Change to ACT jury laws to be introduced following Lehrmann trial - 27 October 2023

A copy of the judgment and judgment summary can be found here - Lehrmann v Queensland Police Service & Ors [2023] QSC 238 (13271 of 2023) Applegarth J

CONTRACT - construction of contract - whether preamble incorporated into the terms of the contract - intention of parties - where preamble referred to the 1967 Presidential Decree, the 2000 Legislative Decree and the 2006 DFAT Agreement - whether 2006 DFAT Agreement incorporated into the contract

As context:

“[6] On 28 October 2022, Ms McNeil posted two GIFs in the team's group chat (including Mr Healy). The message accompanying them was a birthday salutation to Dr Liu. The GIFs that Ms McNeil posted were of a cupcake and a calendar with a message saying, 'A birthday is like a new year…'.

[7] Shortly thereafter Mr Healy sent a message to all of the members of the team. The message included 'Happy Birthday Yan [smiling emoji]' and was accompanied by an animated GIF. The GIF depicted a (computer generated) clip of an orangutan dancing.

[8] Ms McNeil was immediately concerned about the impact the GIF would have on Dr Liu.Ms McNeil was offended by the GIF which she considered both racist and sexually inappropriate. Ms McNeil subsequently took her complaint to Ms Flewell-Smith, a human resources officer employed by the Respondent”