Committee Details

COMMITTEE’S REPORT

The committee tabled its Report No. 54, 57th Parliament – Summary Offences (Prevention of Knife Crime) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023 on Thursday, 01 February 2024. 

View:    Report

The Government has three months to respond to the report’s recommendations. At that time, the Government Response will be published here.

ABOUT THE BILL

On 29 November 2023, Hon Mark Ryan MP, Minister for Police and Corrective Services and Minister for Fire and Emergency Services, introduced the Summary Offences (Prevention of Knife Crime) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2023 into the Queensland Parliament. The Bill was referred to the State Development and Regional Industries Committee for detailed consideration.   

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

The objective of the Bill is to promote community safety, reduce youth offending and minimise the risks associated with knives and other dangerous items, by:

• prohibiting the sale of knives and other weapons including machetes, axes (including a tomahawk), sickles or scythes, spear-guns, spears, and replica firearms (known as controlled items) to minors
• making it an offence for a person to falsely represent themselves as being over the age of 18 years for the purpose of being sold a controlled item
• requiring retailers to display signage advertising the legal prohibition against the sale of controlled items to minors
• prohibiting controlled items from being sold or advertised in a way that suggests the item is suitable for combat, intended to be used for violence, or likely to stimulate or encourage violent or criminal behaviour involving the item
• imposing obligations upon suppliers of particular controlled items to safely secure the items at retail locations
• making consequential amendments to support these reforms, such as allowing a police officer to request to see proof of age if they see or reasonably suspect a person under the age of 18 has been sold a controlled item and authorising the police officer to seize the item under certain circumstances

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 are available under the Related Publications tab.

Call for submissions

Submissions closed on 19 December 2023. They can be viewed under the ‘View Submissions’ tab.

PUBLIC PROCEEDINGS

The committee held a public briefing on the Bill with officers from the Queensland Police Service on Tuesday, 12 December 2023. A public hearing was held on Monday, 22 January 2024.  See timeline below for further information.

TIMELINE