In Willmott v Carless [2024] QCA 115, the appellant, Paul John Willmott, was a sergeant with the Queensland Police Service (QPS). The first respondent, Assistant Commissioner Maurice Carless, had substantiated a disciplinary charge against the appellant under the Police Service Administration Act 1990 (Qld) and imposed a sanction. Willmott sought a review of this decision by the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT), which involved the Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) joining the review as a party. The Tribunal member referred a question of statutory construction involving the Tribunal’s review powers under both the Crime and Corruption Act 2001 (Qld) and the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2009 (Qld) to the Court of Appeal. The key issue was whether QCAT’s power to review the decision was predicated on identifying legal, factual, or discretionary errors in the original decision. The Court of Appeal concluded that QCAT’s review power under section 219Q(1) of the Crime and Corruption Act 2001 (Qld) is indeed dependent upon identifying such errors in the lower court’s decision.
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