Denying administrative justice to prisoners in Queensland

Abstract

This article discusses the dramatic changes to prisoners' rights to access information about administrative decisions which affect them and their ability to judicially review those decisions, introduced by the Corrective Services Act 2006 (Qld). The authors describe the impact of these changes on prisoners who are subject to flawed and improper decision-making and provide a critical analysis of the Government's rationale in introducing them. It is argued that the privative clause provisions of the new Act can be best explained as a contribution to the narrow and counter-productive politics of 'law and order' in Queensland.