Penalties and Sentences Act 1992
LegislationReferenced in 30 bills
Domestic and Family Violence Protection and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025
This bill gives Queensland Police new powers to protect victims of domestic and family violence without going to court. Police can issue 12-month protection directions immediately, high-risk perpetrators can be fitted with GPS monitoring devices, and victims can give evidence by video recording rather than in person.
Making Queensland Safer Bill 2024
This bill implements the Government's 'adult crime, adult time' policy, allowing children who commit serious offences to receive the same sentences as adults, including mandatory life imprisonment for murder. It removes the principle that detention should be a last resort for young offenders and requires courts to give primary consideration to victims when sentencing. The changes also open up Childrens Court proceedings to victims and media.
Justice and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2019
This bill makes wide-ranging amendments to over 35 justice-related Acts to improve court and tribunal efficiency. It modernises the coronial system, strengthens protections for vulnerable witnesses, expands when property offences can be dealt with in Magistrates Courts, and closes gaps in dangerous prisoner supervision laws.
Criminal Code (Child Sexual Offences Reform) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2019
This bill implements recommendations from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. It creates new offences requiring adults to report child sexual abuse to police (including information from religious confession), makes it a crime to fail to protect children in institutional settings, criminalises child-like sex dolls, and enables prosecution of historical abuse that was previously time-barred.
Criminal Code (Consent and Mistake of Fact) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2020
This bill makes changes across several unrelated areas of law. Most significantly, it clarifies consent laws for sexual offences by putting existing case law into the Criminal Code, making it clearer that silence is not consent and that voluntary intoxication is no excuse. It also extends police banning notices, bans predatory wagering marketing, and ensures victims of solicitor fraud receive full compensation.
Child Protection (Offender Reporting and Offender Prohibition Order) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2022
This bill updates Queensland's monitoring system for convicted child sex offenders living in the community. It requires offenders to report their use of anonymising software, hidden applications and digital device details, while giving police stronger powers to inspect devices and track offenders' online activities.
Justice and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023
This bill makes wide-ranging updates to Queensland's justice system, covering courts, tribunals, the legal profession, electoral processes, and victim recognition. It brings significant changes including allowing public identification of sexual offence defendants before committal, better recognition of unborn children's deaths in criminal proceedings, stronger oversight of JPs, and various administrative improvements.
Youth Justice and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2021
This bill responds to a small group of repeat young offenders responsible for nearly half of youth crime by tightening bail laws and allowing GPS monitoring. It also gives Gold Coast police new powers to scan people for knives in entertainment areas, and makes it easier to prosecute drivers involved in hooning offences.
Termination of Pregnancy Bill 2018
This bill decriminalises termination of pregnancy in Queensland, removing it from the Criminal Code and treating it as a health matter. It allows women to access terminations through registered medical practitioners up to 22 weeks gestation, with additional safeguards for later terminations, and creates protected zones around clinics.
Community Based Sentences (Interstate Transfer) Bill 2019
This bill allows adults serving community-based sentences in Queensland to have their sentences formally transferred to another state or territory when they move interstate. It replaces informal arrangements with a proper legal framework that ensures offenders can be supervised and held accountable wherever they live in Australia.
Criminal Justice Legislation (Sexual Violence and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2024
This bill implements major reforms to Queensland's criminal justice system to better support victim-survivors of sexual violence and domestic violence. It creates new protections for young people from adults in positions of trust, makes court processes less traumatic for victims, and updates evidence rules to allow juries to hear about patterns of offending behaviour.
Police Powers and Responsibilities and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023
This bill makes several changes to police and emergency services operations in Queensland. The major reform expands the Police Drug Diversion Program beyond cannabis to cover all dangerous drugs, treating minor drug possession as a health issue rather than a criminal matter. It also increases penalties for serious offences including life imprisonment for drug trafficking and higher penalties for evading police in dangerous circumstances.
Penalties and Sentences (Sexual Offences) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025
This bill reforms how courts sentence sexual offenders and creates a new offence for impersonating government agencies. It implements recommendations from the Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council to better recognise victim harm and limit offenders using their 'good reputation' to reduce sentences.
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 investigation, improves the parole system for victims of crime, and establishes a permanent firearms amnesty allowing people to surrender unregistered firearms without prosecution. It also clarifies lawful possession of gel blasters and replica firearms for club members and collectors.
Tobacco and Other Smoking Products (Dismantling Illegal Trade) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025
This bill dramatically strengthens Queensland's enforcement powers against illegal tobacco and nicotine vape sales. It extends business closure periods from 72 hours to 3 months, creates new criminal and civil penalties for landlords who allow illegal sales on their premises, and enables undercover operations to catch offenders.
Police Powers and Responsibilities and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2021
This bill is a package of law and order reforms covering knife crime, parole restrictions for the worst murderers, stronger 'No Body, No Parole' laws, protection for police animals, and updated child sex offender monitoring. It aims to improve public safety while reducing trauma for victims' families through the parole process.
Criminal Code (Decriminalising Sex Work) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024
This bill decriminalises sex work in Queensland, removing criminal offences for sex work between consenting adults and abolishing the brothel licensing system. It implements the Queensland Law Reform Commission's recommendations to treat sex work as legitimate work while creating strong new offences to protect children from exploitation.
Respect at Work and Other Matters Amendment Bill 2024
This bill strengthens Queensland's anti-discrimination and workplace protections by requiring employers to actively prevent discrimination and harassment, expanding the grounds on which discrimination is prohibited, and creating new protections against sex-based harassment and hostile work environments. It also increases penalties for violence against workers and clarifies judicial immunity for magistrates.
Youth Justice and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2019
This bill reforms Queensland's youth justice system to keep more children out of detention while awaiting trial. It creates a clear presumption that children should be released on bail, bans electronic tracking devices for young people, and requires police to consider alternatives to arrest when children breach bail conditions.
Health Legislation Amendment Bill 2025
This bill puts frontline health workers on Hospital and Health Boards and cracks down on illegal vaping. It requires each hospital board to include at least one doctor, nurse or allied health professional who actually works at that hospital. It also allows Queensland Health to immediately destroy seized vaping products rather than storing them for weeks, and lets courts make convicted sellers pay enforcement costs.
Domestic and Family Violence Protection (Combating Coercive Control) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2022
This bill implements the Women's Safety and Justice Taskforce's recommendations to combat coercive control in domestic and family violence situations. It modernises stalking laws to cover technology-facilitated abuse, requires courts to identify the person most in need of protection in disputed cases, and improves how evidence of domestic violence patterns is recognised in criminal proceedings.
Tow Truck Bill 2023
This bill replaces the 50-year-old Tow Truck Act 1973 with modern legislation governing the towing of vehicles from crash scenes, police seizures and private property in regulated areas of Queensland. It maintains consumer protections for vulnerable motorists while modernising the accreditation system for tow truck operators, drivers and assistants.
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 offence of 'child homicide'. Named after Mason Jett Lee, a child who was killed, it aimed to align Queensland's sentencing with other Australian states. The bill was defeated at the second reading and did not become law.
Justice Legislation (Links to Terrorist Activity) Amendment Bill 2018
This bill implements a national agreement to restrict bail and parole for people with links to terrorism. It reverses the usual presumption in favour of release, requiring courts to refuse bail and parole unless 'exceptional circumstances' exist. The changes apply to adults and children who have been convicted of terrorism offences, are subject to Commonwealth control orders, or have promoted terrorism.
Criminal Code and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2019
This bill responds to community concern that sentences for people who kill children are too lenient. It requires courts to treat a child's vulnerability as an aggravating factor when sentencing for manslaughter, expands the definition of murder to include reckless indifference to human life, and increases the penalty for failing to provide necessaries to dependants.
Criminal Law (Coercive Control and Affirmative Consent) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023
This bill implements major reforms to Queensland's laws on domestic and family violence and sexual violence, following recommendations from the Women's Safety and Justice Taskforce. It creates a new criminal offence of coercive control (carrying up to 14 years imprisonment), introduces affirmative consent laws requiring active agreement to sexual activity, specifically criminalises 'stealthing', and establishes a diversion scheme for first-time DVO offenders.
Victims of Crime Assistance and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023
This bill substantially increases financial assistance for victims of violent crime in Queensland, with the maximum payment rising from $75,000 to $120,000. It also recognises the seriousness of domestic and family violence by increasing special assistance payments for those victims from $1,000 to $9,000.
Electoral and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2019
This bill reforms Queensland's State electoral system to improve integrity, transparency and efficiency. It implements anti-corruption recommendations from the Crime and Corruption Commission's Belcarra investigation, modernises voting procedures based on lessons from the 2016 elections, and updates electoral laws to reflect Queensland's move to four-year fixed parliamentary terms.
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 increasing penalties for weapons offences. The bill lapsed at the end of the 56th Parliament and did not become law.
Making Queensland Safer (Adult Crime, Adult Time) Amendment Bill 2025
This bill expands Queensland's 'Adult Crime, Adult Time' policy by adding 20 serious offences to the list of crimes for which young offenders can be sentenced as adults. It allows courts to impose adult maximum penalties, including life imprisonment with a 15-year mandatory minimum non-parole period, on young people convicted of offences including rape, torture, kidnapping, arson, and drug trafficking.