Queensland’s Anti-Discrimination Act Overhaul: Key Changes and What They Mean for You
Queensland’s Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 (the “ADA”) has been significantly amended with the changes set to take effect from 1 July 2025. These are the most substantial reforms to the legislation in over 30 years.
The key changes and what this means for our clients are considered below.
1. Introduction of a Positive Duty
This should be a familiar concept to most organisations because of the Respect@Work amendments introduced federally in 2022 under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth).
The introduction of “positive duty in the ADA means that employers will now have a legal obligation to prevent discrimination before it occurs, rather than just responding to complaints after the fact.
This “positive duty” requires organisations to:
- Take reasonable steps to prevent discrimination across all protected characteristics.
- Ensure compliance across all areas of public life, including workplaces, education, accommodation, and the provision of goods and services.
- Actively work to prevent sexual harassment, vilification, and other forms of prohibited conduct.
2. Expanded Protections
The list of protected attributes has been expanded to include:
- Victim-survivors of domestic and family violence
- People experiencing homelessness
- People with expunged criminal convictions or irrelevant criminal or medical records
- People discriminated against because of their physical appearance (for example, their height, weight, size, birth marks, and other features).
The prohibited grounds of vilification have also been extended with the addition of age, sex and impairment.
3. Introduction of the concept of “hostile work environment” in line with the federal Respect@Work legislation
The changes will make it unlawful for workplaces to be offensive, humiliating, or intimidating based on sex.
4. Coverage of Intersectional Discrimination
The amended legislation will recognise cases of intersectional discrimination, allowing individuals to make complaints based on a combination of protected characteristics, such as race and gender.
5. Aiming to Simplify Legal Framework
The new laws aim to make simplify legal definitions and tests. For example, several of the current attributes have been redefined in addition to the introduction of new protected attributes.
The timeframe for lodging complaints with the Anti-Discrimination Commission will also be extended from 12 months to 2 years.
What This Means for Your Organisation
Many organisations will have reviewed and updated their Sexual Harassment and Discrimination policies since 2022 to comply with the federal Respect@Work changes. Any updates to these policies will be consistent with the changes to the ADA. However, the ADA amendments go beyond Respect@Work which is solely focussed on sex-based discrimination and harassment. The ADA amendments cover a much broader range of protections. Policies will need to be updated to reflect this.
Once the amendments take effect Queensland will have the most extensive scope of protected attributes of any jurisdiction in the country. Many employers have national policies that contain a list of protected attributes. These employers will need to decide whether to include the extended Queensland protections into their national policies.
The other crucial step will be communicating the changes to employees and managers and updating any internal education and training packages.
Next steps
In short, whilst some Queensland based organisations may only need to make minimal changes to their Sexual Harassment policy if it is up to date, it is likely that every organisation will need to make substantive change to their Discrimination policy. The key is to start this policy review as soon as possible to enable time to make amendments and communicate these changes to employees prior to 1 July 2025.
Connect with us
If you would like to know more about your responsibility as an employer or have any questions about the upcoming amendments, please contact us at hello@mapien.com.au and a Mapien Workplace Strategist will be in touch within 24 hours.