Criminal Code Act 1899
LegislationReferenced in 113 bills
Child Protection Reform Amendment Bill 2017
This bill rewrites large parts of Queensland's Child Protection Act 1999 to give children in long-term out-of-home care more stability and to strengthen cultural protections for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. It introduces a new 'permanent care order' lasting until age 18, limits successive short-term orders to two years, extends support for young people leaving care up to age 25, and simplifies how agencies share information to protect children at risk.
Vegetation Management and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2018
This bill reinstates and strengthens Queensland's vegetation clearing laws, delivering on the government's election commitment to end broadscale tree clearing. It removes the ability to clear remnant vegetation for agriculture, extends regrowth protections to freehold and indigenous land, expands watercourse protections to all Great Barrier Reef catchments, and significantly increases penalties for unlawful clearing.
Transport Operations (Road Use Management) (Offensive Advertising) Amendment Bill 2016
This bill lets Queensland's transport department cancel a vehicle's registration if the vehicle keeps displaying advertising that has been ruled offensive under the national advertising code. It puts teeth behind the Advertising Standards Bureau's decisions, which until now have relied on voluntary compliance.
Victims' Commissioner and Sexual Violence Review Board Bill 2024
This bill establishes a Victims' Commissioner as an independent statutory officer to promote and protect the rights of victims of crime in Queensland. It also creates the Sexual Violence Review Board to examine systemic problems in how sexual offences are reported, investigated and prosecuted. The bill transfers the Charter of Victims' Rights from the Victims of Crime Assistance Act 2009 and gives the Commissioner power to handle complaints when victims' rights are breached.
Guardianship and Administration and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2017
This bill modernises Queensland's guardianship laws to better protect adults with impaired decision-making capacity and align them with international human rights standards. It also makes separate, unrelated changes to integrity advice rules for senior public servants and resolves a conflict between state and federal whistleblower laws for government-owned corporations.
Mental Health (Recovery Model) Bill 2015
This bill replaces Queensland's Mental Health Act 2000 with a new framework for treating people with mental illness who cannot consent to their own care. It is built around a recovery model that treats people in the community wherever possible, strengthens patient rights, and provides clearer ways to divert people with mental illness from the criminal justice system while protecting the community.
Planning and Development (Planning for Prosperity) Bill 2015
This bill was a complete rewrite of Queensland's planning laws, aimed at replacing the 700-page Sustainable Planning Act 2009 with a simpler, faster system. It simplified development categories, cut State planning instruments from four to two, increased maximum fines for illegal development to over $500,000, and gave councils new powers over party houses. The bill was introduced by the Newman LNP government shortly before the 2015 election and did not pass; Queensland's planning system was instead replaced by the Labor government's Planning Act 2016.
Criminal Code (Defence of Dwellings and Other Premises—Castle Law) Amendment Bill 2026
This bill amends Queensland's Criminal Code to enshrine 'castle law' principles, giving homeowners and occupiers broader legal protection when using force against intruders. It extends the existing self-defence provision beyond dwellings to cover other premises such as vehicles, caravans and tents, and expands the circumstances in which potentially lethal force may lawfully be used. It was introduced as a private member's bill following the largest e-petition in Queensland history, with 113,380 signatures.
Justice and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2026
This bill is a wide-ranging omnibus that tackles metal theft with new criminal offences and penalties up to 25 years imprisonment, improves the coronial system to handle deaths in custody more efficiently and cover deaths of people with disability receiving Commonwealth supports, raises the District Court's civil jurisdiction from $750,000 to $1.5 million, and makes numerous other updates to justice and administrative legislation including repealing the Brisbane Casino Agreement Act.
Mineral and Energy Resources and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2020
This bill makes wide-ranging changes to Queensland's resources, energy, and water laws. It introduces industrial manslaughter offences for the mining and resources sector, reforms how the State manages mine rehabilitation and abandoned mines, tightens scrutiny of who can hold resource authorities, extends energy consumer protections, and increases transparency of water infrastructure charges in South East Queensland.
Health Practitioner Regulation National Law and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2018
This bill reforms how health practitioners who treat other health practitioners handle mandatory reporting, and toughens penalties for people who pretend to be registered health professionals. It was agreed by all Australian health ministers through COAG and applies nationally, with Queensland as the host jurisdiction.
Domestic and Family Violence Protection and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025
This bill reforms Queensland's response to domestic and family violence by giving police the power to issue 12-month protection directions without going to court, piloting GPS electronic monitoring for high-risk perpetrators, and expanding video-recorded evidence across all Magistrates Courts statewide. It aims to reduce the operational burden on police while providing faster, longer-term protection for victim-survivors.
Work Health and Safety and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023
This bill overhauls Queensland's workplace health and safety framework by implementing recommendations from two major reviews. It strengthens health and safety representatives, gives registered unions a direct role in workplace safety matters, makes it easier to prosecute the most serious safety offences by adding negligence as a fault element, and bans insurance against WHS fines.
Health and Other Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2023
This bill makes a range of changes across five health-related Acts to improve healthcare access, strengthen patient safety, and update health legislation. Key reforms include allowing nurses and midwives to perform early medical terminations of pregnancy, counting newborns as separate patients for maternity ward staffing ratios, and enabling better sharing of patient safety information across Queensland Health.
Police Powers and Responsibilities (Jack’s Law) Amendment Bill 2022
This bill extends and expands 'Jack's Law' — police powers to scan people for concealed knives without a warrant using hand-held metal detectors. Named after 17-year-old Jack Beasley who was fatally stabbed in Surfers Paradise in 2019, the law now applies to all 15 safe night precincts across Queensland and all public transport stations and vehicles.
Police Powers and Responsibilities and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2022
This bill strengthens Queensland's response to child sex offending, cybercrime, organised crime, and hooning. It doubles reporting periods for child sex offenders, gives police new covert investigation tools for online fraud and identity theft, allows civilians to assist in undercover operations, and creates offences targeting hooning spectators, organisers, and promoters.
Criminal Law Amendment Bill 2016
This bill removes the so-called 'gay panic' defence by stopping killers from using an unwanted sexual advance as grounds for reducing murder to manslaughter, except in exceptional cases. It also packages a long list of other criminal law tidy-ups, covering criminal proceeds confiscation, court evidence, juries, Magistrates Court procedure, and sentencing enforcement.
Mental Health Amendment Bill 2016
This bill makes technical and protective amendments to the Mental Health Act 2016 before it starts on 5 March 2017. The key change stops statements made by a person during a court-ordered mental health assessment or examination from being used against them in civil or criminal proceedings, so patients can be frank with clinicians. The bill also tightens limits on detention, seclusion and restraint, fixes gaps affecting private mental health services, and makes small changes to the Public Health Act 2005 and Coroners Act 2003.
Holidays and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2015
This bill moves Labour Day back to the first Monday in May and the Queen's Birthday to the first Monday in October from 2016 onwards. It also lets people apply online for high risk work licences (for cranes, forklifts and scaffolding) by reusing driver licence photos, and consolidates the rules about digital photos and signatures across six transport and ID laws into one place.
Expanding Adult Crime, Adult Time and Taking a Strong Stance on Drugs and Anti-Social Behaviour Amendment Bill 2026
This bill expands the Adult Crime, Adult Time youth sentencing scheme to 12 additional serious offences, replaces the existing police drug diversion program with a stricter one-chance framework, and creates new Designated Business and Community Precincts where police have enhanced powers to tackle anti-social behaviour.
Criminal Code (Serious Vilification and Hate Crimes) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023
This bill strengthens Queensland's hate crime laws by creating higher penalties for offences motivated by hatred based on race, religion, sexuality, sex characteristics or gender identity. It also bans the public display of hate symbols like Nazi imagery, and makes it easier to prosecute serious vilification offences. The bill implements recommendations from the Legal Affairs and Safety Committee's inquiry into serious vilification and hate crimes.
Criminal Code and Other Legislation (Double Jeopardy Exception and Subsequent Appeals) Amendment Bill 2023
This bill reforms Queensland's criminal appeals system in two significant ways. It creates a new right for convicted persons to make subsequent appeals to the Court of Appeal when fresh or new compelling evidence emerges, even after their original appeal has been decided. It also expands the double jeopardy exception — which previously only applied to murder — to allow retrials for 10 additional serious offences punishable by life imprisonment.
Child Protection (Offender Reporting) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2016
This bill merges Queensland's two child sex offender laws into a single combined Act, tightens the rules that reportable offenders must follow, and gives police new powers to inspect the phones and computers of offenders most at risk of reoffending. It responds to a 2013 review by the Crime and Corruption Commission and is aimed at helping police intervene before further offences occur.
Making Queensland Safer Bill 2024
This bill implements the government's 'adult crime, adult time' policy, allowing children convicted of serious offences like murder, robbery, burglary and dangerous driving to receive the same penalties as adults. It also removes the principle of detention as a last resort, makes victim impact the primary consideration in sentencing young offenders, and creates an automatic process to transfer 18-year-olds from youth detention to adult prisons.
State Emergency Service Bill 2023
This bill establishes the Queensland State Emergency Service (SES) as a standalone organisation under its own Act, moving it out of the Fire and Emergency Services Act 1990 and under the control of the Queensland Police Service Commissioner. It is part of a broader reform of Queensland's emergency services following an independent review, and formalises the SES's role in rescue, search, severe weather response, and disaster resilience.
Marine Rescue Queensland Bill 2023
This bill establishes Marine Rescue Queensland (MRQ) as a dedicated statewide marine rescue service, unifying the existing volunteer Coast Guard flotillas and Volunteer Marine Rescue squadrons into one organisation under the Queensland Police Service. It is part of a broader reform of Queensland's emergency services following independent reviews that found the fragmented system led to duplication, unclear boundaries, and inconsistent training.
Justice and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2019
This bill amends over 30 Acts and regulations within the justice portfolio to improve how Queensland's courts, tribunals, and administrative agencies operate. It modernises the coronial system, strengthens protections for vulnerable witnesses, speeds up the handling of property offences, and fixes various anomalies across the justice system.
Criminal Code (Child Sexual Offences Reform) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2019
This bill reforms Queensland's criminal justice system to better protect children from sexual abuse and improve access to justice for survivors. It implements key recommendations from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, strengthens sentencing for child exploitation material offences, and criminalises child abuse objects such as life-like child replicas.
Casino Control and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2022
This bill overhauls Queensland's casino and gambling regulation following major integrity failures found at casinos in other states. It introduces stronger enforcement powers for casino operators including fines up to $50 million, enables cashless gambling across all forms of gambling, creates a new simulated events wagering product, and simplifies fundraising rules for national charities.
Criminal Code (Consent and Mistake of Fact) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2020
This bill makes changes across several unrelated areas of Queensland law. It clarifies sexual consent provisions in the Criminal Code following a Queensland Law Reform Commission review, bans online wagering sign-up inducements, strengthens alcohol-fuelled violence measures including longer police banning notices and tighter ID scanning, and ensures victims of solicitor dishonesty receive full compensation from the Legal Practitioners' Fidelity Guarantee Fund.
Child Protection (Offender Reporting and Offender Prohibition Order) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2022
This bill updates Queensland's child protection offender registry scheme to address technology-based offending that has become more prevalent since the COVID-19 pandemic. It strengthens police monitoring powers over convicted child sex offenders, particularly their use of digital devices, anonymising software, and online platforms.
Justice and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023
This bill makes wide-ranging changes across Queensland's justice system, courts, electoral processes, and victims' rights. Major reforms include formally recognising the deaths of unborn children in criminal sentencing, allowing media to identify sexual offence defendants before committal, improving accountability for Justices of the Peace, modernising legal costs disclosure, and saving postal votes affected by envelope errors.
Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2021
This bill creates Queensland's voluntary assisted dying scheme, giving adults who are suffering from a terminal illness expected to cause death within 12 months the legal right to choose the timing and manner of their death. It establishes a rigorous process involving three requests and two independent medical assessments, with extensive safeguards to protect vulnerable people from coercion.
Building and Construction Legislation (Non-conforming Building Products - Chain of Responsibility and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2017
This bill strengthens Queensland's building safety laws after the Melbourne Lacrosse Tower cladding fire and the Infinity cables recall. It makes every link in the building product supply chain - designers, manufacturers, importers, suppliers and installers - legally responsible for making sure products are safe and fit for purpose. It also gives the Queensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC) new powers to investigate, seize dangerous products, and share safety information with other regulators.
Transport and Other Legislation (Managing E-mobility Use and Protecting Our Communities) Amendment Bill 2026
This bill introduces nation-leading reforms to regulate e-mobility devices in Queensland, responding to a near-doubling of injuries and 12 deaths in 2025. It sets a minimum rider age of 16 with a learner licence requirement, gives police powers to seize and destroy non-compliant devices, introduces drink-riding offences with random breath testing, and makes parents responsible when their children ride illegally.
Youth Justice and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2021
This bill tightens bail rules for serious repeat young offenders, gives police new powers to scan for knives in Gold Coast entertainment precincts, and makes it harder for hooning drivers to avoid identification. It responds to a small cohort of recidivist youth offenders responsible for nearly half of all youth crime, tragic knife murders in Surfers Paradise, and ongoing community concerns about dangerous driving.
Corrective Services (No Body, No Parole) Amendment Bill 2017
This bill introduces a 'No Body, No Parole' rule in Queensland. Prisoners serving time for murder, manslaughter or related homicide offences cannot be released on parole if the victim's body or remains have not been found, unless the Parole Board is satisfied they have cooperated satisfactorily with police to help locate the victim.
University Legislation Amendment Bill 2017
This bill modernises the governance of Queensland's seven public universities. It removes the power for universities to make statutes, requires each to publish a policy for electing staff and student representatives, loosens delegation rules, and imposes new disclosure duties on governing body members. It also lets James Cook University reshape the size and composition of its council.
Court and Civil Legislation Amendment Bill 2017
This bill bundles many small justice-portfolio reforms into one Act. It speeds up how courts and tribunals work, brings Queensland's film and game classification laws in line with the national scheme, strengthens the Ombudsman, creates an automatic domestic violence notation on criminal records, and updates a long list of rules on wills, trusts, legal practice and retail shop leases.
Criminal Code and Other Legislation (Ministerial Accountability) Amendment Bill 2019
This bill would have created criminal offences for Queensland Cabinet ministers who fail to declare conflicts of interest. It was a private member's bill introduced by then-Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington following a Crime and Corruption Commission investigation into allegations about the Deputy Premier. The bill lapsed at the end of the 56th Parliament and did not become law.
Termination of Pregnancy Bill 2018
This bill decriminalises termination of pregnancy in Queensland by removing century-old Criminal Code offences and creating a new health-based legal framework. Based on 28 recommendations from the Queensland Law Reform Commission, it allows medical practitioners to perform terminations on request up to 22 weeks gestation, with clinical safeguards for later terminations. It also establishes safe access zones around clinics and protects women from criminal liability.
Criminal Code (Non-consensual Sharing of Intimate Images) Amendment Bill 2018
This bill creates new criminal offences for sharing intimate images without consent, commonly known as 'revenge porn'. It criminalises both the actual distribution of intimate images and threats to distribute them, with penalties of up to 3 years imprisonment. Courts can also order offenders to remove or delete the images.
Work Health and Safety and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2017
This bill introduces a new criminal offence of industrial manslaughter in Queensland, with up to 20 years jail for employers or senior officers whose negligence causes a worker's death and up to $10 million for companies. It follows a government review prompted by the Dreamworld and Eagle Farm worker fatalities and also creates an independent WHS Prosecutor, expands workplace safety dispute powers to the Industrial Relations Commission, and brings back Workplace Health and Safety Officers.
Electrical Safety and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024
This bill updates Queensland's electrical safety and workplace health and safety laws based on recommendations from five major reviews. It brings new technologies like e-scooters and battery storage systems under electrical safety regulation, strengthens industrial manslaughter laws to cover deaths of bystanders, makes it easier to prosecute serious safety breaches, and gives worker safety representatives new powers to document hazards.
Crocodile Control and Conservation Bill 2024
This bill sought to establish a Queensland Crocodile Authority based in Cairns to take over all crocodile management in the state. It aimed to make North Queensland waterways safer by creating zero-tolerance zones where crocodiles must be removed, while also expanding the crocodile farming and egg harvesting industry. This bill was discharged and did not become law.
COVID-19 Emergency Response Bill 2020
This bill established temporary emergency powers to help Queensland respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. It protected renters and small businesses from eviction, allowed Parliament and courts to operate remotely, and gave government broad powers to modify legal requirements around documents, time limits, and proceedings. The entire Act expired on 31 December 2020.
Criminal Justice Legislation (Sexual Violence and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2024
This bill implements the third wave of reforms from the Women's Safety and Justice Taskforce, focusing on sexual violence and improving how women and girls experience the criminal justice system. It creates new offences to protect young people from sexual exploitation by people in authority, strengthens protections for vulnerable witnesses, allows expert evidence to help juries understand victim behaviour, and modernises rules about how past behaviour evidence can be used in criminal trials.
Transport and Other Legislation (Personalised Transport Reform) Amendment Bill 2017
This bill sets up a new regulatory framework for taxis, limousines and ride-booking services like Uber in Queensland. It creates new licence and authorisation categories, imposes a chain of responsibility for safety across the industry, and strengthens penalties for unlicensed services.
Strengthening Community Safety Bill 2023
This bill toughens Queensland's response to youth crime by increasing penalties for motor vehicle theft (up to 14 years for aggravated offences), strengthening bail conditions for young offenders, and creating a new 'serious repeat offender' declaration that prioritises community safety in sentencing. It also establishes multi-agency collaborative panels to coordinate support services for at-risk children.
Police Powers and Responsibilities and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023
This bill makes several changes to policing and emergency services laws in Queensland. It expands the Police Drug Diversion Program so people caught with small quantities of any dangerous drug — not just cannabis — can be diverted to health services instead of going to court. It also increases the maximum penalty for drug trafficking to life imprisonment, creates tougher penalties for evading police in dangerous circumstances, and introduces a new offence for assaulting fire and emergency services workers.
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.
Police Powers and Responsibilities (Making Jack’s Law Permanent) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025
This bill makes Jack's Law permanent and expands police powers to use hand held scanners to detect knives and weapons in public places across Queensland. It also extends terrorism preventative detention powers by 15 years, confirms Marine Rescue Queensland can receive charitable gifts, and validates past SES volunteer appointments.
Criminal Law (Domestic Violence) Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2015
This bill responds to the Not Now, Not Ever report by the Special Taskforce on Domestic and Family Violence. It creates a new criminal offence of strangulation in a domestic setting, makes domestic violence an aggravating factor that increases sentences, and restores the power of lawyers to suggest specific sentences to the court.
Justice and Other Legislation (COVID-19 Emergency Response) Amendment Bill 2020
This bill made temporary amendments to over 20 Queensland Acts as the state's third legislative response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It addressed issues that could not be dealt with under the existing COVID-19 Emergency Response Act 2020 modification framework, providing financial relief for workers, property owners and businesses, strengthening public health and emergency powers, and enabling corrections, disability and mental health services to operate safely during the emergency. Most provisions expired on 31 December 2020.
Police Powers and Responsibilities and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2019
This bill amends ten pieces of legislation to modernise police powers, strengthen domestic violence protections, improve prostitution regulation enforcement, and reform weapons licensing. It clarifies that police can access cloud-based and social media data from digital devices under warrant, and makes a range of operational improvements for the Queensland Police Service.
Limitation of Actions and Other Legislation (Child Abuse Civil Proceedings) Amendment Bill
This bill would have removed time limits on civil lawsuits for child abuse, allowing survivors to sue institutions no matter how long ago the abuse happened. It also let survivors undo past settlements forced by expiring deadlines, stopped institutions from getting cases dismissed over delays they themselves caused, and restored jury trials for these cases. The bill failed at the second reading and did not become law.
Mental Health Bill 2015
This bill completely replaces Queensland's Mental Health Act 2000 with a new framework for treating people with serious mental illness who cannot consent to their own treatment, and for dealing with people with a mental illness who are charged with serious crimes. It tightens the criteria for involuntary treatment, strengthens patient rights, limits the use of restraint and seclusion, and creates a new role - the chief psychiatrist - to oversee the system.
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 report, reforms the parole system based on the Queensland Parole System Review, creates a permanent firearms amnesty, and regulates the possession of replica firearms including gel blasters.
Vegetation Management (Reinstatement) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2016
This bill reinstates stronger vegetation clearing laws to slow land clearing and protect the Great Barrier Reef. It re-regulates high-value regrowth on freehold and indigenous land, stops new approvals for clearing native vegetation for high-value agriculture, and brings back riverine protection permits for destroying vegetation in waterways. Key clearing rules apply retrospectively from 17 March 2016 to prevent a rush of pre-emptive clearing.
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.
Tobacco and Other Smoking Products (Dismantling Illegal Trade) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025
This bill gives Queensland Health significantly stronger powers to shut down shops selling illegal tobacco and vapes, and hold their landlords accountable. It responds to the rapid growth of the illicit tobacco and vaping market, which is increasingly linked to organised crime and poses serious public health risks, particularly for young people.
Police Legislation (Efficiencies and Effectiveness) Amendment Bill 2021
This bill streamlines Queensland Police Service operations by cutting red tape and updating outdated processes. It lets senior police officers witness certain affidavits instead of requiring a Justice of the Peace, expands police powers to seek court-ordered access to seized digital devices, introduces faster saliva drug testing for officers after critical incidents, and makes several changes to weapons licensing administration.
Jobs Queensland Bill 2015
This bill creates Jobs Queensland, a new independent body that advises the state government on what skills Queensland will need, how to plan for future workforce needs, and how the apprenticeship and traineeship system should work. It is intended to give industry, unions, and regional Queensland a stronger voice in shaping training priorities.
Counter-Terrorism and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2015
This bill keeps Queensland's preventative detention terrorism laws from expiring and extends police counter-terrorism powers beyond state borders. It also widens who is responsible for fire safety in buildings, protects police review commissioners from being sued, and updates Queensland laws to recognise the new federal Australian Border Force.
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 permanently placed with cultural parents within the extended family network. It establishes a Commissioner to decide applications for cultural recognition orders that legally transfer parentage, resulting in new birth certificates that reflect a person's cultural identity.
Health and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2016
This bill makes a set of changes across health, research and criminal law. It equalises Queensland's age of consent at 16 for all sexual activity, gives GPs access to hospital records through a system called The Viewer, streamlines research use of patient data, lets schools share student details with immunisation and dental providers, and frees QIMR Berghofer to pay research bonuses up to $10 million a year without Cabinet approval.
Evidence and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2021
This bill makes changes across several areas of Queensland's justice system. It introduces shield laws to protect journalists' confidential sources, creates a pilot program allowing domestic violence victims' police-recorded statements to be used as court evidence, and establishes new rules for handling deceased persons' remains in criminal cases following the Daniel Morcombe inquest.
Police Service Administration and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2021
This bill modernises the security framework for Queensland Government buildings by repealing the State Buildings Protective Security Act 1983 and integrating Protective Services into the Queensland Police Service. It creates a single category of protective services officer (PSO) with standardised powers and introduces new accountability measures including a register of enforcement acts.
Criminal Law (Raising the Age of Responsibility) Amendment Bill 2021
This bill sought to raise Queensland's minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14 years old, consistent with United Nations standards and medical evidence that children under 14 lack the brain development to fully understand the consequences of their actions. It was a private member's bill introduced by Michael Berkman MP (Greens) that failed at its second reading vote and did not become law.
Justice and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2021
This bill makes permanent several temporary COVID-19 measures in Queensland's justice system. It modernises how legal documents are signed and witnessed by allowing electronic signatures and video link witnessing, improves access to domestic violence protection orders, lets licensed restaurants permanently sell takeaway wine with meals, and extends COVID-19 retail lease protections.
Youth Justice and Other Legislation (Inclusion of 17-year-old Persons) Amendment Bill 2016
This bill raises the age of a 'child' in Queensland's youth justice system from under 17 to under 18, so 17-year-olds are treated as young people rather than adults in the criminal justice system. It also sets up transitional rules to move 17-year-olds currently in adult prisons, on remand or in adult court proceedings into the youth justice system. Queensland was the last state to treat 17-year-olds as adults, and the change aligns with national practice and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Criminal Law (Domestic Violence) Amendment Bill 2015
This bill toughens Queensland's response to domestic violence by increasing penalties for breaching protection orders, flagging domestic violence offences on criminal histories, and giving victims better protections when they give evidence in court. It delivers three recommendations from the 'Not Now, Not Ever' Taskforce report on domestic and family violence.
Criminal Code and Other Legislation (Wage Theft) Amendment Bill 2020
This bill makes wage theft a criminal offence in Queensland, with penalties of up to 10 years imprisonment for stealing wages and 14 years for fraud against employees. It also creates a simpler, cheaper process for workers to recover unpaid wages through the Industrial Magistrates Court, including conciliation before matters go to a hearing.
Criminal Code (Decriminalising Sex Work) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024
This bill decriminalises sex work in Queensland by repealing criminal offences that made most forms of sex work illegal and abolishing the brothel licensing system. It implements recommendations from the Queensland Law Reform Commission to treat sex work as legitimate work, while introducing new offences specifically targeting the exploitation of children and coercion in commercial sexual services.
Police and Other Legislation (Identity and Biometric Capability) Amendment Bill 2018
This bill enables Queensland to participate in national facial biometric identity matching services, removes restrictions on police accessing driver licence photos for serious crime investigations, increases penalties for explosive offences, and provided temporary extended liquor trading for the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.
Heavy Vehicle National Law and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2018
This bill strengthens safety obligations for heavy vehicle businesses, increases penalties for driving offences that cause death or serious injury, and introduces several road safety improvements. It also establishes a national database of heavy vehicles and facilitates the transition from the Federal Interstate Registration Scheme to state-based registration.
Emblems of Queensland and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023
This bill officially makes the Muttaburrasaurus langdoni Queensland's State fossil emblem and fixes several technical issues with parliamentary procedures, including validating remote committee participation back to 1998, protecting MP privacy during proxy votes, and clarifying the Speaker's authority over the parliamentary precinct on sitting days.
Adoption and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2016
This bill modernises Queensland's adoption laws after a five-year statutory review. It opens adoption to same-sex couples, single people and people undergoing fertility treatment, improves access to adoption records (including information about possible birth fathers), and removes an old criminal offence for breaching pre-1991 contact statements. It also tightens the step-parent adoption process and allows in-person contact between adopted children and their birth families during interim orders.
Respect at Work and Other Matters Amendment Bill 2024
This bill makes major reforms to Queensland's anti-discrimination laws, implementing recommendations from the national Respect@Work inquiry, the QHRC's Building Belonging review, and parliamentary committee reports on vilification. It also strengthens sentencing for workplace violence, clarifies judicial immunity, and gives magistrates access to parental leave.
Motor Accident Insurance and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2019
This bill makes it a criminal offence to engage in 'claim farming' — the practice of cold-calling Queenslanders after car accidents and pressuring them to make CTP insurance claims, then selling their details to lawyers for a fee. It also strengthens the Motor Accident Insurance Commission's powers to investigate law practices involved in claim farming.
Working with Children Legislation (Indigenous Communities) Amendment Bill 2017
This bill would have let Community Justice Groups in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities recommend that a local person be issued a blue card to work with children in their own community, even if a past non-sexual conviction would normally block one. The card would be valid only in that community. The bill was introduced by Mr Robbie Katter MP and lapsed at the end of the 55th Parliament, so it did not become law.
Counter-Terrorism and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2017
This bill gives Queensland Police broader powers to respond to terrorist attacks, bomb threats, hostage situations and other critical incidents. Police can search phones and require passwords, photograph and fingerprint people in an emergency area, use tracking and surveillance devices more freely, and destroy explosives on the spot. It also makes preventative detention orders easier to obtain and allows senior sergeants to declare emergencies.
Medicines and Poisons Bill 2019
This bill replaces Queensland's 80-year-old medicines and poisons laws with a modern regulatory framework. It consolidates the Health Act 1937, Health (Drugs and Poisons) Regulation 1996, and Pest Management Act 2001 into a single, outcomes-based system that is easier for health practitioners and businesses to follow while better protecting public safety.
Bail (Domestic Violence) and Another Act Amendment Bill 2017
This bill strengthens protections for domestic violence victims by making it harder for accused offenders to get bail and giving victims more information about what happens next. It reverses the presumption in favour of bail for domestic violence offences, allows GPS tracking as a bail condition, and requires victims to be notified when a defendant applies for or is granted bail.
Defamation and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025
This bill modernises Queensland's defamation laws for the digital age by implementing nationally agreed reforms. It creates new protections for digital platforms and online service providers regarding defamatory content posted by third parties, gives courts stronger powers to order removal of defamatory material online, and extends absolute privilege to complaints made to police.
Domestic and Family Violence Protection (Combating Coercive Control) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2022
This bill strengthens Queensland's response to domestic and family violence by implementing recommendations from the Women's Safety and Justice Taskforce. It recognises coercive control as a pattern of behaviour, modernises stalking laws to cover technology-facilitated abuse, reforms how courts handle competing domestic violence claims, and improves evidence rules so juries better understand DFV dynamics. It also makes unrelated changes to the Coroners Act, Oaths Act, and Telecommunications Interception Act.
Serious and Organised Crime Legislation Amendment Bill 2016
This bill dismantles Queensland's 2013 anti-bikie laws and replaces them with a new Organised Crime Regime. It repeals the VLAD Act and Criminal Organisation Act 2009, removes mandatory minimum penalties targeting gang members, and introduces a new consorting offence, control orders, public safety orders and a mandatory seven-year jail 'top-up' for serious organised crime. It also toughens laws on online child exploitation, boiler-room fraud and drug trafficking, and restores fair process rights for people applying for licences in regulated industries such as tattooing and security.
Personalised Transport Ombudsman Bill 2019
This bill creates a Personalised Transport Ombudsman to independently handle complaints about taxis, rideshare, and booked hire services in Queensland. It also updates transport laws to support new contactless ticketing technology for public transport and makes several improvements to operator and driver licensing requirements.
Transport Legislation (Road Safety and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2019
This bill strengthens Queensland's road safety laws by expanding drink driving interlock requirements to mid-range offenders, introducing mandatory education programs for all drink drivers, and enabling speed cameras on roads with variable speed limits. It also improves marine pollution cost recovery and streamlines various transport administration processes.
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 criminal offence of 'child homicide'. Named after Mason Jett Lee, a toddler who was killed, it aimed to ensure sentencing for child deaths reflects community expectations and aligns with other Australian jurisdictions. The bill was defeated at the second reading and did not become law.
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.
Child Safe Organisations Bill 2024
This bill creates a mandatory child safe organisations system for Queensland, requiring organisations that work with children to meet 10 child safe standards and report allegations of child abuse by their workers. It implements key recommendations from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and gives the Queensland Family and Child Commission new powers to oversee child safety across sectors including schools, childcare, health services, religious bodies, sport clubs, and government agencies.
Police Powers and Responsibilities and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2018
This bill updates police powers and several related laws to improve community safety and front-line policing. It creates new search powers for high-risk missing persons, simplifies crime scene rules, strengthens evade police provisions, streamlines parole board processes, and adds Commonwealth child sex offences to Queensland's reportable offender scheme.
Criminal Code and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2019
This bill strengthens Queensland's criminal law response to child homicide, following a Sentencing Advisory Council inquiry that found community expectations were not being met. It requires courts to treat a child's vulnerability as an aggravating factor in manslaughter sentencing, expands the definition of murder to include reckless indifference to human life, and increases the maximum penalty for failing to supply necessaries to dependants from 3 to 7 years.
Planning Bill 2015
This bill replaces Queensland's entire planning and development system with a simpler framework, repealing the Sustainable Planning Act 2009 and introducing a new Planning Act. It reduces red tape, streamlines how councils make planning schemes, clarifies the rules for approving or refusing development applications, and increases penalties for breaking planning laws.
Information Privacy and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023
This bill modernises Queensland's information privacy and right to information laws. It introduces mandatory data breach notifications so agencies must tell you if your personal information is compromised, replaces the old dual privacy principles with a single set of Queensland Privacy Principles aligned with federal law, and supports the proactive release of Cabinet documents for greater government transparency.
Local Government Electoral (Implementing Belcarra) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2017
This bill responds to the Crime and Corruption Commission's Operation Belcarra report by banning political donations from property developers to candidates, councillors, political parties and state MPs in Queensland. It also tightens the rules on how councillors must handle conflicts of interest at council meetings, with new criminal offences and the possibility of being barred from office for four years.
Criminal Law (Historical Homosexual Convictions Expungement) Bill 2017
This bill creates a scheme for people to apply to have historical convictions or charges for consensual adult homosexual activity wiped from their criminal records. It covers offences from before homosexuality was decriminalised in Queensland on 19 January 1991. Once expunged, a person is treated in law as never having been convicted or charged.
Criminal Law (Coercive Control and Affirmative Consent) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023
This bill makes coercive control a criminal offence in Queensland and introduces an affirmative model of consent for sexual offences. It implements recommendations from the Women's Safety and Justice Taskforce to better protect victims of domestic, family and sexual violence, while also reforming how courts handle bail, sentencing and evidence in these cases.
Penalties and Sentences (Drug and Alcohol Treatment Orders) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2017
This bill brings back a drug court in Queensland by creating a new sentencing option called a Drug and Alcohol Treatment Order. Designated magistrates can suspend a prison sentence of up to four years while the offender completes a court-supervised treatment program of at least two years. The bill also tightens the dangerous drug definition, clarifies that long prison sentences can never be 'spent', and gives extra court protections to victims of domestic strangulation.
Abortion Law Reform (Woman’s Right to Choose) Amendment Bill 2016
This bill sought to remove abortion from Queensland's Criminal Code by repealing the three sections that made it a crime for women to end a pregnancy or for doctors to help them. The bill was withdrawn and did not become law.
Fighting Antisemitism and Keeping Guns out of the Hands of Terrorists and Criminals Amendment Bill 2026
This bill responds to the December 2025 Bondi Beach terrorist attack by strengthening Queensland's laws against hate speech and antisemitism, and significantly toughening firearms regulations. It bans hate symbols of terrorist organisations, criminalises prohibited expressions that incite hatred, creates new protections for worshippers at religious sites, and imposes some of Australia's strongest penalties for weapons offences including new crimes targeting 3D-printed firearms.
Public Health and Other Legislation (COVID-19 Management) Amendment Bill 2022
This bill wound down Queensland's broad COVID-19 emergency powers and replaced them with a more targeted, temporary framework expiring on 31 October 2023. It allowed the Chief Health Officer to issue public health directions only about isolation, quarantine, mask wearing and worker vaccination in high-risk settings, with new requirements for public justification and parliamentary oversight.
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.
Queensland Community Safety Bill 2024
This bill implements a wide-ranging package of community safety reforms across policing, criminal law, weapons regulation, youth justice, domestic violence protections, and road safety. It expands police powers to scan for knives in more public places, introduces Firearm Prohibition Orders against high-risk individuals, creates new offences to protect emergency workers, and establishes a framework for removing criminal content from social media.
Criminal Code (Defence of Dwellings and Other Premises—Castle Law) Amendment Bill 2024
This bill proposed to implement the 'castle doctrine' in Queensland by expanding when homeowners and occupiers can legally use force — including lethal force — to defend against intruders. It was a private member's bill introduced by Nick Dametto MP that lapsed at the end of the 57th Parliament and did not become law.
Criminal Code (Trespass Offences) Amendment Bill 2019
This bill sought to create three new criminal offences targeting trespass on business premises and transport infrastructure. It was a private member's bill introduced by Mr D Last MP that lapsed at the end of the 56th Parliament and did not become law.
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 significantly increasing penalties for weapons offences. It was a private member's bill introduced by Trevor Watts MP and lapsed at the end of the 56th Parliament without becoming 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 is part of the Government's Making Queensland Safer Plan and follows advice from an Expert Legal Panel. The bill also improves victim notification arrangements.
Health and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2021
This bill makes wide-ranging amendments to Queensland's health legislation, with the most significant reforms to the Mental Health Act 2016. It strengthens the rights of people receiving mental health treatment by replacing 'best interests' tests with a rights-based approach, improves safeguards around electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), enables international patient transfers, and aligns confidentiality provisions across health agencies.
Victims of Crime Assistance and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2016
This bill strengthens support for victims of crime in Queensland. It makes financial assistance easier to claim, extends it to victims of domestic and family violence including elder abuse and economic abuse, and creates a new Charter of Victims' Rights. It also introduces legal protection for sexual assault counselling records and automatically treats sexual offence victims as 'special witnesses' in court.
Crime and Corruption Amendment Bill 2015
This bill reforms the Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC), Queensland's anti-corruption watchdog, by restoring its independence and broadening how people can report corruption. It reverses several changes made in 2014, separating the CEO role from the commissioners, requiring cross-party agreement on senior appointments, and bringing back the CCC's power to prevent corruption and run its own research.
Youth Justice and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2015
This bill rolls back a package of tough-on-youth-crime laws introduced in 2013 and 2014. It abolishes youth boot camps, ends the offence of breaching bail for children, restores a ban on naming children in the media, and reinstates the principle that detention or imprisonment should only be used as a last resort.