Public Health Act 2005
LegislationReferenced in 30 bills
Health Transparency Bill 2019
This bill makes it easier for Queenslanders to compare the quality of hospitals and aged care facilities by creating a public reporting framework. It also sets minimum staffing levels in public aged care homes and reforms how health complaints are handled between the Health Ombudsman and the national 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 amends the Public Health Act 2005 to allow declared public health emergencies to be extended by regulation for up to 90 days at a time, instead of the previous 7-day limit, giving Queensland Health greater continuity in managing the pandemic response.
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.
Public Health and Other Legislation (Extension of Expiring Provisions) Amendment Bill 2020
This bill extended Queensland's COVID-19 emergency powers from their original expiry in late 2020 and early 2021 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 to allow mental health patients to comply with health directions.
Building and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2022
This bill modernises Queensland's building and plumbing laws across several areas. It strengthens homeowners' rights to install solar panels and hot water systems free from aesthetic-based restrictions by developers and body corporates, expands permissible uses of treated greywater in large buildings, allows holding tanks for sewage and greywater under local government permits, and improves the QBCC's regulatory and enforcement powers.
Health and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2022
This bill amends eight health-related Acts to improve Queensland's health system. It strengthens protections for public health workers, modernises the Queensland Cancer Register to collect better data on cancer diagnosis and treatment, enables schools to share information with the children's vision screening program, and simplifies organ donation consent in private hospitals.
Corrective Services (Emerging Technologies and Security) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2022
This bill modernises Queensland's corrective services and youth justice legislation to address emerging security threats and improve emergency preparedness. It criminalises drone use over prisons and youth detention centres, authorises new search and surveillance technologies, strengthens information sharing between agencies, and creates a comprehensive emergency response framework for correctional facilities.
Emergency Services Reform Amendment Bill 2023
This bill restructures Queensland's emergency services by transferring the State Emergency Service and marine rescue functions from Queensland Fire and Emergency Services to the Queensland Police Service. It establishes a new State Disaster Management Group chaired by the Premier to provide faster strategic oversight during disasters, and makes consequential amendments across more than 20 pieces of legislation to ensure workers' compensation, civil liability protections, and Blue Card requirements continue for volunteers.
Health Legislation Amendment Bill 2019
This bill makes wide-ranging amendments across Queensland's health laws to embed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health equity, ban conversion therapy by health service providers, strengthen collaboration across the public health system, and update private hospital accreditation requirements. It also repeals the redundant Pap Smear Register and makes administrative changes to the Queensland Mental Health Commission.
Transport Legislation (Road Safety and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2022
This bill makes a wide range of transport-related changes including broadening how speed and red-light camera fine revenue can be spent on road safety, expanding the types of motorised mobility devices legally allowed on paths, improving court processes for vehicle modification offences, and protecting health professionals who report medically unfit interstate drivers.
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 in place temporary measures across tenancy, court proceedings, health, and other areas. It also reforms by-election procedures during the pandemic, allows artisan distillers to sell spirits directly to the public, changes how local government councillor vacancies are filled, and bolsters youth detention centre staffing powers.
Health Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2025
This bill makes changes across five health-related areas: strengthening Queensland's pharmacy ownership licensing rules before they fully commence, moving occupational lung disease reporting from a state register to a national one, improving mosquito monitoring for Japanese Encephalitis Virus, clarifying how an Acting Mental Health Commissioner can be appointed, and fixing a drafting error about who can dispose of radioactive material.
Assisted Reproductive Technology Bill 2024
This bill creates Queensland's first laws regulating fertility clinics and assisted reproductive technology services. It introduces a licensing scheme for ART providers, establishes a central register of donor conception information, and gives donor-conceived people the right to find out who their biological donor is from age 16.
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.
Public Health and Other Legislation (Extension of Expiring Provisions) Amendment Bill 2022
This bill extended Queensland's COVID-19 public health emergency powers from 30 April 2022 to 31 October 2022, while allowing most other temporary COVID-19 measures to expire. It kept in place the Chief Health Officer's power to issue public health directions, emergency powers in corrective services and disaster management, and mental health patient leave provisions, with all measures tied to the ongoing public health emergency declaration.
Police Powers and Responsibilities and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024
This bill modernises Queensland's search and inspection laws to recognise trans and gender diverse people, replacing outdated same-sex rules with gender-responsive safeguards across police, corrections, mental health and public health legislation. It also restricts how often prisoners can reapply for parole after being refused and expands the health professionals who can assess prisoners at risk of self-harm.
Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Bill 2022
This bill replaces Queensland's 2003 births, deaths and marriages registration law with a modernised framework. Its most significant change removes the requirement for surgery to alter the sex recorded on a birth certificate, replacing it with a self-declaration model. It also updates parenting registration rules for same-sex and gender diverse families, strengthens anti-discrimination protections, and tightens fraud prevention for name changes.
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.
Public Health and Other Legislation (Public Health Emergency) Amendment Bill 2020
This bill gave Queensland authorities the legal powers needed to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, including lockdowns, quarantine orders, business closures, and restrictions on gatherings. It also amended electoral and planning laws to provide flexibility during the public health emergency, with most emergency powers set to expire one year after commencement.
Public Health and Other Legislation (Further Extension of Expiring Provisions) Amendment Bill 2021
This bill extended most of Queensland's temporary COVID-19 emergency laws until 30 April 2022, continuing the legal basis for public health directions, quarantine requirements, and support measures across multiple sectors. It also reformed the quarantine fee system to allow prepayment and third-party liability, and clarified that quarantine directions could be issued electronically.
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.
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.
Health Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 3) 2025
This bill amends eight Queensland health Acts to fix implementation issues with the new fertility clinic regulatory framework, create a legal basis for organ donation procedures before circulatory death, require cosmetic surgery safety standards at private hospitals, and give the government broader powers to remove health board members. It is the third health legislation amendment bill for 2025.
Environmental Protection (Powers and Penalties) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024
This bill strengthens Queensland's environmental protection laws by making regulation more proactive rather than reactive. It introduces the precautionary principle and polluter pays principle as core guiding principles, creates new offences for breaching environmental duties, establishes a duty to restore the environment after contamination, and streamlines enforcement tools into a single environmental enforcement order.
Health and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2018
This bill makes wide-ranging amendments to health and retirement village legislation. It repeals Queensland's separate medicinal cannabis approval system in favour of the Commonwealth framework, creates a mandatory register for occupational dust lung diseases like black lung and silicosis, gives Queensland Health new powers to issue public pollution notices, streamlines radiation safety licensing, modernises tissue donation laws for research, and requires retirement village operators to buy back unsold freehold units within 18 months.
Environmental Protection and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2022
This bill modernises Queensland's environmental protection laws by reforming the environmental impact statement process, strengthening enforcement powers against repeat offenders, creating temporary authorities for emergencies, and banning mining in the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area. It also updates contaminated land management, waste regulation, and mine rehabilitation frameworks.
COVID-19 Emergency Response and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2021
This bill extends Queensland's temporary COVID-19 emergency legislation to 30 September 2021, gives local governments flexibility to adjust rates mid-year, creates a framework for holding COVID-safe local government by-elections and fresh elections, and extends temporary remote meeting arrangements for councils.
Housing Availability and Affordability (Planning and Other Legislation Amendment) Bill 2023
This bill reforms Queensland's planning laws to help deliver more housing faster, particularly in growth areas of South East Queensland. It gives the State new powers to acquire land for development infrastructure, fast-track priority housing applications, and create zones to manage growth areas, while also modernising planning processes and reducing red tape for businesses affected by urban encroachment.
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.