Committee Details

Committee’s report

The committee tabled Report No. 13, 57^th Parliament – Respect at Work and Other Matters Amendment Bill 2024, on 2 August 2024. The Bill was passed, with amendment, in the Legislative Assembly on 10 September 2024.

About the Bill 

On 14 June 2024, Hon Yvette D’Ath, Attorney-General and Minister for Justice and Minister for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence introduced the Respect at Work and Other Matters Amendment Bill 2024 into the Queensland Parliament. The Bill was referred to the Community Safety and Legal Affairs Committee for detailed consideration.

View: Bill 
View: Explanatory Notes 
View: Explanatory Speech
View: Statement of compatibility 

The purpose of the Bill is to implement the first stage of reforms to Queensland’s anti-discrimination laws.

Anti-discrimination reforms

The Respect@Work: National Inquiry into Sexual Harassment in Australian Workplaces Report (Respect@Work Report), published by the Australian Human Rights Commission in March 2020, found that sexual harassment in Australian workplaces remains prevalent.  Accordingly, the Respect@Work Report recommended several changes to the Commonwealth Sex Discrimination Act 1984 to address inadequacies in the current statutory system for addressing sexual harassment.

The Respect@Work Report also recommended that there be consistency across federal and state jurisdictions in terms of sexual harassment provisions in anti-discrimination statutes. In this vein, the Bill:

• introduces a new prohibition of harassment on the basis of sex or subjecting a person to a work environment that is hostile on the basis of sex
• extends the timeframe for a person to make a complaint of sexual harassment from one (1) year after the alleged conduct occurred, to two (2) years after the alleged conduct occurred
• allows the Queensland Human Rights Commission to conduct investigations into a person’s compliance with the new positive duty provisions and any systemic workplace harassment matters and take further action based on the investigation, and
• provides a new scheme for unions and other representative groups to make complaints about alleged unlawful workplace conduct on behalf of individuals.

The Bill also implements key reforms contained in the Queensland Human Rights Commission’s Building Belonging – Review of Queensland’s Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 Report including:

• expanding and updating the personal attributes protected from discrimination under the Anti-Discrimination Act 1991, and
• introducing a broad positive duty on all organisations with obligations under the Act (including businesses, the government and non-profit organisations), to take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate discrimination, sexual harassment, harassment on the basis of sex and other objectionable conduct as far as possible.

Finally, in respect to vilification issues, the Bill expands and updates the list of protected attributes for both criminal and civil vilification offences, clarifies the objective test for civil vilification and introduces a new harm-based provision and new definition of ‘public act’ as recommended by the Legal Affairs and Safety Committee’s Inquiry into serious vilification and hate crimes and its inquiry into the Criminal Code (Serious Vilification and Hate Crimes) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023.

Parental leave for magistrates

The Bill proposes to introduce an amendment to the Magistrates Act 1991 to confirm that the terms and conditions of a magistrate’s employment includes an entitlement to paid or unpaid parental leave.

Legal immunity for District Court judges, magistrates and prescribed QCAT members

The Bill clarifies that:

• the legal immunity and protection conferred on Supreme Court judges also extends to District Court judges, magistrates and prescribed members of the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal, and
• the clarified immunity provisions would apply retrospectively, except where proceedings are already on foot against a District Court judge, magistrate or prescribed Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal member prior to the introduction of the Bill.

Amendments to Penalties and Sentences Act 1992 and Youth Justice Act 1992

In August 2020, the Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council delivered its final report Penalties for assaults on public officers (QSAC Report).  In line with the recommendations in the QSAC Report, the Bill would require that when determining the appropriate sentence for an offender convicted of a violent offence against a person in their workplace, a court must treat the fact that the offence occurred in the performance of the functions of the victim’s office or employment, or because of the performance of those functions or employment, as an aggravating factor in sentencing.

Further, the Bill amends the Penalties and Sentences Act 1992 and the Youth Justice Act 1992 to provide that if the reasons for an order of imprisonment or detention are recorded, then the court does not need to cause the reasons to be reduced in writing or comply with the physical storage requirements.  This is to assist in the modernisation and digitisation of court processes.

For more in-depth information on the above, please refer to the explanatory notes for the Bill.

Further information

Further information including written briefings, correspondence, response to submissions, transcripts and answers to questions taken on notice can be accessed under the Related Publications tab.

Call for submissions

Submissions closed on 2 July 2024 at 10am. Submissions accepted by the committee can be accessed under the “View Submissions” tab above.

Timeline