Trying to contact the registry or CPOR?
We are a private criminal defence firm (not the Queensland Police Service and not the registry), and we cannot take reports, update reporting details, or process register access applications. To save you a call:
- Reportable offenders: contact the Child Protection Offender Registry (CPOR) on 1300 552 931 (Monday–Friday, 8am–4pm) or report online via the QPS portal.
- Public register access (Daniel’s Law): applications are made through the Queensland Police Service, not through any law firm.
If you want confidential legal advice (about your reporting obligations, a failure-to-report allegation, or how the register affects you), that is exactly what we do: get in touch.
Overview
The Child Protection (Offender Reporting and Offender Prohibition Order) and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2023, passed by Queensland Parliament on 24 August 2023, doubled reportable offenders’ minimum reporting periods and gave police new powers to monitor them: a power to inspect their digital devices, and access to surveillance device warrants and controlled operations to investigate suspected reporting breaches. Two years later, Daniel’s Law added a public disclosure register on top of the existing reporting scheme, covered in full in our Daniel’s Law explainer.
Reportable offenders and the current reporting periods
A “reportable offender” is someone who has been convicted of an offence involving child exploitation material (CEM), child abuse material (CAM), or a sexual offence committed against a child. See our previous detailed article for an extensive recap.
Before the 2023 Act, reportable offenders had to report for 5 years, 10 years, or life, depending on how many reportable offences they’d been convicted of. Those periods, the shortest in the country, were doubled for offences committed on or after 1 October 2023: 10 years for a single offence, 20 years on a second reportable offence, or forever if convicted of more than one new reportable offence or subject to a DPSOA order (halved again for offences committed as a child). Offences committed before 1 October 2023 still carry the old, shorter periods. Our article on what it means to be a reportable offender sets out the full current table, including the Supreme Court suspension pathway, so we won’t repeat it all here.
Expanded police powers: device inspection and surveillance warrants
The 2023 Act inserted ss 21B–21D into the Police Powers and Responsibilities Act 2000 (Qld), giving police a power to inspect a digital device in a reportable offender’s possession as part of monitoring compliance with reporting obligations, separate from the ordinary powers police need a warrant or reasonable suspicion of a specific offence to search a device.
It also widened the covert powers police can use against reportable offenders. The Act added the three main reporting-breach offences, failing to comply with reporting obligations (s 50), giving false or misleading information and breaching a prohibition order (renumbered by the same amendments, and now ss 67FD and 67FA respectively), to schedule 2 of the PPRA, which lists the offences that can support a surveillance device warrant or a controlled operation. Because those offences are now on that list, police who have intelligence that a reportable offender is not complying can apply to a Supreme Court judge or a magistrate for a surveillance device warrant, and covertly monitor the offender to confirm a breach. The warrant is subject to the existing safeguards in chapter 13 of the PPRA, and the judge or magistrate must be satisfied there are reasonable grounds before granting it.
Police routinely investigate and charge reportable offenders who fail to report, provide false or misleading information, or breach a prohibition order. We set out what an offender prohibition order is, how police obtain one and what it can require or prohibit, in our article on what it means to be a reportable offender.
Daniel’s Law: the layer added in 2025
Daniel’s Law, covered in detail in our dedicated explainer, commenced 31 December 2025 and sits on top of everything above: it doesn’t change the reporting periods or police’s investigative powers described here, but it gives the public tiered access to information about some reportable offenders through the Queensland Police Service, something that didn’t exist when the 2023 reforms passed.
Questions?
Should you find yourself charged with breaching your reportable offender obligations, a CEM or CAM offence, or an offence committed against a child, it is vital you engage an experienced criminal lawyer to protect your rights.
For more information, check out our dedicated CEM page, articles, or contact us for advice.
This article is general legal information, not advice about your situation.
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