Employment and Industrial Relations Conference

Although it was 11 years since the last Employment and Industrial Relations Conference hosted by the Bar Association of Queensland, it was worth the wait!

More than 100 delegates were treated to a smorgasbord of stimulating papers and engaging panel discussion from a range of distinguished speakers from the bench as well as specialist practitioners.

The social programme afforded delegates ample opportunity to engage with colleagues and members of the bench in a relaxed setting.

Perhaps, though, the 2012 conference will be best remembered for the enormous fun that delegates had rising to the challenge posed by co-Chair, Jim Murdoch S.C., and encouraged by fellow co-Chair, Sandy Horneman-Wren S.C., to devise a new name for our federal tribunal — preferably with a catchy acronym.

So taken with the challenge were speakers and delegates alike, that it became the unofficial theme of the conference!

Speakers vied with each other to introduce quirky acronyms when delivering their papers. Who could forget Andrew Herbert’s popular suggestion?

SANTA — Specialist Australian National Tribunal for Arbitration.

Anonymous rose to the occasion, too, with offerings such as:

TARGET — Tribunal Arbitrating Really Ginormous Employment Tiffs.

FRED — Federal Resolution of Employment Disputes (RJL Hawke)

REMBRANDT — Rail Energy Medical Banking Resolution Australian National Disputes Tribunal

HERBERT — Healthy Employment Results by Energetic Resolution Tribunal

Delegates were encouraged to outdo each other in their witticisms by the promise of prizes being offered by the Bar Association for the best. 

The winners were:

Best acronym — ALERT! — Australian Labour and Employment Relations Tribunal submitted by Gavin Rebetzke. 

Best logo — TOECUTTER — Tribunal of Employment, Conciliation, Unions, Transmission, Termination of Employment and Remuneration submitted by Cameron Dean.

The runners up were:

(in no particular order)

CIRCA — Commonwealth Industrial Relations Conciliation and Arbitration Tribunal — submitted by Sophie Croft.

AWICAT — Australian and Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Tribunal — which lends itself to cricket related slogans, such as “Employees on strike? You need AWICAT”; “Claims hit for six? You need AWICAT”; “Conditions poor? You need AWICAT” and “Dismissal unfair? You need AWICAT” — submitted by Glen Pauline.

TOWER — Tribunal of Workplace and Employment Relations — with an Act called FLOWER — Federal Law on Workplace and Employment Relations Act — submitted by Christopher Campbell

CAT — Conciliation and Arbitration Tribunal — submitted by Christopher Campbell (Judge — perhaps ACAT — Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Tribunal — might be preferred so as to distinguish the federal tribunal from state tribunals such as QCAT).

AWILDCAT — Australian Workplace Industrial and Labour Dispute Conciliation and Arbitration Tribunal submitted by Sean Reidy.

NEWT — National Employment and Workplace Tribunal — submitted by Bill Athansellis.

AWRT — Australian Workplace Relations Tribunal — submitted by Amanda Coulthard.

Hug it out or Fight it out — submitted by Kelly Cooper.

Congratulations on a most successful conference and here’s to the next one!

Catherine Arnold, Barrister-at-Law and competition Judge