, and update various administrative processes across Queensland's health system.
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.
Emergency Services Reform Amendment Bill 2023
This bill makes the administrative and legal changes needed to restructure Queensland's emergency services following independent reviews. It transfers the State Emergency Service and the new Marine Rescue Queensland under the Queensland Police Service, establishes a State Disaster Management Group chaired by the Premier for faster disaster response, and updates more than a dozen laws to reflect the new arrangements. The reforms are backed by $578 million in funding over five years.
Health Legislation Amendment Bill 2019
This bill makes wide-ranging amendments to Queensland's health legislation. It strengthens governance of the public health system, embeds commitments to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health equity, bans conversion therapy by health service providers, repeals the outdated Pap Smear Register, updates private health facility accreditation requirements, and adjusts administrative arrangements for the Queensland Mental Health Commission.
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.
COVID-19 Emergency Response and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2020
This bill extends Queensland's COVID-19 emergency response legislation from 31 December 2020 to 30 April 2021, keeping temporary measures in place across tenancy, courts, health and other areas. It also makes standalone reforms to support artisan distillers, reform local government vacancy processes, and enable COVID-safe by-elections.
Health Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2025
This bill amends five health-related laws to strengthen pharmacy ownership regulation, improve occupational disease tracking, enhance mosquito-borne disease surveillance, streamline Mental Health Commissioner appointments, and clarify radioactive waste disposal rules. The largest component prepares Queensland's pharmacy business ownership licensing framework for full commencement by March 2026.
Assisted Reproductive Technology Bill 2024
This bill creates Queensland's first laws to regulate the fertility industry and establishes a central register of donor conception information. It was introduced after high-profile failures in 2023, including allegations of wrong donor sperm being used and donors having far more genetic offspring than guidelines allow. The bill requires all fertility clinics to hold a Queensland licence, sets enforceable rules for how gametes and embryos are used, and gives all donor-conceived people the right to know who their biological donor is.
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.
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.
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.
Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Bill 2022
This bill repeals and replaces Queensland's births, deaths and marriages registration law. It removes the requirement for surgery to change a person's recorded sex, allows same-sex parents to both use matching titles on birth certificates, streamlines registry services, and strengthens name change fraud prevention. It also adds new anti-discrimination protections for intersex people.
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.
Public Health and Other Legislation (Public Health Emergency) Amendment Bill 2020
This bill gave the Queensland Government broad emergency powers to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. It strengthened the Chief Health Officer's ability to issue enforceable public health directions, introduced on-the-spot fines for non-compliance, provided flexibility for elections and planning processes, and allowed Executive Council meetings to be held remotely. Most emergency provisions included a one-year sunset clause.
Public Health and Other Legislation (Further Extension of Expiring Provisions) Amendment Bill 2021
This bill extends Queensland's temporary COVID-19 emergency laws from 30 September 2021 to 30 April 2022. It keeps in place the Chief Health Officer's powers to issue public health directions, require quarantine, and restrict movement, while also reforming the quarantine fee system to allow prepayment by prescribed traveller cohorts and third-party liability for fees.
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 (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.
Medicines and Poisons Bill 2019
This bill repeals Queensland's 80-year-old medicines and poisons laws and replaces them with a single modern framework. It streamlines licensing for businesses that manufacture, wholesale or sell medicines and poisons, introduces real-time monitoring of prescriptions for opioids and other dependence-forming drugs, and makes it easier for GPs to prescribe medicinal cannabis.
Health Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 3) 2025
This bill amends eight Queensland health laws to fix practical problems with fertility clinic regulation, strengthen the government's power to remove health board members, introduce mandatory cosmetic surgery standards for private hospitals, and create a legal framework for organ donation procedures before a donor's death. It also streamlines private hospital data sharing and updates disease notification requirements.
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.
Health and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2018
This bill makes a range of amendments to health and other portfolio legislation. It repeals Queensland's separate medicinal cannabis approval process in favour of the Commonwealth system, creates a register to track occupational dust lung diseases like black lung and silicosis, gives Queensland Health new powers to require public notification of pollution events, streamlines radiation safety licensing, clarifies rules for tissue removal in medical research including for children, and ensures retirement village residents with freehold units receive payment within 18 months of leaving.
Environmental Protection and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2022
This bill modernises Queensland's environmental protection laws by amending the Environmental Protection Act 1994 and several related Acts. It streamlines regulatory processes for environmental authorities and impact assessments, strengthens compliance powers for environmental inspectors, creates temporary authority provisions for emergency situations, improves contaminated land management, and bans mining in the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area.
COVID-19 Emergency Response and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2021
This bill extends Queensland's temporary COVID-19 emergency laws until 30 September 2021, continuing protections and flexible arrangements across tenancy, courts, corrections, gaming, and other areas. It also gives local governments new powers to adjust rates mid-year, hold COVID-safe by-elections, and continue remote council meetings.
Housing Availability and Affordability (Planning and Other Legislation Amendment) Bill 2023
This bill amends Queensland's planning laws to address the housing availability crisis. It gives the State new powers to acquire land for development infrastructure, creates a streamlined 'state facilitated application' process for priority housing developments, introduces an Urban Investigation Zone to manage growth areas, modernises outdated Development Control Plans, reduces red tape for urban encroachment registrations, and updates various operational aspects of the planning framework.
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.