The Independent Assessor

Kathleen Florian is the Independent Assessor and head of the Office of the Independent Assessor.

Ms Florian is accountable to the Minister for Local Government and is not subject to direction by another person in regard to exercising the IA’s powers under the Local Government Act 2009 (LG Act).

The OIA was established under the Local Government (Councillor Complaints) and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2018 as part of the Queensland Government’s commitment to local government reform.

The IA’s functions and powers include:

• to assess complaints about councillors of inappropriate conduct, misconduct or corrupt conduct when referred by the CCC
• to refer potential inappropriate conduct matters back to councils to resolve
• to investigate misconduct complaints
• to undertake a natural justice process to give councillors opportunity to respond to complaints before possible referral to the Councillor Conduct Tribunal (CCT) which decides misconduct matters
• to prepare applications for hearing by the CCT
• OIA investigative powers are available for misconduct investigations and the investigation of statutory offences
• to investigate other matters as decided by the Minister and any other functions given to the IA under the LG Act.

About Ms Florian

Ms Florian brings a wealth of experience and expertise to her role as Queensland’s inaugural Independent Assessor.

Ms Florian is an investigative law specialist in the fields of professional misconduct complaints, major crime and corruption.

Before her appointment as the IA, Ms Florian was the Executive Director of Investigations at the Office of the Health Ombudsman, responsible for the oversight of investigations into professional misconduct by health practitioners in Queensland and served on the Board of the Prostitution Licensing Authority in Queensland.

Her tenure at the Crime and Corruption Commission included roles as Assistant Commissioner (Crime), Acting Chief Executive Officer, Ordinary Commissioner and Assistant Commissioner (Misconduct). Earlier in her career, Ms Florian was the Queensland State Manager of the Australian Crime Commission which involved crime and corruption prevention, leading national intelligence and investigation programs to help inform the development of tailored prevention strategies.

Ms Florian has also worked as a senior legal counsel at the National Crime Authority (NCA) and was a legal officer at the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (Qld). While at the NCA, she was the recipient of the Geoffrey Bowen Memorial Award which is the highest individual award offered by the NCA.

Ms Florian holds a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws (Honours) and has completed the Australian Institute of Company Directors course.