Hon Shannon Fentiman MP

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.

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.

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.

This bill replaces Queensland's 20-year-old pharmacy ownership laws with a modern regulatory framework. It establishes a new independent Queensland Pharmacy Business Ownership Council to oversee pharmacy ownership, introduces mandatory annual licensing for pharmacy owners, and bans new pharmacies from opening inside supermarkets.

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.

This bill establishes Forensic Science Queensland as an independent statutory body responsible for providing forensic services to support Queensland's criminal justice system. It implements the key recommendation of the Commission of Inquiry into Forensic DNA Testing, which found serious failings in how DNA evidence was tested and managed. Queensland becomes the first Australian state with dedicated legislation governing forensic science services.

This bill strengthens Queensland's domestic violence laws in response to the 'Not Now, Not Ever' taskforce report. It changes how courts handle competing protection order applications, makes courts actively consider ordering perpetrators out of the family home, gives victims a stronger voice in decisions, and clearly authorises police to use body-worn cameras on duty.

This bill creates a new independent board to oversee Queensland's Public Trustee, which manages the financial and legal affairs of vulnerable people. It was introduced after the Public Advocate found significant issues with the Public Trustee's fees, charges and practices in a 2021 review.

This bill creates an independent Inspector of Detention Services to oversee Queensland's prisons, youth detention centres, police watch-houses, work camps and community corrections centres. The Inspector's job is to prevent harm by regularly inspecting detention facilities and reporting publicly to Parliament on conditions and treatment of detainees. The role is held by the Queensland Ombudsman but operates independently with dedicated staff and resources.

This bill recognises the contribution of Queensland's diverse communities and sets up a framework for government to be more responsive to cultural, linguistic and religious diversity. It creates a Multicultural Queensland Charter, an Advisory Council to guide the Minister, and requires a multicultural policy and action plan with regular public reporting.

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.

This bill amends the Liquor Act 1992 to create a new artisan producer licence for Queensland's craft brewers and artisan distillers. It gives small, independent producers a tailored licensing framework with on-premises sales, takeaway, online ordering, and the ability to sell at promotional events like farmers markets. The reforms were developed under the Queensland Craft Brewing Strategy and accelerated by the impact of COVID-19 on the industry.

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.

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.

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.

This bill reforms governance of older multi-owner property developments in Queensland that pre-date the Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997. It strengthens protections for unit owners in these older schemes by improving committee eligibility rules, financial accountability, dispute resolution, and transparency. It also enables the state's Office of Fair Trading to issue infringement notices for breaches of gift card requirements.

This bill modernises Queensland's defamation laws as part of a nationally agreed reform. It raises the bar for defamation claims by requiring proof of serious harm, introduces mandatory pre-court notices to encourage early resolution, and creates new defences for public interest reporting and academic peer review. It also fixes a minor heavy vehicle enforcement issue.

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.

This bill strengthens Queensland's domestic and family violence protections following the 'Not Now, Not Ever' taskforce report. It gives police more power to protect victims on the spot, makes protection orders last longer, lets agencies share information to respond to serious threats, and joins the national scheme that recognises domestic violence orders across state borders.

This bill reforms Queensland's child protection court system by implementing ten recommendations from the 2013 Carmody Inquiry. It strengthens the voice of children and families in Childrens Court proceedings, clarifies which agency applies for which kind of order, and introduces a new duty of disclosure.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This bill gives Queensland much stronger powers to crack down on the illegal sale of vaping products and illicit tobacco. It creates new offences for supplying, possessing, advertising and promoting vaping products, with penalties of up to 2,000 penalty units or 2 years imprisonment. It also introduces powers to shut down non-compliant businesses and makes it a specific offence to litter vaping devices.

This bill reforms how health practitioners can regain their registration after being struck off, increases transparency about practitioners found guilty of sexual misconduct, and strengthens protections for people who report concerns about health practitioners. It amends the national health practitioner law that applies across all Australian states and territories, with Queensland-specific modifications for the co-regulatory role of the Health Ombudsman.

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.

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.

This bill creates a Queensland law to allow the United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture to visit and inspect all places of detention in the state. It implements Australia's commitments under the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT), ratified in 2017, by giving UN inspectors access to prisons, youth detention centres, mental health facilities, the forensic disability service, police watch-houses, court cells, and prisoner transport vehicles.