Evidence Act 1977
LegislationReferenced in 19 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.
Forensic Science Queensland Bill 2023
This bill establishes Forensic Science Queensland as an independent statutory body following the 2022 Commission of Inquiry into Forensic DNA Testing, which found serious problems with DNA analysis in Queensland. It creates a Director with statutory independence, a supporting office, and an Advisory Council to ensure forensic services are reliable and impartial.
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.
Disability Services and Other Legislation (Worker Screening) Amendment Bill 2020
This bill creates a nationally consistent worker screening system for the NDIS to better protect people with disability from harm. It requires workers in risk-assessed roles to be screened before starting work, enables clearances to be recognised across all Australian states and territories, and introduces ongoing national criminal history monitoring.
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.
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.
Meriba Omasker Kaziw Kazipa (Torres Strait Islander Traditional Child Rearing Practice) Bill 2020
This bill creates Australia's first legal framework to recognise Torres Strait Islander traditional child rearing practice (Ailan Kastom), where children are raised by cultural parents within extended family networks. It allows families to apply for cultural recognition orders that transfer legal parentage from birth parents to cultural parents, reflected on new birth certificates.
Evidence and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2021
This bill makes several changes to Queensland's evidence and court procedures. It introduces shield laws to protect journalists' confidential sources, allows domestic violence victims to use police-recorded video statements as their main evidence, creates new procedures for examining deceased persons' remains in criminal cases, and makes administrative updates to magistrate transfers and computer warrants.
Crime and Corruption and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024
This bill reforms Queensland's Crime and Corruption Commission following the 2022 Fitzgerald-Wilson Commission of Inquiry and parliamentary reviews. It requires the Director of Public Prosecutions to advise on corruption charges before they are laid, extends journalist shield laws to CCC proceedings, and changes how CCC Commissioners are appointed and how long they can serve.
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.
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.
Police Service Administration (Discipline Reform) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2019
This bill reforms Queensland's police discipline system, which had been criticised for lengthy delays, outdated sanctions, and overly legalistic processes. It introduces mandatory timeframes for resolving complaints, modernises disciplinary options to include rehabilitation measures, creates a faster process for straightforward matters, and strengthens oversight by the Crime and Corruption Commission.
Child Safe Organisations Bill 2024
This bill creates Queensland's child safe organisations system, implementing key recommendations from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. It requires organisations working with children to meet 10 Child Safe Standards and establishes a Reportable Conduct Scheme where allegations of child abuse by workers must be reported to and investigated under the oversight of the Queensland Family and Child Commission.
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.
Public Records Bill 2023
This bill replaces Queensland's 20-year-old public records law to bring it into the digital age. It modernises how government records are defined, managed, and accessed, while formally recognising the importance of public records for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and creating new advisory bodies to ensure their interests are considered.
Environmental Protection and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2022
This bill modernises Queensland's environmental protection laws by streamlining approval processes, strengthening compliance powers, and better protecting the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area. It introduces temporary environmental authorities for emergency situations and bans mining in the Wet Tropics.
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.