Office of the Queensland Parliamentary Counsel

The Office of the Queensland Parliamentary Counsel (OQPC) was established as a statutory authority under the Legislative Standards Act 1992 on 1 June 1992.

OQPC is the frontline service provider for Queensland legislation, supporting government and democracy through legislative drafting and publishing. Subject to the Minister, the Honourable Premier of Queensland, the office is controlled by the Queensland Parliamentary Counsel.

Following the 2015 Queensland general election, OQPC moved quickly to focus its efforts on working with agencies to draft and publish legislation that reflects the new government direction, priorities and commitments.

Key achievements for 2014–15

• Developed and implemented a comprehensive business improvement plan to improve processes in delivering the legislative program, leadership development, work/life balance and organisational performance.
• Updated the Queensland Legislation Handbook to assist policy and instructing officers.
• Continued the staged publication of Principles of good legislation: OQPC guide to Fundamental Legislative Principles.
• Provided training for agency policy officers who work with OQPC on legislation.
• Monitored and reviewed waiting times for updated Queensland legislation for clients, acknowledging that significant workload and system changes negatively impacted in 2014–15:
  • 44.22 per cent of amended current law accessible within 24 hours of any changes taking place
  • 61.97 per cent of amended current law accessible within five working days of any changes taking place.
• Progressed the eLegislation project to deliver enhancements to legislative drafting and publishing and public access to Queensland legislation.
• Supported the Youth Parliament, including providing assistance with the supply and publication of Youth Bills.
• Hosted a drafter from the Law Drafting Division of the Department of Justice in Hong Kong.
• Participated in a drafter international interchange program with the Legislative Division of the Attorney-General’s Chambers in Singapore.

Service standards

To further strengthen client confidence and satisfaction with OQPC’s drafting and publishing services, the office continued a range of initiatives to enhance service delivery of products of the highest standard. Some of these initiatives included:

• strict adherence to rigorous quality control processes for all legislation drafted and published
• provision of timely advice to agencies on the pending expiry of subordinate legislation and the automatic commencement of uncommenced Act provisions
• regular internal communications and updating of technical written materials used by drafters to ensure their work reflected best practice and applicable standards
• provision of training for instructing agencies, enhancing their capacity to instruct OQPC effectively so products meet their needs and expectations.

Future directions for 2015–16

• Continue to provide high quality, accurate and timely drafting and publishing services to support delivery of the government’s legislative program.
• Launch the full build of the Queensland Integrated Legislation Lifecycle System (QuILLS) to:
  • greatly improve public access to authorised Queensland legislation and legislative information
  • streamline legislative production and publishing processes
  • enhance electronic access to Queensland legislation and legislative information
  • establish an industry-standard data repository for the Queensland Statute Book through converting current legislation files to Extensible Mark-up Language (XML) format, which is in line with open data objectives.
• Cultivate a high-performing, integrated and innovative workforce.
• Nurture strategic relationships with clients, stakeholders and partnering entities.

The following table provides results against targets for the Legislative Drafting and ePublishing (LDeP) service area for 2014–15:

Notes:

1. This service standard informs on overall satisfaction levels with the quality, timeliness and support provided by LDeP and is derived from an annual client survey. Clients are Ministers, Directors-General and their agencies, Cabinet Legislation and Liaison Officers and Senior Policy Officers.

2014–15 overview

OQPC drafted 469 legislative instruments, totalling 12,192 pages. In this period 71 per cent of all Bills were amended during consideration in detail.

OQPC is committed to service delivery and seeks feedback from the instructing agencies on its performance in relation to most individual drafting projects. Four standard questions are asked (see below) and an opportunity is provided for general commentary:

*average

Organisational structure

The office is located at 111 George Street, Brisbane and all staff work from that location. The current structure is summarised in the organisational chart below:

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