In brief - Declared or identified conflicts should be recorded
in a register
The recent controversy surrounding whether the private
activities of John Dyson Heydon AC QC could reasonably give rise to
an apprehension that he might not be impartial as a Royal
Commissioner of the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance
and Corruption, is a timely reminder for organisations to consider
afresh the broad topic of conflict of interest which includes
issues of bias.
Reasonable person test critical element of conflicts of
interest management
There is almost universal agreement regarding the need to manage
conflicts of interest but a more limited understanding as to what
constitutes a conflict of interest and how it might be managed. At
a macro level, it is generally accepted that, while conflict of
interest is not the same thing as corruption, conflicts of interest
can directly lead to corrupt activity (see
Conflicts of Interest in the Public Sector,
