Mr Ferguson, who is at an undisclosed location after threats from vigilantes, was threatening to return to his public housing flat in Ryde where neighbours had protested against his presence.

An extraordinary cabinet meeting last night approved a special bill which will allow the Government to move child-sex offenders from public housing without worrying about lease agreements.

Mr Ferguson served 14 years in jail for kidnapping three children and sexually assaulting them in Brisbane two decades ago. He was released in 2003 and has been run out of several Queensland towns, and was recently provided with housing in Ryde before residents' protests forced him into hiding.

The Government had been concerned that his return to Ryde might provoke violent protests.

Government sources said an initial proposal to introduce the legislation was put to a cabinet meeting on Monday but was viewed as ''too rushed and rough'' and the minister was told to do some more work on it.

''I asked the ministers for Housing and Police to find a solution to the difficult decisions we have with Dennis Ferguson,'' the Premier, Nathan Rees, said. The Housing Minister, David Borger, had found a way ''through this minefield'' and would introduce the legislation today.

Under the bill, police would have to seek Government permission for a person on the child- sex offence register to be moved.

Brett Collins, the co-ordinator of advocacy group Justice Action, labelled the new legislation ''over the top'' saying the Government was ''unprincipled'' in devising ''outrageous policy on the run''.

''They want to introduce a Dennis Ferguson Act,'' he said. It ''shows total lack of regard to the entitlement of a person to [have a place to live]''.

Mr Collins said the Government had a duty to the community to provide a safe neighbourhood. But it also had a duty to Mr Ferguson who, he said, ''had done nothing wrong'' since his conviction, 22 years ago.

Greg Barns, the director of the Australian Lawyers Alliance, said the legislation was ''a case of a government caving into vigilantism''. ''It will not help sex offenders to rehabilitate but rather provide another stress for them on release from prison.''