At any given time, the Public Advocate is working on a range of systemic advocacy projects in response to issues that have been raised by stakeholders and people with lived experience of impaired decision-making ability.
These projects are ones that require additional research, consultation and review for the development of reform recommendations to government.
Under the Guardianship and Administration Act, the Public Advocate can also provide reports of this nature to the Attorney-General for tabling in the Queensland Parliament. This is one of the principal ways in which the Public Advocate can drive systemic change to improve the lives and wellbeing of adults with impaired decision-making ability.
The Public Advocate is currently working on:
- A project exploring the experiences of adults with cognitive disability in the Queensland criminal justice system. This project is utilising a series of discussion papers to consult with critical stakeholders in the disability, government and legal sectors. Each discussion paper documents a stage in the journey of an adult with cognitive disability through the criminal justice system (policing, courts, the forensic system (mental health and disability, detention and victims and witnesses). The findings from the project will inform the development of reform recommendations report for consideration by the Queensland government. it is expected that this report will be completed by mid 2026.
- Restrictive practices reform - in March 2025 the Public Advocate released a restrictive practices discussion paper, which proposes the use of a senior practitioner authorisation model across all settings in Queensland.
The Public Advocate has also continued to advocate for the implementation of reform recommendations associated with the following reports and projects:
- Supporting parents with cognitive disability: The need for reform. This report was tabled in the Queensland Parliament on 9 June 2023 and remains under consideration by government.
- ‘Safe Secure and Affordable’? The need for an Inquiry into supported accommodation in Queensland. This report was tabled in the Queensland Parliament on 12 September 2023. A Parliamentary Inquiry into the provision and regulation of supported accommodation, as recommended in the report, was undertaken during 2023-24. The report from this Inquiry, and its recommendations, remain under consideration by government.
- The Adult Safeguarding in Queensland project, which calls for the introduction of an Adult Safeguarding Commissioner and local Adult Safeguarding Networks within Queensland. This report was tabled in the Queensland Parliament on 8 December 2022 and is currently under consideration by government.
- Public Accountability, Private Lives: Reconsidering the Queensland guardianship system’s confidentiality requirements. This report was released in 2022 and looks at, specifically, the making of limitation orders by QCAT and Section 114A of the Guardianship and Administration Act. This section of the Act currently prohibits the publication of the identity of a person who is subject to a guardianship proceeding (unless certain other conditions apply).
- Better Pathways: Improving Queensland’s acute mental health system, which made 21 recommendations for improvements to this system in Queensland.
- A discussion of section 216 of the Criminal Code: A call to review the criminalisation of sexual relationships involving people with ‘an impairment of the mind’, a discussion paper concerning the right of adults with impaired decision-making ability to engage in sexual relationships.