Building Belonging: Our review of Queensland's Anti-Discrimination Act

In May 2021, the Attorney-General asked the Queensland Human Rights Commission to undertake a review of the Anti-Discrimination Act 1991. This review was the first holistic consideration of the Act since its introduction 30 years ago, and provided a valuable opportunity to make sure our law is keeping up to date with the changing needs of our society.

The final report was handed to the Attorney-General on 29 July 2022 and tabled in parliament on 1 September 2022.

In April 2023, the Queensland Government published its response to the Building Belong report, confirming its in-principle support for all recommendations, including to repeal and replace the Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 within the current term of government.

The review's recommendations were to be partially implemented through reforms to the Anti-Discrimination Act passed by state parliament in September 2024.

Queensland Government announced on 14 March 2025 that these reforms will be paused to allow for further consultation. A new date for their commencement has not yet been confirmed. You can read our statement about the delay on our Media page. More information will be made available in the coming weeks.

Final report and recommendations

Building belonging: Review of Queensland's Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 Full report Download the full report  (PDF File, 4.6 MB) Download the full report (MS Word Document, 3.2 MB) - please note, due to the larger font size in the Word version of this report, page numbers are different to those in the PDF. Summary and recommendations Summary and recommendations (PDF File, 889.3 KB)

By chapter

• Chapter 1: About the Review (PDF File, 2.8 MB)
  • Terms of Reference, our approach, and methodology
• Chapter 2: The context for reform (PDF File, 3.0 MB)
  • what people told us about their experiences, key issues we identified
• Chapter 3: Laying the foundations (PDF File, 2.8 MB)
  • why a new Anti-Discrimination Act is required
• Chapter 4: Refining key concepts (PDF File, 3.2 MB)
  • defining discrimination, sexual harassment
• Chapter 5:  Improving the complaints system (PDF File, 3.2 MB)
  • complaints and hearing processes, increasing access to justice
• Chapter 6: Eliminating discrimination (PDF File, 3.1 MB)
  • positive duty, mechanisms to promote compliance
• Chapter 7: Updating protected attributes (PDF File, 3.4 MB)
  • grounds of discrimination, current and additional attributes
• Chapter 8: Coverage of the Act (PDF File, 3.2 MB)
  • areas of activity, exceptions and exemptions
• Chapter 9: Implementing reforms (PDF File, 2.7 MB)
  • awareness and education, resourcing and monitoring reforms
• Appendix A: List of consultations (PDF File, 2.7 MB)
• Appendix B: List of submissions (PDF File, 2.7 MB)