Minter Ellison Gold Coast, In-house Counsel CPD Seminar - 28 September 2017

Corporations and businesses are seeking to do business with Government and assessing opportunities arising from the government’s commitment to $40 billion of infrastructure over the next four financial years.

Government lawyers and procurement managers were alerted to the policy and procedure impacts from the passage of the Treasury Legislation Amendment (Small Business and Unfair Contract Terms) Act 2015 whereby small business gained the umbrella of protection provided under the Australian Consumer Law and equivalent provisions of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001. The protective elements of the respective laws specifically relating to the occurrence of “unfair terms” utilised within standard form contracts are now afforded to small business. “Small business” is governed by a limited definition. Now harm hope car i.e. harm okay

• Public Interest and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC)
• Equitable action for breach of confidence: Commonwealth v Fairfax
• Recent case law
• Rights to Information Act 2009 (Qld): procedure and policy aspects
• Factors favouring disclosure
• What information is exempt?
• How to apply the exemptions

In May 2011, the Queensland Law Society hosted the 5th Annual Government Lawyers Conference in which Lindsey Alford delivered a paper titled “Government Tendering – Case study analysis to avoid a repetition of past problems". Lindsey Alford commented:

There is an increasing trend in government to join with commerce (“Public Private Partnerships”, “Alliance Contracts”) for procurement and project delivery, which introduces a greater necessity for probity guidelines at the outset of the relationship and probity scrutiny during the course of the relationship. I advocate a ‘whole of project’ approach to probity scrutiny.

The Australian Law Journal published an article co-authored by Lindsey Alford in October 2011, titled “Tendering for government business: Process contracts, good faith, fair dealing, and probity”