Former Governor-General The Honourable Bill Hayden, AC, KSJ, will be guest speaker at a Brisbane conference which will consider whether Queensland should have an upper house of parliament.
Mr Hayden will open the April 21 conference entitled, Improving Government Accountability in Queensland: The Upper House Solution.
The conference will be hosted by the Centre for Public, International and Comparative Law based at the TC Beirne School of Law at The University of Queensland and the Faculty of Business at the University of the Sunshine Coast.
It will draw together politicians, lawyers and academics to engage in a debate on this topic.
Dr Nicholas Aroney of the TC Beirne School of Law at UQ said it had long been debated whether Queensland lagged behind other Australian states by not having an Upper House.
The Clerk of the Senate, Harry Evans, and Associate Professor Paul Reynolds of UQ’s School of Political Science and International Studies will debate the pros and cons of an upper house.
Other speakers will include former Senator Meg Lees, and Senators George Brandis and John Hogg. They will be joined by prominent Brisbane lawyer and President of the Australian Council for Civil Liberties, Terry O’Gorman, Justice Bruce McPherson of the Queensland Court of Appeal, Professor Colin Hughes and former federal Attorney-General, Professor Michael Lavarch.
The conference will be held at Customs House in the Brisbane CBD on April 21.
Full details, including an online registration option, are available at www.law.uq.edu.au/upperhouse
For further information, please contact Dr Nicholas Aroney (UQ), phone: (07) 3365 3053, email: n.aroney@law.uq.edu.au or Dr Scott Prasser (USC), phone: (07) 5459 4494, email: scottprasser@optusnet.com.au
