Activities
Engagement with the Queensland Public Trustee (QPT)
Since formation, the Public Trustee Advisory and Monitoring Board (the Board) has engaged extensively with the QPT to gain a thorough understanding of its operations, performance, objectives and priorities. The Public Trustee, Mr Samay Zhouand, and members of QPT’s executive team have attended most of the Board’s meetings to present on a specific topic or update the Board on key aspects of its operations where it has been making changes and improvements.
The Board has provided advice and recommendations to the QPT about:
- how QPT can protect and promote the interests of its financial management clients who have been found by the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal to have impaired decision-making for financial matters, by engaging with creditors in relation to alleged debts
- updates to QPT’s complaints system to make it more accessible to clients with impaired decision-making capacity, and First Nations and culturally and linguistically diverse clients
- changes to QPT’s strategic planning process to assist QPT in planning for the future
- the proposed consultation process for the QPT review of fees and charges for key services, as well as the proposed reforms to fees and charges and the key challenges facing the QPT.
The Board has developed a cooperative and constructive relationship with the QPT, which has been receptive to accepting and acting on the Board’s advice and recommendations.
Engagement with the Attorney-General
The Board also has the function of giving advice and recommendations to the Attorney-General about ways the QPT can effectively perform its functions and improvements to performance of functions to promote the interests of the QPT’s clients, especially those with impaired decision-making capacity.
In 2025, the Board made several recommendations to the Attorney-General to review the:
- guardianship ‘gag law’ in section 114A of the Guardianship and Administration Act 2000 and either repeal or amend it to give adults who are or have been the subject of guardianship proceedings the right to publish, or consent to the publication, of personally identifying information about themselves and their experiences of the guardianship system
- QPT’s existing legal structure and governance arrangements and decide whether they should be changed to enhance the QPT’s accountability, transparency and performance
- QPT’s organisational purpose, functions and financial sustainability and provide the QPT with funding to meet the cost of its community service obligations for the essential services that it provides to clients and the Queensland community.