Sentencing sexual and domestic violence

The Council gives advice to the Attorney-General of Queensland Government, when asked to, about sentencing.

We have been asked to review some aspects of sexual and domestic violence sentencing in Queensland.

The first aspect of sentencing we are reviewing is how sexual assault and rape offences are sentenced.

We are also reviewing two important changes that were made to the law in 2015 and 2016 affecting sentencing for domestic violence offences in Queensland.

This Terms of Reference explains what we have been asked to review and must report on in more detail.

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Key dates

We will complete this work in two stages.

We will review sentencing of sexual violence and deliver a final report to the Attorney-General by 16 September 2024.

We will review the aggravating factor for domestic violence offences at the same time and deliver a final report to the Attorney-General by 30 September 2025.

In our final reports, we will tell the government if we think changes should be made to improve how sexual and domestic violence offences are sentenced.

We will also tell the Attorney-General how we think these changes could be done.

The government might agree with us and make these changes. Or the government might not agree with us, and not make any changes.

Next steps

Preliminary submissions have now closed and are available to read below.

Sentencing sexual violence review:

We are currently accepting submissions in response to our Consultation Papers on sexual assault and rape offences.

Domestic violence as an aggravating factor review:

A Consultation Paper on the aggravating factor for domestic and family violence offences is due to be released in early 2025.