A mandatory notification made under s 141 of the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (Qld) to the Health Ombudsman is not protected by absolute privilege at common law; the statutory regime provides only a qualified privilege under s 237, limited to persons acting in good faith. Where a plaintiff mistakenly but not unreasonably understood ambiguous legal advice to mean that defamation proceedings should not be commenced until a regulatory investigation was finalised, it is open to the court to find under s 32A(2) of the Limitation of Actions Act 1974 (Qld) that it was not reasonable for the plaintiff to have commenced proceedings within the one-year limitation period.
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