Government Law Conference
Carefully curated for Government Lawyers like you, this program provides the key updates & information you need to get ahead in your day-to-day. Topics covered include control of Government information, the NACC, data sharing, & obligations for the Government on its journey to Net Zero. Also covered will be an exploration of your work health & safety obligations, responding to a cyber attack & avoiding mistakes in procurement & contracting. In addition, receive all your CPD points all in one go. WEB233N31Z
Description
Attend and earn 7 CPD units including:
4 units in Substantive Law
1 unit in Ethics & Professional Responsibility
1 unit in Practice Management & Business Skills
1 unit in Professional Skills
This program is applicable to practitioners from all States & Territories
Session 1
The Government Law Big Issues
Chair: Madeleine Thomas, Deputy General Counsel, Department of Planning and Environment
9.00am to 10.00am Control of Government information in Legal Proceedings
Sometimes sensitive information cannot be withheld from a Court through a public interest immunity claim or other similar mechanism. On those occasions sensitive material may still be used in Court but managed carefully under specific orders to reduce any prejudice to the public interest. This talk will introduce the role of closed court, suppression, non-publication, and restricted access orders in relation to sensitive government information to be used in legal proceedings.
- The source of power to make suppression or non-publication orders under both statute and the common law
- The test to be met to satisfy the Court that the order sought should be made
- Practical guidance and examples of methods to limit the risk of material escaping the protective orders that have been put in place
Presented by Michael Rennie, Barrister, 6 St James Hall Chambers
10.00am to11.00am Data Sharing: The Perils, Pitfalls, and Practical Solutions
Discuss the privacy risks of data sharing and provide a framework to ensure that it occurs in a legally sound manner and particularly focus on:
- Risks associated with sharing particular types of data, including biometric information obtained through facial recognition or other tools, health data, and metadata
- Privacy and other confidentiality limitations, and other legislative secrecy provisions
- Strategies for ensuring successful and safe data sharing, including how to achieve a robust data sharing agreement
Presented by Katherine Armytage, Partner, Maddocks
11.00am to 11.15am Morning Tea
11.15am to 12.15pm The Journey to Net Zero: Obligations for Government Under the International Treaty and its Exposure Domestically
- Where can domestic litigation arise against Government: Administrative Law and civil enforcement, tort, consumer protection and human rights
- What are the obligations as a government agency
- Recent decisions and challenges
Panellists
Dr Wesley Morgan, Researcher, Climate Council
Richie Merzian, Director, Climate & Energy Program, The Australian Institute
12.15pm to 1.15pm The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC)
- Powers and thresholds
- Broader integrity reforms
- Prevention and education functions
- Protections and safeguards: Reputational safeguards, whistleblower and journalist protections
Presented by Geoffrey Watson SC, New Chambers, Director Centre for Public Integrity
Session 2
CPD Compulsory Units for Government Lawyers
Chair Kay Rigas, R/Director, Office of Deputy Secretary, School Performance South, NSW Department of Education
Ethics & Professional Responsibility
2.00pm to 3.00pm Work Health and Safety: What are Your Ethical Obligation in Employment Issues
Presented by Margaret Baker, Principal Legal Officer, NSW Department of Education and Communities
Professional Skills
3.00pmm to 4.00pm How to Avoid Common Mistakes in Procurement & Contracting in Digitisation & Transformation
- Governance and contract performance: Do you have an effective performance framework and the governance to back it up?
- Contractual and schedule inconsistencies
- Making sure your contract delivers the goods and services you think you bought
- The importance of focusing on the Statement of Requirements
Presented by Alexandra Wedutenko, Consultant, Sparke Helmore Lawyers
4.00pm to 4.15pm Afternoon Tea
Practice Management & Business Skills
4.15pm to 5.15pm Responding to a Cyber-Attack: A Practice Management Obligation
Presented by John Macpherson, Director, Risk Advisory, Ashurst
Presenters
Madeleine Thomas
Madeleine has 20 years experience as a government lawyer, working predominantly in the field of planning, environment and natural resource management. She specialises in administrative law and statutory interpretation. Madeleine leads a team of 70 lawyers providing legal advice and support for the Department and Ministers in the portfolio areas of Local Government, Planning, Environment, Heritage, Energy and Water. She is responsible for supporting the Attorney-General in his role as the lead Minister for Native Title in NSW and managing the legislative priorities for the Planning and Environment cluster, working closely with the Department’s policy teams and the Parliamentary Counsel’s Office to deliver statutory reform including Bills, regulations and planning instruments. This has, most recently included, the passage and implementation of the NSW Reconstruction Authority Act 2022 in response to the NSW Independent Flood Inquiry recommendations, Coal Market Price Emergency (Directions for Coal Mines and Power Stations) Notices under the Energy and Utilities Administration Act 1987 implementing the NSW aspect of the Commonwealth’s coal price cap, and the Widjabul Wia-bal native title consent determination by the Federal Court.
Michael Rennie
Michael Rennie is a barrister at 6 St James Hall Chambers, and commenced practice at the bar in May 2011. Before joining the bar, Michael had over ten years of experience as a solicitor at the Australian Government Solicitor. From 2007 Michael was the principal solicitor with the carriage of the PII concerns for the Attorney-General, ASIO and the AFP in the R v Elomar & Ors [2010] NSWSC 10 terrorism prosecution. Since 2011 Michael has appeared for both the NSW Police and the Australian Federal Police in relation to public interest immunity claims in criminal prosecutions.
Geoffrey Watson SC
Geoffrey Watson specializes in product liability, professional negligence, general insurance and appeals. He has a national practice, appearing in the High Court, the Federal Court and the Supreme Courts of each of the States and Territories. His clients have included the Australian, British, American, New Zealand and Fijian governments; the NSW and other State governments; many State and federal government agencies; all major insurers; and the major mining, industrial and banking houses. Mr Watson has appeared as counsel assisting in several large-scale public inquiries, investigating allegations of corruption amongst NSW politicians and police misconduct and corruption. He is a director of The Center for Public Integrity, and has acted as an adviser to federal, State and Territory politicians on integrity and corruption issues. Mr Watson is active in pro bono work for asylum seekers, especially for the children on Nauru. Mr Watson has been recognized as Preeminent in the 2019 Doyle’s Guide for Leading Insurance Law Senior Counsel. In addition to his professional commitments, Mr Watson pursues an interest in academic work. He writes and lectures on the subjects of tort law, insurance, anti-corruption law, and legal history. He is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Notre Dame.
Katherine Armytage
Katherine Armytage is a partner in the Maddocks Canberra office, where she provides a broad range for commercial law services to Australian Government clients. During her career, she has undertaken several lengthy secondments to Commonwealth agencies, where she quickly became an integral part of those agencies' legal teams and gained an extensive knowledge about the practical issues affecting Australian Government clients. Katherine is a self-confessed ‘Privacy Nerd’, having a very strong interest in privacy and information law. She actually enjoys examining information flows associated with complex Australian Government projects, developing detailed process maps examining information flows and associated privacy and other legal risks, and coming up with creative solutions to help her clients minimise those risks. Katherine has been involved in some very interesting privacy and data handling matters recently – from privacy impact assessments for newly established departments and agencies, to working through eligible data breaches involving loss of highly sensitive personal information, to helping with establishment and operation of complex data sharing arrangements.
Dr Wesley Morgan
Dr Wesley Morgan is a researcher at the Climate Council. Wesley has a PhD in international relations from the University of Melbourne and has written widely on multilateral cooperation on climate change. His research considers the ways countries work together at the UN to tackle climate change and integrate climate change into their foreign policy and national security strategies. Wesley also has over a decade’s experience living and working in the Pacific islands, where he worked as Pacific Policy Advisor with Oxfam, and taught postgraduate courses in diplomacy at the University of the South Pacific. At the Climate Council, Wesley’s research considers the impacts of climate change on Australia and our region, and the international context for Australian climate policy. Wesley is also a research fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute.
Richie Merzian
Richie Merzian is the inaugural Climate & Energy Program Director at The Australia Institute. He is a former Australian Government representative to the UN climate change conference and worked at the Department of Climate Change and the Department of Foreign Affairs for almost a decade on both domestic and international climate and energy agendas. While at the Australian Government, he was the lead negotiator on adaptation to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and helped coordinate the Green Climate Fund Board during Australia’s tenure as Chair. Richie helped co-found the Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC) in 2006 and trained as a Climate Reality Leader in 2007 with former Vice President Al Gore. Richie is currently on the Advisory Committee for the Climate Change Institute at the Australian National University (ANU). Richie has degrees in Law and Economics from Sydney University.
Kay Rigas
Kay Rigas, Relieving Director School Performance – South is a senior officer of the NSW Department of Education who supports schools to provide quality public education for students in over 2,200 schools across NSW. Kay supports the School Performance division that provides support to 80,000 teachers and school leaders to deliver a high-quality education for over 800,000 students. The School Performance division consists of teams that are responsible for school planning, ongoing self-assessment and external validation, annual reporting, policy implementation and the and Connected Communities directorate. Kay provides advice on reform work streams and Departmental policies. Kay also represents the Department on external boards to support non-government bodies to further support school communities. Kay’s career with the NSW Department of Education began in 1995 across a variety of roles spanning 28 years. Kay began as a teacher, then Head Teacher before becoming a Principal at Cambridge Park High School. Kay then became Director Public Schools for the Campbelltown Network, Director, Educational Leadership for the Penrith Network before moving into her current role as Relieving Director, School Performance South in the Office of the Deputy Secretary.
Margaret Baker
Margaret Baker is a Principal Legal Officer employed in the Department of Education and Communities' Legal Services Directorate. She has worked for the Department for over 16 years. Over that time Margaret has provided legal support and advice to people working in schools, TAFE NSW, State Office and other areas of the Department. This advice ranges from prevention of legal liability and legal risk reduction, to privacy, discrimination, complaint management, contracts and compliance with legislation. She has also represented the Department in a range of courts and tribunals on a wide variety of matters. Margaret has made numerous presentations to employees of the Department on education related issues. She has also delivered papers on education based issues at the Australian and New Zealand Education Law Association's national conferences, the State Legal Conference, Lawsense and at Legalwise Seminars. In 2013 she was awarded the NSW Law Society's Excellence Award in Government Legal Service.
John Macpherson
John Macpherson is a director in our risk advisory practice. He is a strategic risk specialist with more than 15 years' experience working with clients to protect growth and investment opportunities and bring pragmatic solutions to critical business issues. He has worked with leadership teams and Boards to implement sustainable resilience frameworks, identify and manage emerging risks, build risk-led approaches to cyber and digital security and manage complex reputation, social, geo-political and regulatory risks throughout Asia. As a crisis management advisor, John is retained to assist clients recover from high impact incidents and critical issues effecting operations and reputation, including employee misconduct and corporate governance failures, environmental disasters, regulatory enforcement, complex cross-broader corruption, intellectual property theft and corporate espionage, ransomware attacks and cyber breeches and commercial and joint venture disputes. John also has extensive experience advising clients on the successful implementation of risk, compliance and business operations in challenging and higher risk markets, having held numerous leadership roles in China and across Asia Pacific. He is retained globally to advise clients on managing the risk of unlawful state-actor detention and regulatory interference.
Alexandra Wedutenko
A leading Government and ICT lawyer as voted by Best Lawyers Australia and Chambers Asia-Pacific, Alexandra Wedutenko has an enviable reputation for her success in strategic procurement data protection and governance. Specializing in complex services agreements in a regulated environment, ICT, select sourcing and business process sourcing, Alexandra has acted for a range of private sector and government clients. She acts for and understands the requirements of clients in industries where security and availability of supply are critical. In this regard Alexandra regularly advises on risk identification and management, data protection and cyber security issues.