QNADA News

Submission to the Youth Justice (Monitoring Devices) Amendment Bill 2025

QNADA recently made a submission to the Youth Justice (Monitoring Devices) Amendment Bill 2025. The purpose of the Bill is to extend the electronic monitoring trial period by one year. While we are supportive of policies which aim to keep children out of custody, we are concerned that the proposed amendments will increase the criminalisation of children without improving community safety. As such, we did not support the bill.

Our submission argued that there is insufficient evidence to support extending the trial period considering that the literature on the use of electronic monitoring devices with children is, at best, mixed and that the trial has been extended multiple times yet has failed to provide evidence to support its effectiveness.

We also argued that the bill will not enhance community safety and instead will result in the further criminalisation and net-widening and, more broadly, policies which are punitive in nature generally do not provide a benefit to the community. We instead argued for policy and legislative responses focused on addressing the broader social factors which elevate the risk of a young person coming into contact with police or entering the youth justice system, including poverty, homelessness, family violence, and problematic substance use.

You can read the full submission here.

Submission to the Productivity Commission’s Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement Review

The Productivity Commission was recently asked by the Australian Government to conduct the final review of the National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement and to assess the impact of programs and make recommendations that aim to enhance the effectiveness, accessibility, affordability and safety of the mental health and suicide prevention system. As our member services work at the coalface of these system, QNADA provided feedback for their process on current issues facing the AOD system with a focus on broad system level issues at the federal level in particular.

Our submission identified the following areas of improvement to Australia’s current approach:

• Chronic underfunding of the AOD sector
• The need to resolve issues within the current funding, contracting and commissioning environment
• Issues associated with the PHN network
• The need for national level governance arrangements for the AOD system

You can real the full submission here.

Submission to the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024

On 12 December 2024 the Minister for Health and Ambulance Services introduced the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024 into the Queensland Parliament to improve public protection and public confidence in the safety of services provided by registered health practitioners.

QNADA were generally supportive of the bill. We supported raising the bar for practitioners to regain their registration following cancellation or disqualification and the requirement for a cancelled or disqualified practitioner to obtain a reinstatement order from QCAT prior to applying for re-registration. We suggested that alongside this government introduce a requirement that re-registered practitioners attend ongoing counselling with a peer and report to registration bodies for a stipulated period.

We supported expanding the information available on the public register for practitioners who have engaged in serious sexual misconduct. We support the creation of an offence of threaten, intimidate, dismiss, refuse to employ, or subject a person to other detriment or reprisal because they intend to or have made a notification, recognising that people who report should feel safe in being able to report the conduct without fear of reprisals or intimidation.

You can read the full submission here.

Statement re ban on gender affirming care

QNADA is deeply concerned about the Queensland Government’s decision to enforce a statewide ‘halt’ to all gender affirming hormone care including puberty blockers.  This ban will disproportionately affect young people and families who cannot access this support through the private sector, and increases the risk young people will obtain unregulated forms of medication.  You can read the statement here Fin_20250220_Statement re ban on gender affirming care.

Submission into Australia’s youth justice and incarceration system 2024

In October, QNADA made a submission into the inquiry into Australia’s youth justice and incarceration system. We welcomed the inquiry considering QNADA and our member services have long expressed significant concerns regarding the mistreatment of children and young people who interact with the youth justice system in Queensland.

This submission identifies a range of issues relevant to the committee’s scope including:

• the outcomes and impacts of youth incarceration in jurisdictions across Australia;
• the over-incarceration of First Nations children;
• the degree of compliance and non-compliance by state, territory and federal prisons and detention centres with the human rights of children and young people in detention; the Commonwealth’s international obligations in regards to youth justice including the rights of the child, freedom from torture and civil rights; and
• the benefits and need for enforceable national minimum standards for youth justice consistent with our international obligations.

You can read the full submission here.

Submission to the Liquor and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024 (online liquor sales)

In August, QNADA was consulted in regard to the Liquor and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024 (online liquor sales). We were generally supportive of the bills commitment to preventing and reducing alcohol related harms through improved regulation of same day liquor delivery. QNADA welcomes the proactive action being taken in relation to this issue and the commitment to prioritise the health and wellbeing of the Queensland community.

Our submission focussed on:

• The proposed restriction on delivery of alcohol to the hours 10am and 10pm – which we supported
• The strengthening of enforcement for breaches of responsible service of alcohol laws
• Our concern that the penalties for organisations who breach self-exclusion agreements are demonstrably weak

You can read the full submission here:

Submission to the Truth and Justice Commission Bill 2024

QNADA recently made a submission to the Submission to the Truth and Justice Commission Bill 2024. Overall, we supported the bills intention to recognise the important role that truth telling and accountability for government actions in progressing reconciliation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Within the submission we:

• Reiterated the importance of the Closing the Gap which, according to the 2024 Productivity Commission Review, has been plagued by large scale inaction by government and non-government bodies alike
• Recommended that the Commission commit to diversity within the membership. Sistergirl and Brotherboys, young people, people with disability, people who use drugs and people removed from their families both by the stolen generations and as a result of the institutionally racist Child Protection system must be included and represented on the Commission.
• Argued that drug laws, policies, and practices disproportionally effect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across the Country and that the targeted criminalisation of indigenous communities has generational impacts on children and young people.

You can read the full submission here.

Submission to the Making Queensland Safer Bill 2024

QNADA recently made a submission to the proposed Making Queensland Safer Bill 2024. The submission stressed our concern that the legislative changes will result in the further criminalisation of young people who use drugs and that it will undermine the key outcomes that governments are seeking to achieve through these policies, including those aimed at reducing recidivism and improving community safety.

In particular, we argued that removing the principle of detention as last resort and allowing cautions and restorative justice agreements to appear on the criminal history of a child will result in further harm to children and communities. Considering that this Act will increase the number of young people who are incarcerated, we also argued that there are significant challenges to equitable access to appropriate healthcare within correctional settings which must be addressed.

You can read the full submission here.

Overdose Prevention Queensland Plan

Overdose is a critical social, political, economic, and public health issue.

QuIHN, QuIVAA, The Loop Australia and QNADA have established an Overdose Prevention Queensland Plan in response to the rising threat of the synthetic opioid crisis.

We are advocating for immediate action to address:

Investment and Enhancement for Harm Reduction Services

Improve access to Opioid Dependence Treatment

Expand drug checking services like @cheqpoint.qld

0verdose Prevention Centres

0verdose Response Strategies

Drug and 0verdose Monitoring Systems

 To read or download the full Overdose Prevention Queensland Plan, click here

Submission to the Inquiry into the health impacts of alcohol and other drugs in Australia

QNADA provided a submission to the House Standing Committee on Health, Aged Care and Sport’s Inquiry into the health impacts of alcohol and other drugs in Australia.

The submission addressed key structural issues within Australia’s drug and alcohol policy, focussing on issues where federal government leadership is needed.

Our submission focussed on five key areas:

1. The need for greater balance across the three pillars of Australian alcohol and drug policy spending, in particular the need to increase the funding for prevention, treatment, and harm reduction.
2. The need for national level governance structures in order to address a lack of coordination in priorities and funding within the Australian AOD sector.
3. The need to resolve issues within the current funding, contracting, and commissioning environment which hamstring the ability of AOD services to operate effectively.
4. The value of reframing the policy narrative around AOD.
5. The value of decriminalisation.

Please click here to read the full submission.

Updated harm reduction resources

We recently updated our harm reduction resources.

These resources provide information on the potential interactions between commonly prescribed mental health medications and licit and illicit drugs, and were updated in collaboration with a group of practitioners across social work, psychopharmacology, addiction medicine, psychology, and public health.

 Please click here or the image below to view or download the updated resources

2022-23 Alcohol and other Drug Treatment Services National Minimum Data Set

The Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Services National Minimum Data Set (AODTS NMDS) contains information about alcohol and other drug treatment services; the clients who use these services; the type of issues for which treatment is sought and the types of treatment provided.

In 2022-2023, 107 non-government organisations and alcohol and other drug treatment establishments across Queensland submitted data to the AODTS NMDS through QNADA, including statewide residential treatment services. The submission included 22,393 closed treatment episodes to 17,020 clients aged 10+, a small increase from 21,678 episodes in 2021-2022.

Counselling was the most accessed treatment type (48%) followed by support and case management (17%), and rehabilitation (16%). More than half of episodes were provided to male clients (55%). Alcohol was the most common principal drug of concern for which clients sought treatment (36%), followed by amphetamines (32%) and Cannabinoids (14%).

Data interpretation notes: The data is limited to those NGO AODTS who submit through QNADA, including statewide residential treatment services. Data from AODS or similar government services is not included. Please note, in some cases, agencies may not submit data to QNADA.

Please click here to view or download the full 2022-23 National Minimum Data Set report