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Time for post-Fitzgerald review
12 October, 2005
Reform in Queensland: The Post-Fitzgerald
Era
10 and 11 November
Tony Morris QC, the sacked chair of the recent Bundaberg
Hospital Royal Commission, will open the Reform in Queensland: The
Post-Fitzgerald Era conference being held 10 and 11 November at
Noosa.
Conference co-convenor and University of the Sunshine Coast
Professor of Management, Andrew Hede, said it's time to look at how
far Queensland has come since the Fitzgerald Report.
"It has been 16 years since the Fitzgerald Report was released.
Now is the time, especially given recent events, to assess how far
Queensland has travelled down the reform road and whether further
changes may be needed," Professor Hede said.
The University of the Sunshine Coast will host the conference,
being held at the Noosa Convention and Exhibition Centre, in
association with the Queensland divisions of the Institute of
Public Administration Australia and the Institute of Management
Consultants.
Dr Scott Prasser, Director of the University's Sunshine Coast
Research Institute for Business Enterprise (SCRIBE) and conference
co-convenor, said the Fitzgerald Commission sparked significant and
ongoing reform both here and internationally.
"The Fitzgerald Commission into corruption was a watershed
inquiry for not only Queensland, but across all jurisdictions in
Australia and internationally," Dr Prasser said.
"It triggered wide-ranging reform within the public service,
placed a new emphasis on ministerial accountability, highlighted
the importance of ethics, updated parliament, improved police and
the administration of criminal law.
"It caused the first major reforms in local government in more
than forty years.
"No other inquiry before or since in Australia or overseas, has
had such impact. No other inquiry has been so accepted by all sides
of politics.
"Fitzgerald is an example of 'best practice' reform, where
Queensland led the way in both what was done and how it was done,"
said Dr Prasser.
The November conference aims to provide a comprehensive review
of the reform process with distinguished speakers from the media,
the criminal justice system, parliamentary processes and
bureaucracy.