Committee Details

COMMITTEE’S REPORT

The Legal Affairs and Safety Committee tabled its Report No. 16, 57th Parliament - Police Legislation (Efficiencies and Effectiveness) Amendment Bill 2021 in the Legislative Assembly on 1 November 2021. The Bill was passed without amendment by the Queensland Parliament on 15 March 2022. 

About the Bill 

On 16 September 2021 the Hon Mark Ryan MP, Minister for Police and Corrective Services and Minister for Fire and Emergency Services introduced the Police Legislation (Efficiencies and Effectiveness) Amendment Bill 2021 into the Queensland Parliament. The Bill was referred to the Legal Affairs and Safety Committee for detailed consideration. 

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

OBJECTIVES OF THE BILL

The purpose of the Bill is to improve the delivery of policing services, reduce administrative processes, streamline police operations, increase productivity, and improve the detection, prevention and disruption of crime. The Bill aims to support the Government’s Unite and Recover objective to deliver world-class frontline services in the area of community safety and the Government’s digital transformation of frontline services. 

The explanatory notes provide further detail on the purpose of the Bill:

The demands placed upon the Queensland Police Service (QPS) are ever increasing. The growth in calls for service, increasingly complex social issues, disaster management, growing community expectation and the QPS’ role in response to the public health emergency significantly impact the QPS’s resources to work with and for the community in providing policing services to all of Queensland. To address demand issues and increase frontline effectiveness, the QPS needs to optimise existing systems and processes to free up frontline resources. This involves modernising practices and service delivery, and enhancing the use of modern technology in delivering policing services. The cumulative effect of the measures [as proposed in the Bill] is to assist the QPS to deliver policing services more efficiently and effectively.

The Bill proposes to meet its policy objectives by, among other matters:

• authorising senior police officers to witness specified affidavits
• amending access orders for seized digital devices
• amending matters relating to testing a relevant person (police officers and certain unsworn staff) when they are involved in a ‘critical incident’
• extending the time period for the temporary possession of weapons to six months
• enabling approved licensed firearms dealer to retain and deal with an anonymously surrendered firearm or prescribed thing.

Further information

Further information including written briefings from the department, the response to submissions, transcripts from proceedings and answers to questions taken on notice are under the Related Publications tab.

Timeline