Hockings and Hume

[2014] QIRC 38

QUEENSLAND INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS COMMISSION

CITATION:	Hockings and Hume [2014] QIRC 038
PARTIES:	Hockings, John Norman
(Joint Applicant)
and
Hume, Rosemary
(Joint Applicant)
CASE NO:	RIO/2013/49
PROCEEDING:	Orders about invalidity
DELIVERED ON:	19 February 2014
HEARING DATES:	18 July 2013
11 September 2013
MEMBER:	Deputy President Bloomfield
ORDERS :	1.  The appointment of an Interim Executive

Committee of QRTSA be approved.

2.     The Interim Executive Committee be

empowered to take over the running of the
affairs of QRTSA.

CATCHWORDS:	INDUSTRIAL LAW - ORDERS ABOUT INVALIDITY - Approval for Interim Executive Committee to take over affairs of QRTSA.
CASES:	Industrial Relations Act 1999, s 613, s 614, s 615
APPEARANCES:	Mr C. Dorber, of Employment Advocacy Solutions Pty Ltd, for Mr John Hockings and Ms Rosemary
Hume, joint Applicants.

[2]      The Application by Mr Hockings and Ms Hume requested the Commission to approve the election/appointment of the following persons to a "new" Interim Executive Committee of QRTSA:

	Mr John Hockings - President
	Ms Rosemary Hume - Secretary
	Ms Margaret Campbell Ryder - Member
	Mr Terry Partridge - Member

[3]     Without going into overly specific detail, the Application also requested the Commission to approve a course of action whereby the Interim Executive Committee was empowered:

	to acquire all property and all documents, of any kind, in relation to the affairs of QRTSA from persons said to have been associated with the management of QRTSA in previous times (which were the subject of the Commission's decision in Matter No. B/2013/18, issued on 19 February 2014);
	to take over the affairs and running of the activities of QRTSA - including any matters presently before QIRC; and
	to examine the present affairs (including financial) of QRTSA and make a report to members about the organisation's future.

[4]      When the application came on for hearing on 18 July 2013 Mr C. Dorber, who represented the joint Applicants, informed me of the circumstances surrounding the appointment of the Interim Executive Committee following a well attended meeting of interested QRTSA members on 16 May 2013. He also informed me that while some of the property of QRTSA had been recovered from those who previously held it, quite a large amount of documentation had been seized by the Crime and Misconduct Commission and/or the Queensland Police Service in connection with their respective investigations of the activities of Mr Scott Driscoll and Mrs Emma Driscoll.

[5]      After hearing further from Mr Dorber, and being aware of the history of QRTSA in recent times from related proceedings, I observed that:

	there had been invalidities in the management and administration of the affairs of QRTSA over a lengthy period of time;
	there had been a meeting of interested parties on 16 May 2013 at which the Interim Executive Committee (as mentioned in paragraph [2] above) was elected; and
	the Interim Executive Committee had been empowered to address the various issues which confront the organisation and to manage its affairs until they are in a position to report about the organisation's future to a meeting of members.

[6]      In those circumstances I ruled that I was prepared to validate the decision taken by members on 16 May 2013 to appoint an Interim Executive Committee and to approve and validate, as might be necessary, the various resolutions taken in relation to the future management of affairs of QRTSA as recorded in paragraph [3] (above).

[7]      On the basis I was not asked to, I made no Orders other than those mentioned immediately above. However, I did agree to receive periodic reports from the Interim Executive Committee on their activities and to exercise a broad "monitoring role" over QRTSA's affairs given the events recorded in my decision in Matter No. B/2013/18. To this end, I held a Report Back hearing on 11 September 2013.

[8]      I determine and Order accordingly.

[1]     On 28 June 2013 an Application seeking certain orders in relation to invalidities was filed in the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission (the Commission/QIRC) by Mr John Hockings and Ms Rosemary Hume as the Interim President and Secretary, respectively, of an Interim Executive Committee of the Queensland Retail Traders and Shopkeepers Association (Industrial Organization of Employers) (QRTSA) elected at a meeting of interested members held on 16 May 2013. Lodgement of the Application followed proceedings before the Commission as presently constituted on 30 May 2013 when I vacated earlier orders I had made in relation to an earlier Invalidities Application (Matter No. RIO/2012/155) concerning QRTSA for reasons spelt out in my decision in Matter No. B/2013/18 (also released on 19 February 2014).