Date published: 16 October 2026
Statement of Commissioner Luke Twyford - Queensland Protection Commission Bill 2026
The Queensland Protection Commission Bill 2026 has passed Parliament. This marks an extraordinary milestone for child safeguarding in Queensland.
When we delivered In Plain Sight, we reached a confronting conclusion: Queensland's existing architecture for protecting children from sexual abuse was inadequate.
We found a system where information existed, concerns were raised and warning signs were visible — but the system was too fragmented to bring those pieces together.
The title of our review was deliberate.
Child sexual abuse was occurring In Plain Sight.
Children, families and workers could see pieces of the risk. Organisations held information. Police held information. Regulators and government agencies held information.
But no single part of the system could see the whole picture.
We needed to fundamentally rethink how Queensland identifies threats, connects information, recognises patterns and intervenes before children are harmed.
Today represents a significant turning point in that journey.
The review team and Board deliberately distinguished between operational improvements and transformational reforms in our 28 recommendations. Less than 12 months later, seeing the foundations of that transformation being established in law is an extraordinary moment
The Queensland Protection Commission legislation establishes the legal and institutional foundations for a very different approach to protecting Queensland's children and vulnerable people.
For the first time, Queensland will bring together an extraordinary range of safeguarding capabilities within a single Commission:
- Child Safe Standards — strengthening the responsibility of organisations to prevent abuse and build cultures of child safety.
- Blue Card Worker Screening — assessing and managing the risks individuals may pose to children before and during their engagement in child-related work.
- Disability Worker Screening — protecting people with disability through screening and ongoing risk assessment.
- The Reportable Conduct Scheme — providing visibility of allegations and concerning conduct by workers across organisations, and oversight of how those matters are investigated and managed.
- Independent child protection system oversight — examining evidence, monitoring performance, identifying systemic issues and informing improvements to Queensland's child protection system.
- The Child Death Review Board — independently examining systemic issues following the deaths of children connected to the child protection system and identifying opportunities to prevent future deaths.
- The Queensland Child Death Register — analysing every Queensland child death to identify patterns, emerging risks and opportunities for prevention.
And importantly, the foundations for two significant new capabilities:
- The Child Safeguarding Intelligence Hub — bringing information and analytical capability together to identify patterns, connections and emerging threats that may otherwise remain hidden.
- The Child Safeguarding Intelligence Network — creating the connections across government, law enforcement, regulators and safeguarding organisations needed to share intelligence and support earlier, better-informed action.
These are not simply functions being brought together under a new name. They are the building blocks of a more connected, proactive and intelligence-led child safeguarding system.
A system that is better equipped to prevent harm, detect threats, respond to concerns, support children and families, and examine how well we are performing.
Every child deserves to be safe, wherever they are. Every parent and carer deserves confidence that concerns about their child's safety will be heard, understood and acted upon.
That is the ambition behind this reform: to build a safeguarding system that sees more, knows more, connects more and acts earlier.