09:00 – 09:10

09:10 – 10:00

10:30 – 11:30

This session covers essential administrative law decisions and developing trends from 2025. It will highlight the Courts’ approach to key principles, issues the Administrative Review Council is considering, and the growing influence of technology in administrative decision-making. We will also provide practical guidance for in-house government lawyers and delegates.

How do we arrive at the right contract? How do we gain agreement across the negotiating table? Some simple methods to manage risk, uncertainty, scope, compliance, probity, and price, to deliver outcomes for the Public Sector.

11:30 – 12:30

The rules of digital governance have changed overnight. From the fallout of landmark civil penalties (like Medlab and Optus) to the mandated rollout of the APS AI Plan 2025, the Australian landscape is now defined by unprecedented enforcement and mandatory ethical foresight.

This session cuts through the noise. Discover how the case law is rewriting data security standards and how your agency must prepare for the next wave of reform – especially the firm legal obligation for Automated Decision-Making (ADM) Transparency commencing in late 2026. The era of ‘reasonable steps’ is over. Learn what’s replacing it.

There’s a saying that if you want to know about the latest Cabinet decision, just go and hang around Kingston Hotel or Public.  And yet, there’s never been a stronger focus across Government agencies on the importance of integrity, fraud and corruption. Dannya and Jo will take you through what is integrity, what it looks like in practice, the ongoing efforts across Government to strengthen integrity, including the integrity maturity risk assessment, and they will give you practical advice on how to build a pro-integrity culture in your team.  

13:30 – 14:30

How can you ensure your procurement complies with Commonwealth policy and legislation, and avoid adverse findings by the ANAO? The session will follow a fictional procurement, from planning to contract expiry, and show all the ways in which the procurement can go wrong, by using real adverse findings by the ANAO, and what should have been done instead.

Good decisions begin with clearly identifying and defining the right question, the relevant stakeholders, and the supporting data. By applying operations analysis and systems thinking, organisations can clarify and reframe problems collaboratively, select and apply appropriate analytical methods to uncover leverage points, and avoid costly fixes caused by failing to address root causes.
This session will explore the typical analysis cycle and practical approaches for providing decision support that enables evidence-based decisions with confidence.

14:30 – 15:30

Do emojis have legal effect ⚖? Should they be protected by LPP in communications between a lawyer and client 💻? Should they be used in statutory interpretation 📃? This session has the short and sweet updates on LPP, statutory interpretation and the latest emoji jurisprudence 👍.

Most programs don’t fail because of a lack of intent or funding. They fail because delivery capability does not keep pace with complexity, scale and risk.

This session focuses on what sets programs up for success and what to do when programs start to drift.

16:00 – 17:00

Legal ethics, compliance, and professional responsibility are often assumed to be inseparable. This panel discussion challenges that assumption, asking whether integrity in government practice should be seen as a shared leadership responsibility across the public service. By reexamining the boundaries between law, ethics, and organisational accountability, our discussion will explore how government lawyers and advisors can contribute to futureproofing the public service – strengthening integrity, building capability, and ensuring that responsibility for ethical governance is embedded at every level and in all areas of a department.

17:00 – 17:10