Victims’ Commissioner and Sexual Violence Review Board Bill 2024 (Qld)

An Act to establish the Victims' Commissioner and the Sexual Violence Review Board, to declare and implement a charter of rights for affected victims, and to amend this Act, the Evidence Act 1977, the Integrity Act 2009, the Penalties and Sentences Act 1992, the Public Sector Act 2022 and the Victims of Crime Assistance Act 2009 for particular purposes The Parliament of Queensland enacts—

Chapter 1 Preliminary

Part 1 Introduction

1 Short title This Act may be cited as the Victims' Commissioner and Sexual Violence Review Board Act 2024.

2 Commencement This Act commences on a day to be fixed by proclamation.

3 Main purposes of Act The main purposes of this Act are— (a) to establish the Victims' Commissioner to promote and protect victims' rights; and (b) to declare a charter of rights for affected victims; and (c) to establish the Sexual Violence Review Board to identify and review systemic issues in relation to the reporting, investigation and prosecution of sexual offences.

4 Act binds all persons (1) This Act binds all persons, including the State. (2) Nothing in this Act makes the State liable to be prosecuted for an offence.

Part 2 Interpretation

5 Definitions The dictionary in schedule 2 defines particular words used in this Act.

6 Meaning of victim and harm (1) A victim is a person who suffers harm— (a) because a criminal offence is committed against the person; or (b) because the person is a family member or dependant of another person who suffers harm because a criminal offence is committed against the other person; or (c) as a direct result of intervening to help another person who suffers harm or dies because a criminal offence is committed against the other person; or (d) because the person is a witness of a criminal offence committed against another person. (2) A person who is a family member or dependant of another person is a victim if the other person dies because a criminal offence is committed against the other person. (3) Subsection (4) applies if a victim mentioned in subsection (1)(a) is pregnant when the criminal offence is committed and, as a result of the commission of the criminal offence— (a) the person sustains a bodily injury that results in the destruction of the life of the person's unborn child; or (b) the person dies, resulting in the destruction of the life of the person's unborn child. (4) A victim includes a person who has suffered harm because the person would, if the unborn child had been born alive, have been a family member of the child. (5) Also, a victim includes a person not mentioned in subsection (1), (2) or (4) who suffers harm— (a) because domestic violence is committed against the person; or (b) because the person is a family member or dependant of a person mentioned in paragraph (a); or (c) as a direct result of intervening to help a person mentioned in paragraph (a). (6) A person who commits a criminal offence or domestic violence against a person as mentioned in subsection (1)(a) or (5)(a) is not a victim under subsection (1)(b), (c) or (d), (2), (4) or (5)(b) or (c). (7) For this section, a person suffers harm if, because of a criminal offence or domestic violence committed against the person— (a) the person suffers physical, psychological or emotional harm; or Examples for paragraph (a)— bodily injury, grief, distress or trauma (b) the person's property is taken, destroyed or damaged; or (c) the person suffers financial or economic loss.