2024 Crown Law Legal Conference

Caretaker conventions – a refresher

This session will provide a brief refresher on the rationale and nature of the caretaker conventions and their application.

What is required to comply with s 58 of the Human Rights Act 2019

Felicity will provide a general update on what is required to comply with s 58 of the Human Rights Act 2019, in light of recent cases.

Path to Treaty

Peter and Ashleigh will provide an overview of the objectives of the Path to Treaty Act and how the entities established under the Act are designed to help achieve those objectives. In particular, their presentation will consider how the Truth Telling and Healing Inquiry is likely to operate and will expand on the role government entities will have in providing information to the Inquiry.

Peter Dwyer and Ashleigh Pain-Geddes

How to manage an ill employee

This session will focus on a number of issues relevant to the management of ill employees including:

• managing employees to minimise the risk of discrimination, victimisation and unlawful requests for information complaints under anti-discrimination legislation
• action taken in relation to employees under Chapter 3, Part 8, Division 5 of the Public Sector Act 2022
• managing employees to minimise the risk of workers’ compensation claims.

Property law update

Angela will provide an update on Queensland’s property law, discuss recent changes and  advise on preparing for more changes in the near future.

Option 1: Impacts of the Kozarov decision on the workplace in relation to psychological claims

The Kozarov decision has had a major impact on the way courts approach the issue of reasonable foreseeability of psychiatric injury. Members of Crown Law’s WorkCover team will workshop a number of factual scenarios and discuss whether a duty of care to prevent psychiatric injury might arise.

Option 2: Giving Evidence masterclass: Giving evidence in a court, tribunal or commission of inquiry

In this masterclass our experts will discuss:

• what happens before you attend court as a witness
• etiquette in the hearing room
• how do you address the judge/tribunal member
• when in the witness box.

Karen Watson and Nicola Smith

Option 3: Emerging legal frameworks to support the renewable energy transition

Renewable energy technologies are developing rapidly and there is a strong interest in their adoption. However, for Queensland’s transition to large-scale reliance on renewable energy to be successful, there must be an effective regulatory regime.  In this masterclass, we will consider what progress has been made so far toward developing such a regime.  We will also identify what further legislative changes are required to support the transition and how those further changes are likely to affect the work of a variety of Queensland government agencies.

Recent amendments to the Right to Information Act 2009 and the Information Privacy Act 2009

Amendments to the Information Privacy Act 2009 and Right to Information Act 2009 were passed on 29 November 2023 and are expected to commence on 1 July 2025. The key changes are the introduction of a mandatory data breach notification scheme designed to better protect personal information, replacement of the existing Information Privacy Principles and National Privacy Principles with a single set of Queensland Privacy Principles, and amendments to support the operation of the proactive release of Cabinet documents as recommended in the Coaldrake Report.

Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI): Risks and guidance

In his session, Adam will provide an introduction to AI, explore the risks associated with using this technology and give government officers guidance for using AI.