New South Wales

By Dan Robinson, President

The New South Wales Committee is looking forward to delivering a high-quality program of educational and networking events for 2025.

The program commenced in February with the webinar “Demystifying Recoveries Under Section 151Z of the Workers Compensation Act 1987 (NSW)”. This month the Annual General Insurance Law Review will be held on 19 March, followed by the Life@AILA 2025 Life Insurance Review in early April.

TecHub and the Young Professionals (YP) will also finalise their programs shortly. This year, the YP mentoring program will once again be rolled out, as will the highly successful mock trial event. Planning is also underway to deliver an “Insurance Fundamentals” course this year, designed for young industry professionals who are (or who become) AILA members.

I’m looking forward to working with the New South Wales Committee to progress the strategic initiatives that have been set by the National Board, which in turn will ensure that our Association remains relevant and continues to deliver a valuable offering to its membership.

On behalf of AILA New South Wales, I’d like to thank Angus Kench for his extraordinary contribution to AILA over the many years he has been involved. Angus recently stepped down from the New South Wales Committee and the National Board, however he will always remain a member and friend of AILA. The Association has been incredibly fortunate to have Angus involved in active roles for many years, including as President, and is much stronger and more relevant to the insurance industry as a whole because of his involvement.

Queensland

By Christopher Peppel, Secretary

In December last year, we held our Annual General Meeting (AGM) and are excited to welcome new members to the Queensland Committee.

In addition to Candice Heisler, Emma Frylink, Kara Thomson and Monique Burr joining the committee, we are also pleased to announce that Monique Moloney has been elected President for 2025. We look forward to your contributions in 2025!

We extend our gratitude to departing committee members Alexandra King, Berren Hamilton, Brett Solomon, Chau Donnan and Stacey Boulton for their contributions in 2024. Special thanks to Sarah Tuhtan for her service as President in 2024 and continuing as a committee member in 2025. Thanks also to Berren Hamilton, who joined the committee in 2007, for his invaluable contributions over the years including serving as State President and sitting on the National Board. We deeply appreciate his dedicated service and will miss his contributions at our meetings.

In December we also hosted our Mock Trial event, which was a fantastic way to end the year and connect with 130 of our closest colleagues.

Looking ahead, 2025 in Queensland is already shaping up to be exciting. Our Quantum Series webinars commenced in February 2025 and AGILR has been scheduled for 20 March at the Brisbane Club. Planning is underway for our Intensive Seminar on 5 June, titled “Risky Business”. Watch this space to secure your Early Bird tickets!

Photo: Post AGM Dinner with outgoing and incoming committee members

Victoria

By Lucy Terracall, President

The AILA Victoria chapter has started 2025 with a great line up of events.

We finished 2024 with a joint event with the Australian Institute of Chartered Loss Adjusters (AICLA). Generously hosted by CGU, the group tackled the challenges of loss adjustment following a property damage incident in a session called “Battling the Way Back to Square 1: Measuring Indemnity and Returning a Claimant to Their Pre-Property Damage Position”. This joint event was a fabulous way for AILA Victoria members to mingle and get to know members of AICLA.

In a return to in-person events, Corrs Chambers Westgarth hosted a fantastic event to address the complexities of proportionate liability in insurance disputes. Presented by Gabi Crafti SC and Jey Nandacumaran, Partner at Corrs, the 75-strong audience participated in a robust discussion about the practical outcomes for policyholders and insurers in liability disputes. The great attendance at this event shows a real appetite for a return to in-person events and the Victoria Committee is keen to host more of these events in the coming calendar year.

Other events on our horizon in the first half of 2025 include:

A webinar on causation, largely in recognition of the 20-year anniversary of the statutory tests injected into Wrongs Act.
The Annual General Insurance Law Review 2025 on 27 March, kindly hosted at the Lander & Rogers Melbourne offices.
A webinar to discuss APRA’s CPS 230 and the obligations imposed on APRA-regulated entities, including insurers.

For now, though, the Victoria AILA Committee is focused on and excited about the 2025 National Conference on 16 October. Final touches are being made to marketing and conference design for what is bound to be an incredible conference that will showcase some of the best Melbourne venues and talent.

Tasmania

By Lisa Rankin, President

The Tasmania Committee has hit the ground running this year. We thank those who have retired from the committee and welcome our new members. We also thank Damon Symes for returning to the National Board.

We are currently in the middle of our six-part workers compensation “Basic Bites” program for young professionals new to this area of law, which has to date been a great success. The program will culminate with a cocktail party on 28 March 2025 which will be our first face to face event for the year.

We are also hard at work preparing both the General Insurance and Workers Compensation Master Classes and have something in the works which will provide both education and entertainment for our member so stay tuned!