What it does
This Act establishes an ethics framework for Queensland public administration by declaring high-level ethics principles and a set of ethics values, and by mandating the creation, approval, publication, training and review of codes of conduct and agency-specific standards of practice. The Act distinguishes between non‑enforceable values and enforceable conduct obligations contained in approved codes or standards. The ethics principles are declared fundamental (s 4) and the ethics values are stated to apply to public service agencies, public sector entities and public officials (s 5). The Act requires a code of conduct to be prepared for public service agencies by the commissioner (s 12A), and for public sector entities by the entity’s chief executive officer (s 15). Approval processes differ: the Premier must approve the public service agency code (s 12B) while the responsible authority approves an entity’s code (s 17); standards of practice for a public service agency require commissioner approval (s 12F). An approved code or standard does not apply until it is approved (s 12B(4), s 12F(4), s 17(4)).
The Act sets mandatory compliance obligations for public officials: they must comply with the agency code and any applicable standard of practice (s 12H) or, for public sector entities, with the standards of conduct in the entity’s approved code (s 18). It also prescribes administrative requirements for agencies and entities: ensuring reasonable access to ethics materials (s 12I, s 19), publishing copies for inspection (s 12J, s 20), providing ethics education and training (s 12K, s 21), embedding ethics in administrative procedures and practices (s 12L, s 22), and reporting implementation in annual reports (s 12M, s 23). The Act contemplates disciplinary responses but delegates the substantive disciplinary mechanisms to other instruments: disciplinary action is to be dealt with under the Public Sector Act 2022 for public service officers, relevant local government legislation for local government employees, existing disciplinary processes where they exist, or regulations where none exist (s 24). The Governor in Council retains regulation‑making power (s 25). Transitional provisions address continuity of pre‑existing codes during specified transition periods (ss 26-27).