New drink driving laws in QLD from 1 December 2026

If you have seen a headline saying Queensland is doubling drink driving penalties on 1 December 2026, that is not what the law does. The doubling applies to drug driving. For drink driving, the maximum penalties are staying exactly where they are.

Something real is changing, though, and for a lot of people it will matter more than a maximum ever did. Courts are going to have to impose a minimum fine where a fine is the penalty they choose. There is also a new offence for drivers who have both alcohol and drugs in their system.

What the new drink driving laws in QLD change

There are three changes. Minimum court imposed fines are being introduced across the drink driving offences, a new offence covers driving with alcohol over the limit and a drug present at the same time, and one repeat offending category has its maximum lifted slightly. The alcohol limits and the ordinary drink driving maximums do not move, which is the opposite of what most of the coverage suggested.

What a minimum fine means

Right now a magistrate dealing with a drink driving matter has room to set a fine anywhere below the maximum for the offence. From 1 December, where the court deals with the matter by way of a fine, that fine has to be at least a set minimum.

The minimum does not always bind. It only applies where the penalty is a fine, so if the court imposes something else, such as probation, community service or a term of imprisonment, the minimum does not come into it. Where several offences are dealt with together, the total still has to reach the highest of the minimums that apply. And where a person was convicted of something in the short period before they are sentenced, the court can go below the minimum if it would be just to do so.

The minimum works as a floor with a small number of exceptions, and whether any of them applies in your matter depends on facts that a court has to be told about properly.

What is not changing

The alcohol limits stay the same. The no alcohol limit still applies to learner, provisional and restricted licence holders, and to specified drivers such as truck, bus and taxi drivers. The general limit for open licence holders is still 0.05. The middle limit is still 0.10 and the high limit is still 0.15.

The maximum penalties for drink driving are also unchanged, and they are the same on 2 December as they were on 30 November.

Disqualification works as it did before. If you are convicted of a drink driving offence, losing your licence is not a separate decision the magistrate might or might not make. It comes with the conviction. The magistrate sets how long it runs, within the range the law allows.

The suspensions before court do not change either. The 24 hour suspension at the roadside and the immediate suspension that runs until your matter is finished both work the same way. We cover how those fit together in our piece on licence suspension and disqualification.

The new combined drink and drug offence

The combined offence is new. From 1 December, driving with a relevant drug present and over an alcohol limit becomes its own offence rather than two separate charges dealt with side by side. Where the evidence shows both, the court has to convict of the combined offence.

Two consequences are worth knowing before you assume anything about your own position.

It carries extra disqualification on top of what the equivalent alcohol only offence would have attracted. And a work licence is not available for it at all. If you drive to earn a living, that second point matters most, because a charge that would have left the door open to a work licence application closes it once the drug element is in there. Our page on work licence and hardship applications sets out what that application involves, and the drug driving side of these changes is covered in our piece on the new drug driving laws.

If you were charged before 1 December

If you were charged before 1 December and your matter is still going, do not try to work out for yourself which version of the law lands on you.

The dates in your matter can make a difference. When the driving happened, when you were charged, and when you are dealt with are three different dates, and the relationship between them is exactly the sort of thing to put in front of someone before your court date rather than after it. It is not a question to settle from an article, including this one.

What you can do now is make sure you know the three dates and have your paperwork with you when you get advice.

Where the doubling headline came from

The announcement covered drink and drug driving together, and some of the coverage carried the doubling across to both. It only applies to the drug driving maximum.

It is a small distinction that produces a big difference in what people expect walking into court. If you have been quoting a doubled figure to yourself for a few weeks, reset it.

Other changes in the same Act that have no start date

The same Act contains further measures that are not commencing on 1 December. They start on a day to be fixed later, and as at the date of this article no date has been set. They include an immediate suspension for driving 40km/h or more over the limit, changes to how roadside drug testing is carried out, and a drug driver education program. None of that is in force, so treat anything you read saying otherwise with care.

The separate dangerous driving changes

Queensland's new dangerous driving offences are in a different Act and they start on 1 March 2027, not 1 December 2026. Some coverage has run the two together. If what you have been charged with is dangerous operation of a vehicle, our page on dangerous driving is the more useful starting point.

Common questions

Are drink driving penalties doubling in Queensland?

No. The maximum penalties for drink driving offences are unchanged. The doubling applies to the drug driving maximum. What is new for drink driving is the minimum fine, which is a floor on what a court can impose where it deals with the matter by way of a fine.

Are the alcohol limits changing?

No. The no alcohol, 0.05, 0.10 and 0.15 limits all stay where they are. Which limit applies to you still depends on your licence type and what you are driving.

Will I still lose my licence?

Yes. Disqualification follows a drink driving conviction and the magistrate sets the length within the range the law allows. Nothing in these changes alters that.

Does a work licence still exist?

Yes, for the charges it has always been available for, and subject to the same eligibility rules. It is not available for the new combined drink and drug offence. Our piece on first time drink driving charges covers where most people sit on this.

What to do if you have a court date coming up

Find the exact wording of your charge rather than relying on your own summary of it. Combined drink and drug charges are about to become their own thing and the wording is where that shows up.

Get your traffic history. The five year look back does real work in these matters and people misremember it, usually in their own favour.

If you drive for a living, raise it at the first opportunity rather than on the day, because the application that might keep you on the road has to be built before you walk into court.

This article is current as at September 2026 and describes changes commencing on 1 December 2026. The law in this area is moving, so check the current Queensland Government position for your own situation.

If your matter is in Cairns

What the court is told, and how early that material is prepared, is the part that is within your control, and the 1 December changes do not alter that. What they do change is the shape of what a court can impose, and for anyone charged with both alcohol and a drug, what options are open at all.

We act in drink driving and traffic matters in Cairns and across Far North Queensland. If you are not sure how these changes touch your matter, we can go through it with you.

If you have been charged with drink driving in Cairns and you are not sure where the 1 December changes leave you, speak with us before your court date.