Office of the Queensland Parliamentary Counsel

The Office of the Queensland Parliamentary Counsel (OQPC) supports democracy and the strategic direction of the Queensland Government and delivers on the government’s objectives for the community by providing legislative drafting services to all Queensland public sector agencies and access to legislation on the Queensland legislation website (www.legislation.qld.gov.au).

OQPC’s objective is to draft and provide access to Queensland legislation to the highest standard. OQPC was established as a statutory office under the Legislative Standards Act 1992 on 1 June 1992. Subject to the Premier, OQPC is controlled by the Queensland Parliamentary Counsel. The Office publishes its own strategic plan and annual report and is included as a service area in the DPC Service Delivery Statement each year.

Key achievements for 2020–2021

• OQPC pursued excellence in legislative drafting and access by adopting best practice and making Queensland legislation easy to find, easy to understand, easy to use and maintaining open data arrangements.
• Some significant legislation drafted and introduced within the reporting period included:
• Debt Reduction and Savings Bill 2021
• Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2021
• Meriba Omasker Kaziw Kazipa (Torres Strait Islander Traditional Child Rearing Practice) Bill 2020
• Youth Justice and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2021
• Criminal Code (Consent and Mistake of Fact) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2020
• COVID-19 Emergency Response and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2021
• COVID-19 Emergency Response and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2020
• Nature Conservation and Other Legislation (Indigenous Joint Management – Moreton Island) Amendment Bill 2020
• Queensland Veterans' Council Bill 2021
• Criminal Code and Other Legislation (Wage Theft) Amendment Bill 2020.
• Some significant subordinate legislation drafted and made in the reporting period included:
• Body Corporate and Community Management (Accommodation Module) Regulation 2020
• Body Corporate and Community Management (Commercial Module) Regulation 2020
• Body Corporate and Community Management (Small Schemes Module) Regulation 2020
• Body Corporate and Community Management (Specified Two-lot Schemes Module) Amendment Regulation 2020
• Body Corporate and Community Management (Standard Module) Regulation 2020
• Justice Legislation (COVID-19 Emergency Response – Proceedings and Other Matters) Regulation 2020 [plus a suite of other COVID-19 Emergency Response regulations]
• Fisheries Legislation Amendment Regulation 2020
• Health (Drugs and Poisons) (COVID-19 Vaccination Services) Amendment Regulation 2021
• Nature Conservation (Animals) Regulation 2020
• Nature Conservation (Plants) Regulation 2020.

OQPC cultivated a highly skilled and highperforming workforce by giving our people a range of opportunities for ongoing professional and personal development. With a succession of COVID-19 lockdowns, increasing uptake of flexible work arrangements and expenditure constraints, professional and personal development opportunities were predominantly delivered in an online environment. While interpersonal networking opportunities were limited as a result, a pleasingly wide range of content was available to staff.

• OQPC made effective use of technological resources to enhance the services provided. The Queensland Integrated Legislative Lifecycle System has continued to evolve in ways that minimise manual processes, reduce the scope for human error, and optimise timely and accurate access to legislation and legislative information. The COVID-19 environment has made it difficult to explore future drafting and publishing solutions, but OQPC continues to monitor international developments and will explore future development opportunities when circumstances permit.
• OQPC developed a corporate website (www.oqpc.qld.gov.au), which provides information about the office, including the services provided and information on instructing OQPC.
• OQPC continued to work with DPC and other key partners on a process for the clear ordering of priorities within the government’s legislative program.

Our performance

The following service standards in DPC’s 2020–2021 Service Delivery Statement were used by the department and the government to assess overall performance of the Legislative Drafting and e-Publishing service area.

Service area: Legislative Drafting and e-Publishing	2020–21 Target/Est.	2020–21 Actual
Service standards
Client satisfaction with legislative drafting services provided by the Office of the Queensland Parliamentary Counsel	90%	100%
Client satisfaction with the quality of access to legislation available online	90%	100%
Average cost per hour of legislative drafting and publishing output	$151/hour	$148/hour

At a glance in 2020–2021

• 53 government Bills including 18 lapsed Bills
• 328 total legislative instruments
• 151,487 total pages reprinted
• 10 private members’ Bills including 5 lapsed Bills
• 7978 total pages drafted
• 7,548,859 legislative website page views
• 25 amendments during consideration in detail
• 834 total reprints
• 240 items of subordinate legislation
• 56 indicative reprints

OQPC Strategic Plan 2020–2024

OQPC’s vision is: excellent legislation for Queensland.

OQPC’s purpose is: the Office of the Queensland Parliamentary Counsel is an independent statutory office that supports Queensland’s democracy and the rule of law by delivering Queensland legislation that is effective, accessible, and consistent with fundamental legislative principles.

The strategic priorities are:

• excellence in legislative drafting and access
• a skilled, flexible, and resilient workforce
• a healthy and inclusive workplace
• stewardship of innovation and changes
• strategic engagement with partners

The strategic objectives are:

Excellence in legislative drafting and access: identify and adopt best practice in drafting Bills, amendments to Bills, and subordinate legislation, having regard to fundamental legislative principles and compatibility with human rights; ensure, identify and adopt best practice in making Queensland legislation easy to find, easy to understand, and easy to use; with timely access to Bills, legislation, and related information and maintain open data arrangements.

A skilled, flexible, and resilient workforce: maintain a highly skilled and high-performing workforce; provide staff with a range of opportunities for ongoing professional and personal development; improve the effectiveness performance development processes; encourage and facilitate the sharing of learnings within and between teams.

A healthy and inclusive workplace: further develop a workplace culture that fosters the health, happiness, flexibility and fulfilment of our staff; improve regular internal communication, seeking views, listening to staff, clearly communicating and explaining management decisions, and openly discussing issues as they arise; encourage greater office-wide cohesion.

Stewardship of innovation and changes: identify and adopt best practice in making Queensland legislation easy to find, easy to understand, and easy to use; make effective use of technological resources and explore future drafting and publishing solutions to enhance the services we provide.

Strategic engagement with partners: build stronger functional relationships and open channels of communication with DPC and Cabinet, Table Office, client departments and other partners; continue to work with key partners towards a process for the clear ordering of priorities within the government’s legislative program; and work with stakeholders to continuously improve the quality of access to Queensland legislation.

The OQPC Strategic Plan 2020–2024 is available at: www.oqpc.qld.gov.au

Future directions for 2021–2022 

• Pursue excellence in legislative drafting and access to legislation by adopting best practice to ensure Queensland legislation is easy to find, understand and use and maintaining open data arrangements.

Organisational Structure

• The current structure is summarised in the organisational chart below:



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