Supreme Court of Queensland
OrganisationReferenced in 45 bills
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.
Planning and Development (Planning Court) Bill 2015
This bill would have created a separate Act to govern the Planning and Environment Court, which hears disputes about planning, development and environmental decisions. It moved the court out of the Sustainable Planning Act 2009 into its own legislation, and expanded the powers of an Alternative Dispute Resolution Registrar to handle simpler matters cheaply. The bill was part of a 2015 LNP planning reform package and did not become law.
Co-operatives National Law Bill 2020
This bill replaces Queensland's Cooperatives Act 1997 with the Co-operatives National Law, a nationally harmonised framework already adopted by every other Australian state and territory. It modernises how co-operatives are formed, registered and managed in Queensland, while reducing red tape and ensuring consistency across the country.
Personal Injuries Proceedings and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2022
This bill cracks down on 'claim farming' — where third parties cold-call or pressure people into making personal injury or workers' compensation claims and sell their details to law firms. It also tightens rules on legal fees for speculative injury claims, reinstates a three-year timeframe for terminal workers' compensation, and fixes technical issues with Queensland's political donation caps.
Human Rights Bill 2018
This bill creates Queensland's first Human Rights Act, establishing 23 protected human rights and requiring all government entities to act compatibly with them. It adopts a 'dialogue model' where Parliament remains sovereign but courts can declare laws incompatible, and a renamed Queensland Human Rights Commission handles complaints from the public.
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.
Racing Integrity Bill 2015
This bill creates the Queensland Racing Integrity Commission, a new independent watchdog for animal welfare and integrity in greyhound, thoroughbred, and harness racing. It responds directly to the 2015 Commission of Inquiry that found widespread live baiting and industry self-regulation failure. The bill strips Racing Queensland of its welfare and licensing role, leaving it to handle only commercial operations, and gives authorised officers stronger powers to investigate cruelty and share information with police.
Community Protection and Public Child Sex Offender Register (Daniel’s Law) Bill 2025
This bill creates a public child sex offender register in Queensland, named Daniel's Law in honour of Daniel Morcombe. It establishes a three-tiered system allowing police to publish details of missing non-compliant offenders, residents to view photos of offenders in their area, and parents to check whether someone in contact with their child is a registered offender. The government committed $10 million to establish the register.
Electoral and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2015
This bill toughens Queensland's political donation disclosure rules and removes voter ID requirements. It also sets up a judicial-style pension for the chairperson of the Crime and Corruption Commission.
Associations Incorporation and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2019
This bill modernises Queensland's framework for incorporated associations and charitable organisations. It introduces governance standards for management committees, reduces duplicate financial reporting for organisations registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, and provides simpler processes for dispute resolution, voluntary administration, and cancellation of incorporation.
Body Corporate and Community Management and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023
This bill reforms Queensland's body corporate and off-the-plan property laws. It creates a new process for terminating ageing community titles schemes that are no longer economically viable, modernises body corporate governance rules around pets, smoking, and parking, and protects off-the-plan buyers from developers misusing sunset clauses to cancel contracts.
Revenue and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025
This bill implements several 2025-26 State Budget measures and makes other amendments across seven Acts. It extends the doubled First Home Owner Grant and the apprentice payroll tax rebate, introduces contingency windfall taxes to protect foreign surcharge revenue, reforms how Budget Estimates hearings are chaired, and clarifies SPER registration fee rules.
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.
Property Law Bill 2023
This bill replaces Queensland's nearly 50-year-old Property Law Act 1974 with a modernised framework for property transactions. It introduces a statutory seller disclosure scheme requiring sellers to provide standardised information to buyers before contract signing, facilitates electronic conveyancing and electronic deeds, and simplifies rules governing mortgages, leases, co-ownership, and trusts.
Building Industry Fairness (Security of Payment) Bill 2017
This bill overhauls how subcontractors get paid in Queensland's building and construction industry. It creates 'Project Bank Accounts' that quarantine money owed to subcontractors in trust, combines existing security of payment laws into a single Act, and gives the Queensland Building and Construction Commission stronger powers to tackle unlicensed work and illegal phoenixing.
Community Based Sentences (Interstate Transfer) Bill 2019
This bill establishes Queensland's participation in a national scheme for transferring community based sentences — such as probation, community service and intensive correction orders — between Australian states and territories. It replaces informal interstate supervision arrangements that had no enforcement powers, ensuring offenders who move interstate can be properly supervised and held accountable for breaches in their new jurisdiction.
Local Government (Dissolution of Ipswich City Council) Bill 2018
This bill dissolved Ipswich City Council and removed all councillors from office following a Crime and Corruption Commission investigation that found serious, long-running corruption and governance failures. An interim administrator was appointed with full council and mayoral powers to run the council until Ipswich residents could elect new councillors at the 2020 local government elections.
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.
Trusts Bill 2024
This bill replaces Queensland's 50-year-old Trusts Act 1973 with modernised trusts legislation. It clarifies what trustees must and can do, makes it easier to deal with common trust problems without going to court, and strengthens protections for people who benefit from trusts.
Crime and Corruption (Restoring Reporting Powers) Amendment Bill 2025
This bill restores the Crime and Corruption Commission's power to publicly report on corruption investigations in Queensland. A 2023 High Court decision found the CCC did not have this power, invalidating past reports. The bill creates a new legal framework for public reporting with safeguards to protect individuals' rights while ensuring government transparency.
Honourable Angelo Vasta (Reversal of Removal) Bill 2017
This bill aimed to reverse the Queensland Parliament's 1989 removal of Justice Angelo Vasta from the Supreme Court. It would have declared that removal invalid and treated him as having retired instead. The bill lapsed and did not become law.
Counter-Terrorism and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2016
This bill expands police powers to respond to terrorist attacks and other declared emergencies in Queensland. It lets police compel anyone to hand over information needed to manage an emergency, creates new 'evacuation area' powers, allows detention orders against terrorism suspects whose name isn't known, and makes operational changes to corrective services and Commonwealth intelligence agency assumed identities.
Trusts Bill 2025
This bill replaces Queensland's 50-year-old Trusts Act 1973 with a modernised framework for managing trusts. It implements recommendations from the Queensland Law Reform Commission's review, updating trustee powers and duties, strengthening beneficiary protections, and making trust disputes easier and cheaper to resolve through expanded District Court jurisdiction.
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.
Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games Arrangements Amendment Bill 2024
This bill establishes the Games Venue and Legacy Delivery Authority, a new statutory body to deliver venues, oversee village construction, and coordinate government responsibilities for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. It gives the authority significant powers including compulsory land acquisition, the ability to bypass normal planning processes, and the power to direct government agencies on transport infrastructure.
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.
Limitation of Actions (Institutional Child Sexual Abuse) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2016
This bill does four things at once. It removes the time limit for survivors of institutional child sexual abuse to sue for damages (even for abuse that happened decades ago), creates a modern class action system in the Supreme Court, closes a trust fund that helped pay for legal services, and makes permanent the scheme that lets Justices of the Peace hear minor civil disputes in QCAT.
Gene Technology (Queensland) Bill 2016
This bill replaces Queensland's gene technology law with a new Act that automatically applies the Commonwealth's gene technology laws as Queensland laws. It lets the Queensland Government 'opt out' of specific Commonwealth changes by regulation if needed, and carries over existing GMO licences and approvals.
Corrective Services (Parole Board) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2017
This bill replaces Queensland's three separate parole boards with a single, professionalised Parole Board Queensland led by a former judge. It also gives corrective services officers clearer power to electronically monitor parolees through GPS devices and curfews. The reforms respond to the 2016 Sofronoff review of the parole system.
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.
Crime and Corruption and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024
This bill reforms Queensland's Crime and Corruption Commission to make it more accountable, independent and effective. It overhauls the CCC's enforcement powers into a unified framework, requires the Director of Public Prosecutions to advise on corruption charges before they are laid, extends journalist shield laws to CCC proceedings, and introduces fixed seven-year non-renewable terms for commissioners.
Local Government Legislation (Validation of Rates and Charges) Amendment Bill 2018
This bill retrospectively validates council rates and charges across Queensland that may have been technically invalid due to a procedural issue. In 2017, the Supreme Court ruled that Fraser Coast Regional Council's rates were invalid because the council adopted its budget without passing a separate resolution specifically deciding what rates to levy. Because many other councils may have followed the same practice, this bill validates all such rates and charges state-wide for financial years up to 30 June 2018.
Guardianship and Administration and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2018
This bill modernises Queensland's guardianship laws to better protect adults who lack capacity to make their own decisions. It aligns the system with international human rights standards, strengthens safeguards against financial exploitation by attorneys and administrators, and creates new protections for people who report abuse or neglect. It also makes separate amendments to the Integrity Act and government corporation corruption reporting laws.
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.
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.
Duties and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2016
This bill makes three stamp duty and grant changes from the 2016-17 Queensland Budget. It adds a 3% duty surcharge for foreign buyers of residential property, temporarily boosts the First Home Owner's Grant to $20,000, and extends a family farm transfer duty concession beyond gifts.
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.
Revenue Legislation Amendment Bill 2023
This bill implements several 2023-24 State Budget revenue measures and makes technical amendments to Queensland tax legislation. It creates tax concessions to encourage build-to-rent housing developments with affordable housing, simplifies the land tax home exemption, extends payroll tax relief for regional employers and apprentice wages, and closes off common law tax refund claims.
Betting Tax Bill 2018
This bill introduces a 15% point-of-consumption betting tax on the net wagering revenue that betting operators earn from customers located in Queensland. It replaces the old wagering tax (which was based on where the operator was located) and brings Queensland into line with similar taxes in South Australia and Victoria.
Legal Profession (Strengthening Disciplinary Matters) Amendment Bill 2026
This bill moves the disciplinary system for Queensland lawyers from QCAT to the Supreme Court. It implements the findings of a statutory review that recommended the Supreme Court as a more appropriate venue for hearing serious misconduct cases against legal practitioners, while keeping the process accessible and less formal than typical court proceedings.
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.
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.
Crime and Corruption (Reporting) Amendment Bill 2024
This bill restores the Crime and Corruption Commission's ability to publicly report on corruption investigations, after the High Court ruled in 2023 that the CCC had no such power. It creates a structured framework for the CCC to prepare reports and make public statements about corruption, balanced by a public interest test, identity protections, and procedural fairness for people affected.
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.