Blue Card system
Program / SchemeReferenced in 7 bills
Disability Services and Other Legislation (NDIS) Amendment Bill 2019
This bill updates Queensland's disability services laws for the full rollout of the National Disability Insurance Scheme from 1 July 2019. It ensures state-level protections for people with disability continue under the new national framework, strengthens criminal screening of disability workers, and maintains coronial oversight and community visitor programs for NDIS participants receiving high-level supports.
Disability Services and Other Legislation (Worker Screening) Amendment Bill 2020
This bill creates a mandatory screening system for people who work with Queenslanders with disability. It implements the nationally agreed NDIS worker screening scheme and establishes a separate state system for disability services funded outside the NDIS. The bill also strengthens how the blue card system works alongside disability screening to protect children with disability.
Penalties and Sentences (Sexual Offences) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025
This bill makes four sets of changes: it strengthens sentencing for sexual offences based on recommendations from the Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council, creates a new offence for impersonating government agencies, updates crimes at sea laws to match the national scheme, and fixes technical issues in the blue card system for working with children.
Working with Children Legislation (Indigenous Communities) Amendment Bill 2018
This bill proposed giving Indigenous Community Justice Groups the power to approve Blue Cards (working with children checks) for community members who would otherwise be denied due to certain non-sexual criminal offences such as stealing, burglary, and drug offences. It was a private member's bill introduced by Mr R Katter MP. The bill's second reading failed and it did not become law.
Police Powers and Responsibilities and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2021
This bill makes broad changes across policing, corrective services, and child protection law. It tackles knife crime in entertainment precincts, overhauls parole rules for the most serious murderers, strengthens 'No Body, No Parole' laws, creates tougher penalties for harming police and corrective services animals, and updates child sexual abuse offence lists to include modern Commonwealth offences.
Working with Children (Risk Management and Screening) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2018
This bill introduces a 'No Card, No Start' policy for Queensland's blue card system, meaning no one can begin paid work with children without first holding a working with children clearance. It also modernises the blue card application process with online options, expands the criminal offences that automatically disqualify a person from working with children, closes loopholes that allowed high-risk people to rely on exemptions, and creates a centralised register of home-based care services.
Working with Children (Indigenous Communities) Amendment Bill 2021
This bill would have created a new Blue Card framework giving Indigenous community justice groups the power to recommend restricted working with children clearances for people in their communities. It aimed to address chronic unemployment in remote Indigenous communities where the standard Blue Card system's inflexibility prevents people with certain past offences from accessing employment, even when the local community considers them safe. The bill's second reading was defeated and it did not become law.