There is no section 10 in Queensland.

People searching for section 10 drink driving in QLD are usually repeating something a mate said, or something they read in an article written for another state. Section 10 is not part of Queensland law. It is a term in common use in New South Wales, and it does not transfer.

What people are actually asking is a real question though, and Queensland does have an answer to it. It is just a different mechanism with different limits, and the limits are the part worth understanding.

What people mean when they say it

Almost always one of two things.

Getting through this without a criminal record. Or getting through this without losing my licence.

Those sound like the same wish and in Queensland they are handled completely separately. Conflating them is how people end up disappointed by an outcome they thought they had been promised.

What Queensland actually has

Under the Penalties and Sentences Act, a Queensland court has a discretion about whether to record a conviction. In deciding, it has to consider the nature of the offence, your character and your age, and what recording a conviction would do to your ability to earn a living or your standing in the community.

That is the closest thing Queensland has to what people are reaching for, and it is genuinely worth understanding, because for many people the record is the thing that actually damages their life. A recorded conviction can matter to employment, to travel, to a visa, to a registration or to a card that lets you do your job.

The important limitation is that this is a decision about your criminal history. It is not a decision about your licence.

The bit that surprises people

A court declining to record a conviction does not put you back on the road.

If you are convicted of a drink driving offence, the disqualification is automatic. The magistrate is not deciding whether to take your licence. They are deciding how long for, and even that sits between minimum and maximum periods set by law. The Queensland Government publishes those periods, and every offence category carries a minimum.

Here is the part that matters most, and it is the reason people leave court confused. Even where a court decides not to record a conviction, you are still disqualified. The ban applies either way.

So your licence and your record are two separate questions, answered at the same hearing, and succeeding on one does nothing for the other.

So if what you actually care about is driving to work next month, the conviction question is not the one to be focused on. The relevant question is whether an application for a work licence is open to you, which has its own eligibility rules and its own strict timing. Our page on work licence and hardship applications sets out what that involves.

Get those two aims clear in your own head before your court date, because the preparation for each is different.

Why the confusion is so common

Three reasons, and they all make sense.

Most legal content people find online is written for New South Wales or Victoria, because that is where the volume is. It reads as though it applies everywhere.

Terminology travels between mates faster than it travels between states. Someone who moved up from Sydney had a matter dealt with a particular way and describes it using the words they know.

And the Queensland mechanism does not have a catchy name. There is no shorthand for it, so nobody repeats it in the pub.

What actually helps at a Queensland court

The court can only weigh what it is told. That is the practical point underneath all of this.

If a recorded conviction would cost you something specific, the specificity is what does the work. Not that it would be embarrassing or inconvenient, but that a particular employer requires a particular clearance, or a particular visa or registration asks a particular question, and here is the document that says so.

The same goes for your licence. Extreme hardship, in the work licence sense, is about losing how you earn a living. It is not about a longer trip to the shops. That case is made with evidence prepared in advance, not with a description offered from the bar table.

And the general material about your circumstances, what happened, what you have done since, still matters. It just cannot be assembled on the morning.

Nobody can tell you how a magistrate will deal with your matter, and you should be careful of anyone who offers to. What can be said is that the material put in front of the court is the part that is within your control, and it is the part people most often leave until it is too late.

A note on other states' terms generally

Section 10 is not the only one that travels badly. People arrive with vocabulary from wherever they last lived, or from wherever the article they read was written, and it maps imperfectly onto Queensland practice.

If you have been told something confidently by someone who dealt with a matter interstate, treat it as a prompt to check rather than as information. Our drink and drug driving pages set out the Queensland position.

This article is current as at August 2026. Queensland drink and drug driving law is changing, with penalty changes commencing on 1 December 2026, so check the current Queensland Government material before relying on any of it.

If you have a court date coming up in Cairns

The record and the licence are two different fights, and knowing which one you are actually having changes what needs to be ready before you walk in.

We act in drink driving and traffic matters in Cairns and across Far North Queensland. Working out which of the two matters most in your situation is the place to start, and it is better done before your court date.

If you have a drink driving matter in Cairns and you are trying to protect your record or your licence, speak with us before your court date.