Aged and disability care law in Queensland 

This article is a wayfinding guide. It states the law of Queensland, and identifies where Commonwealth law governs instead. It adds no authority of its own: every proposition here is drawn from the linked articles on each Queensland statute, and the pinpoints in this article's citations are the ones verified there.

Queensland's arrangement has two features worth learning before anything else. Its guardianship statute carries numbered general principles that a decision-maker must apply, which makes Queensland answers unusually citable. And its public guardian has an investigation function that reaches abuse, neglect and exploitation — so Queensland, like New South Wales, has a safeguarding destination that is not a complaints body.

Commonwealth or State?

The Commonwealth funds and regulates the service under the Aged Care Act 2024 (Cth) and the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 (Cth): registration, standards, reportable incidents and income support.⁸⁷

Queensland governs capacity, advance directives, restrictive practices in State-funded settings, investigation of abuse, and complaints about health services.

The six statutes, and what each answers

| The question | The Act | The decision-maker | |---|---|---| | Can this adult decide, and who decides if not? | Guardianship and Administration Act 2000 (Qld) | QCAT | | What did this person decide in advance, and who holds the power?⁵ | Powers of Attorney Act 1998 (Qld) | The attorney; QCAT | | This adult is being abused or exploited — who investigates?⁶ | Public Guardian Act 2014 (Qld) | The public guardian | | May this restraint be used?¹ | Disability Services Act 2006 (Qld) | The service provider under the Act's conditions; QCAT under ch 5B of the 2000 Act | | Who hears a complaint about a health service?⁴ | Health Ombudsman Act 2013 (Qld) | The health ombudsman | | Does this unpaid carer have recognised standing?² | Carers (Recognition) Act 2008 (Qld) | Public and funded entities |

The general principles

The Guardianship and Administration Act 2000 (Qld) states its general principles in s 11B, and they are numbered.³ That matters practically: a Queensland submission cites general principle 1, or general principle 10(2), rather than gesturing at a philosophy. Sections 11B(1) and (2) require them to be applied, and s 11C deals with health care principles.

Section 12(1) provides for QCAT's appointment power. Chapter 5B then provides for the appointment of a guardian for a restrictive practice matter — a distinctively Queensland structure, in which the authorisation of certain restrictive practices runs through a guardianship appointment rather than through a standalone authorising officer as in Victoria and South Australia.

Advance health directives, and life-sustaining measures

The Powers of Attorney Act 1998 (Qld) is where Queensland puts advance health directives, rather than in a separate Act.

Section 35(3) and (4) give a direction in an advance health directive priority over an attorney's health power. The order of authority is therefore: the directive first, the attorney second. Section 36 confines the directive's operation to periods of impaired capacity — a directive does not displace a capable person's contemporaneous decision.

Section 36 also sets cumulative clinical preconditions before a life-sustaining measure may be withheld or withdrawn under a directive. This is the most exacting provision of its kind among the jurisdictions covered here, and it is the provision to work through carefully rather than summarise. Section 37 follows on.

Investigation of abuse

The Public Guardian Act 2014 (Qld) confers the investigation function in s 19: the public guardian may investigate complaints or allegations of neglect, exploitation or abuse, or of inappropriate or inadequate decision-making arrangements.

Two features stand out. Section 19(2) permits investigation after the adult has died, which no equivalent provision in the other jurisdictions covered here reproduces. And s 20 limits delegation of the power, so it is not simply exercisable by any officer.

The second limb of s 19(1) is easy to overlook and often the most useful: the public guardian may investigate the decision-making arrangements themselves, not only the mistreatment. Where an attorney is technically valid but the arrangement is inadequate, that is the entry point.

Restrictive practices

The Disability Services Act 2006 (Qld) states the human rights principle as encouragement rather than obligation, defines the required content of a positive behaviour support plan (ss 50 and 51), and sets cumulative conditions on the use of restraint in respite and community access services (ss 150 and 167).

Read this with chapter 5B of the Guardianship and Administration Act 2000. Queensland splits the work: the Disability Services Act supplies the plan requirements and the conditions, and the guardianship route supplies the consent for the adult. An answer that names only one of them is incomplete.

Complaints, and carers

The Health Ombudsman Act 2013 (Qld) has the most open standing rule of the complaints statutes in this series: s 31 permits any person to make a health service complaint, orally or in writing, and s 34 requires the health ombudsman to give reasonable assistance to make a complaint on request.

Compare Western Australia, which ties standing to the ground complained of and imposes a 24-month limit, and South Australia, which sets a list. Queensland asks who is complaining least of all.

The Carers (Recognition) Act 2008 (Qld) defines a carer in s 6 by reference to non-contractual and unpaid ongoing care, and makes express provision for grandparents — a recognition of kinship care that most of the other carers statutes do not spell out. Section 7 establishes the Queensland carers charter.

A working order for a Queensland problem

1. Split the jurisdiction. Funding, registration and reportable incidents are Commonwealth.
2. Cite the general principles by number. Section 11B is the Queensland habit and examiners expect it.
3. Look for an advance health directive first, and apply s 35(3) and (4) before considering what an attorney may do.
4. For a life-sustaining measure, work through the cumulative preconditions in s 36 rather than paraphrasing them.
5. For abuse, neglect or exploitation, go to the public guardian under s 19 — and consider the decision-making-arrangements limb, not only the mistreatment limb.
6. For restrictive practices, pair the Disability Services Act 2006 requirements with chapter 5B of the Guardianship and Administration Act 2000.
7. For a complaint, note that s 31 asks almost nothing of the complainant.

Self-check

• Have I cited the general principles by their numbers?
• Have I given the advance health directive priority over the attorney's health power?
• Have I addressed each cumulative precondition for withholding a life-sustaining measure?
• Have I considered the s 19(1) decision-making-arrangements limb as well as abuse?
• Have I named both Queensland instruments in a restrictive practices answer?