Workplace Relations Conference

Cultivate your future-ready workplace

Industrial relations in Queensland are changing rapidly and navigating those changes to cultivate a high-performing and harmonious workplace is the key to your business’s future success.

Join us at this year’s 2025 Workplace Relations Conference to hear from leading academics and workplace experts, gain practical advice on new IR reforms, and connect with peers to share insights and solutions.

This all-day conference will include sessions on:

• The new employment landscape

• Cases in workplace discrimination and harassment

• Updates on the changes to workers' compensation

• Obligations of employers to create a psychologically safe workplace

Plus, this year’s event will include one of Business Chamber Queensland’s signature Business Matters lunches, sponsored by Australian Retirement Trust, with a focus on the evolving world of work.


Event details:
Date: Wednesday, 28 May 2025
Time: 8:45am – 4:30pm followed by networking drinks until 6:30pm
Venue: The Westin, Brisbane
Address: 111 Mary Street, Brisbane


Tickets:
All day admission:
Business Chamber Queensland member price: $295+GST
Non-member price: $395+GST

Business Matters lunch only:
Business Chamber Queensland member price: $180+GST individual or $1,700+GST table
Non-member price: $220+GST individual or $2,100+GST table
* NOTE: if you just want to book for the lunch please book your tickets here

Ticket prices do not include GST. Terms and conditions apply, see here.

To access Business Chamber Queensland member priced tickets, enter the email address associated with your membership. Access codes are only to be redeemed once. Please contact the Business Chamber Queensland's marketing team at marketing@businesschamberqld.com.au for any assistance. Tickets are non-refundable. Ticket prices are GST inclusive.

See our full day program here

Meet the speakers: 

Professor Andrew Stewart
Professor of Work and Regulation at Queensland University of Technology

Andrew Stewart is a Professor of Work and Regulation at QUT and a leading expert with decades of experience in employment law and workplace relations. He is also a consultant to the national law firm Piper Alderman, and the author of popular texts Stewart’s Guide to Employment Law and Creighton & Stewart’s Labour Law.

Janene Hillhouse
Executive Director, Workers’ Compensation Regulatory Services, Office of Industrial Relations

Janene has over 20 years' experience in workers’ compensation, WHS, and electrical safety policy and regulation. She leads strategic policy and oversees Queensland’s Workers’ Compensation Regulator, including insurer compliance, appeals, stakeholder engagement, and investigations.

Daniel Walton
Group Executive - Strategy & Growth, EML Group

Daniel Walton is the Group Executive – Strategy & Growth at EML Group, with extensive leadership experience across strategy, workplace relations, and industry reform. A former National Secretary of the Australian Workers Union, he currently chairs The McKell Institute and sits on the board of the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation.

Sarah Jezzini
Managing Director, SJ Workplace Consulting

Sarah is an experienced regulator and investigator with expertise in workplace safety, human factors, and psychosocial risk. She has led complex investigations and contributed to cases before the Fair Work Commission and other courts, helping organisations design practical, people-focused safety strategies.

Emily White
People Experience Lead, Epic Assist

Emily is a for-purpose HR Leader with broad experience in general HR, recruitment, L&D, and WHS, passionate to create meaningful, authentic experiences for employees that elevate an organisation’s value.

Ingrid Asbury
Vice President, Fair Work Commission

Ms Ingrid Asbury is a Vice President of the Fair Work Commission. Prior to her appointment as Vice President, Ms Asbury was a Deputy President of the Commission from 2013. Ms Asbury is the Chairperson of the Northern Territory Policy Arbitral Tribunal. Ms Asbury was appointed Commissioner of the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission in 2000 and has been a Member of the Fair Work Commission and its predecessors since 2001. Prior to her appointment to the QIRC, Ms Asbury was the National Industry Group Manager for the Australian Industry Group.

Joanna Glynn
General Manager of Group Workplace Relations, Virgin Australia

Joanna Glynn is the General Manager of Group Workplace Relations at Virgin Australia and is a highly experienced employment lawyer and employee relations leader, with more than 20 years in multi-jurisdictional employee relations and employment law advising the executive teams of large multi-national companies

Simon Kuestenmacher
Director and Co-founder of The Demographics Group

Simon Kuestenmacher is a Director and Co-founder of The Demographics Group. He explores the demographic and global trends that shape Australia in presentations and as a columnist for The New Daily. In his spare time Simon has authored three books on maps and runs what is by now the world’s largest Twitter account dedicated to maps and data.

John Dwyer
Industrial Commissioner, Queensland Industrial Relations Commission

John Dwyer has served as an Industrial Commissioner at the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission since July 2019. With over 25 years of experience in employment and industrial law, he previously worked as a solicitor, barrister, and Senior Industrial Advocate at the Queensland Chamber of Commerce and Industry.