Committee Details

About the BILL 

On Tuesday, 3 March 2026 the Hon Laura Gerber MP, Minister for Youth Justice and Victim Support and Minister for Corrective Services, introduced the Expanding Adult Crime, Adult Time and Taking a Strong Stance on Drugs and Anti-Social Behaviour Amendment Bill 2026 (Bill) 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 objective of the Bill is to make Queensland safer and strengthen the capability of the criminal justice system to hold perpetrators to account. The Bill will:

• amend the Youth Justice Act 1992 to prescribe new Adult Crime, Adult Time offences;
• repeal the current Police Drug Diversion Program (PDDP) and introduce a new Illicit Drug Enforcement and Diversion Framework (IDEDF); and
• introduce new and expanded police powers within prescribed Designated Business and Community Precincts (DBCPs).

Call for submissions

The committee invites submissions on any aspect of the Bill, from all interested parties.  Guidelines for making a submission to a parliamentary committee are available here: Guide to making a submission. Please ensure your submission meets these requirements.

Click here to make an online submission to the Bill. 

If you are unable to provide a written submission, please contact the secretariat to discuss other options.

The closing date for written submissions is 10:00am on Wednesday, 18 March 2026. 

Submissions must include:

• the author’s full name
• if the submission is made on behalf of an organisation, the level of approval (e.g. a local branch, executive committee or national organisation), and
• at least two of the following:
  • email address
  • mailing address, and
  • daytime telephone number.

Please ensure your submission includes the above or it may not be considered by the committee.

Please note: Your name and submission may be published on the committee’s inquiry webpage, which will mean it can be viewed on the internet. You can request for your name to be withheld from your published submission, or for both your name and your submission to be kept confidential (i.e. not published). Decisions about whether and how submissions are published are at the discretion of the committee.

PUBLIC PROCEEDINGS

The committee has scheduled a public briefing on the Bill by officers of the Department of Justice, and a public hearing, on Friday, 27 March 2026. See timeline below for further information.

Committee’s report

The committee is due to table its report on Friday, 17 April 2026. The report will be published here.

Once the committee’s report has been tabled, the Government has three months to respond to the report’s recommendations (if any). At that time, the Government Response will be published here.

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 above in due course.

Timeline