Committee Details

COMMITTEE’S REPORT

The committee tabled its Report No. 23, 58th Parliament - Defamation and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025 on 28 November 2025. The report will be debated in the Legislative Assembly in due course.

About the bill 

On 14 October 2025, the Hon Deb Frecklington MP, Attorney-General and Minister for Justice and Minister for Integrity introduced the Defamation and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025 into the Queensland Parliament. The Bill was referred to the Justice, Integrity and Community Safety Committee for detailed consideration.   

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

The purpose of the Bill is to amend the Defamation Act 2005 to implement nationally agreed changes to the uniform defamation legislation. The aims of the amendments are to:

• provide a digital intermediary some limited protections from liability and a defence for third-party content
• allow for an offer to make amends including the removal of or restrictions of access to defamatory digital content
• enhance court powers so they can:
  • order intermediaries (even if not parties to a case) to remove or block defamatory content
  • require disclosure of the identity of anonymous posters, considering specific factors
• extend the defence of absolute privilege to officials of Australian police forces or services while they are acting in their official capacities
• allow the service of notices and other documents via email, messaging or other electronic communication to an electronic address or located indicated by the recipient, and
• include measures to manage the transition from the old to the new legal framework.

The Bill also seeks to amend the existing criminal defamation offence in section 365 of the Criminal Code to ensure that the new defence for digital intermediaries and the new statutory exemptions from liability operate as a lawful excuse in criminal defamation proceedings. This would ensure that digital intermediaries who may be protected by the new exemptions or defence in civil proceedings do not remain liable for criminal defamation.

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.

submissions

Submissions closed Tuesday, 28 October 2025. Submissions accepted by the committee can be accessed under the “View Submissions” tab above.

Timeline