Cabinet documents
Cabinet is the peak decision-making body of the Queensland Government and is responsible for the development and coordination of government policies. Cabinet makes critical decisions on topics such as law reform, significant policy initiatives, release of discussion papers, and intergovernmental agreements, as well as important appointments to government boards and committees.
Search for released Cabinet documents:
Search Cabinet Documents from March 2024 onwards:
Cabinet is bound by a collective responsibility which means Cabinet decisions are binding on all Ministers as government policy. To fulfil their responsibility, Cabinet Ministers must have frank, confidential discussions to resolve issues. More information about collective responsibility is available from the Queensland Cabinet Handbook
The Queensland Government has agreed to a new policy to proactively release Cabinet submissions in commitment to open and accountable government.
Documents considered by Cabinet on, or after 25 March 2024 will be proactively released online within 30 business days of Cabinet’s final consideration of the documents. In some cases publication may be delayed beyond 30 business days where there is reasonable justification for delay.
Material that would undermine the collective responsibility of Cabinet will be redacted from the Cabinet documents.
Other information not suitable for release will also be redacted prior to publication of the submission, based on set criteria. For example, Cabinet material that, if revealed, would prejudice security or public safety, intergovernmental relations, the state's economy, or the competitive commercial activities of an agency will be redacted. More information about redaction criteria is available from the Queensland Cabinet Handbook. Due to the complexity of some issues, Cabinet may consider a matter on a number of occasions. Only the final decisions of Cabinet on a specific matter are released on this website.
Cabinet and the Right to Information Act 2009
The Right to Information Act 2009 provides that information created after the commencement of the Act on 1 July 2009 is exempt from release if:
- it was created for the consideration of Cabinet; or
- releasing it would reveal any consideration of Cabinet or otherwise prejudice the confidentiality of Cabinet considerations or operations; or
- it was created in the course of the state's budgetary processes.
The exemption specifically applies to a number of documents directly related to Cabinet's considerations or deliberations. These include:
- Cabinet submissions
- Cabinet briefing notes
- Cabinet agendas
- notes of discussions in Cabinet
- Cabinet minutes
- Cabinet decisions
- a draft of any of the above documents.
These exemptions continue to apply for submissions deemed out of scope for proactive release as well as information redacted from proactively released submissions.
The Information Privacy and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2023, which commenced on 1 March 2024, makes amendment to the Right to Information Act 2009 to support the operation of proactively releasing Cabinet documents. These amendments serve to:
- Provide clarity for applicants and decision makers concerning the exempt status of information in Cabinet submissions and Cabinet decisions, and other Cabinet related documents, in view of the official publishing of information by decision of Cabinet under the proactive release scheme.
- Provide protection from civil liability for Ministers disclosing information under a publication scheme or other administrative scheme in good faith.
- Ensure that the public interest immunity in proceedings and processes is not altered by the publication of information by Cabinet, or decisions by Cabinet to officially publish Cabinet information.
Search Cabinet documents released prior to March 2024:
You can also find information by date or by topic.
A summary of the Cabinet submission and decision is provided for eligible Cabinet submissions considered from July 2008 to 18 March 2024. Submissions considered in this timeframe were considered by the sponsoring agencies against the release criteria detailed below in determining whether a submission decision summary could be published. If a submission/decision summary was to be published, each attachment was also assessed for release against the release criteria.
Release criteria for material considered prior to March 2024Material is released unless its disclosure could reasonably be expected to:
- Breach Cabinet's collective responsibility to Parliament
- Breach Parliamentary privilege
- Reveal or pre-empt the deliberative processes of Cabinet
- Prejudice collective or individual responsibility of Ministers to Parliament
- Prejudice private or business affairs of members of the community
- Prejudice protection of an individual's right to privacy
- Prejudice fair treatment of individuals
- Prejudice security or public safety
- Prejudice law enforcement
- Prejudice security or good order of a corrective services facility
- Prejudice economy of the State
- Prejudice flow of information to police or other law enforcement/regulatory agency
- Prejudice intergovernmental relations
- Prejudice trade secrets, business affairs and research of agency or person
- Prejudice an agency obtaining confidential information.
- Prejudice competitive commercial activities or an agency
- Prejudice conduct of investigations, audit/review by the Ombudsman, Auditor General, or Public Service Commissioner
- Prejudice management function or conduct of industrial relations of agency
- Prejudice deliberative process in a public body
- Prejudice effectiveness of testing or auditing procedures
- Prejudice legal professional privilege or budgetary deliberations
- Pre-empt Governor in Council
Cabinet material created before 1 July 2009 retains its exemption under the Freedom of Information Act 1992 (now repealed). The exemption applies to all documents submitted to Cabinet, as well as documents prepared for Cabinet's consideration and documents that may disclose Cabinet considerations.
Cabinet documents created after commencement of the Right to Information Act 2009 on 1 July 2009 will be administratively released after 20 years, while Cabinet documents created prior to 1 July 2009 will continue to be administratively released after 30 years.
Information about Cabinet documents which have been administratively released can be found at the Queensland State Archives website.
- Last updated
- 2 May, 2024
