The Queensland Court of Appeal held that neither the Police Service Administration Act 1990 (Qld) nor the Police Powers and Responsibilities Act 2000 (Qld) confers a private cause of action on an individual for breach of statutory duty arising from a police decision not to investigate complaints. The Court confirmed that, on the general state of the authorities, police do not owe a common law duty of care to individual complainants in respect of investigative or prosecutorial functions, absent pleaded facts establishing a particular or special relationship. The Court also held that s 315 of the Adoption Act 2009 (Qld), which creates an indictable offence for publishing identifying adoption material, does not of itself confer a statutory cause of action against police for failing to investigate such an offence.
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