What Queensland's nine standards cover
The Residential Tenancies Authority's minimum housing standards, which have
applied to all Queensland tenancies since September 2024, cover weatherproofing
and structural soundness, fixtures and fittings in good repair, locks on external
doors and windows, freedom from vermin and mould, privacy coverings, adequate
plumbing, functioning cooking facilities, and bathroom and laundry serviceability.
On window coverings the RTA's page is specific and narrow: Privacy coverings must
be provided in rooms where the tenant might reasonably expect it, such as
bedrooms
, with blinds, curtains, tinted windows and glass frosting all counting.
A corded blind with its cord looping to the floor of a toddler's bedroom satisfies
the Queensland standard, provided it blocks the view.
The three east-coast states, compared
Does the state's rental minimum standard cover blind and curtain cord safety?
| State | Cord-safety minimum standard | The detail, as at 5 July 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Victoria | Yes, dated and numbered | In force 1 December 2025 for all corded internal coverings whatever their age; Residential Tenancies Regulations 2021 Schedule 4, as amended 2025. Our explainer. |
| NSW | Not visible in the rule book | The state's safety page describes only the federal installation test; its minimum-standards page, rental-law timeline and consolidated legislation show no NSW rental cord standard. Our paper trail. |
| Queensland | No | Nine minimum housing standards; window coverings appear only as a privacy requirement. No cord-safety provision on the RTA's page. |
Sources: each state's own official page, linked in the rows and read on 5 July 2026. Update, 9 July 2026: the same primary-source check is now complete for WA, SA, Tasmania, the ACT and the NT; the full eight-jurisdiction scoreboard extends this table. None of the five adds a cord rule.
What fills the gap in Queensland, and what does not
The federal rules apply in Queensland as everywhere: supply of corded coverings has been regulated since 30 December 2010, and installation since 1 January 2015. But both instruments look forward. A covering supplied and installed before those dates, which describes a large share of the blinds in older rental stock, was never captured by either; and the installation standard relies on the original installer having done the job right, with no ongoing obligation on anyone to check. Victoria's regulatory impact statement makes precisely this point in explaining why a rental minimum standard was needed at all: the federal regime does not reach back. Queensland has no equivalent mechanism, so in a Queensland rental the question who must fix the pre-2015 cord? currently has no answer.
The stakes are the reason the federal labels exist, and we state them once, from official sources: Consumer Affairs Victoria's product-safety guidance records at least 21 young children's deaths from blind and curtain cords nationally since 2001. That is a national figure; nothing about cord physics changes at the Tweed.
What a Queensland landlord or renter can do anyway
Nothing in Queensland law prevents doing what Victorian law now requires. The practical standard is public, national and cheap: secure every cord with a cleat at least 1,600 mm above the floor, or a tested cord guide, so no loose loop of 220 mm or longer can form within 1,600 mm of the floor; the ACCC's installation guide shows the fittings. Victoria's impact statement assumed $7.10 a window in materials and 15 minutes' installation for the same job. For a Queensland property manager, the calm framing is not "fines loom", because none do; it is that the cheapest safety retrofit in the housing conversation currently sits one state's regulation away from being your legal obligation anyway, and two governments' pages already tell you exactly how to do it.