Queenslanders must wait to hear their embattled chief justice's ideas on judicial reform after a planned speech was cancelled due to his wife's unexpected hospital admission.
Chief Justice Tim Carmody and his wife Robyn were forced to cancel a flight to north Queensland, so Mrs Carmody could undergo neurological tests for a "concerning" yet non-life-threatening condition.
The state's controversial top judge, who is on sick leave and poised to resign, had been tipped to outline his vision to reform the state's court system at a legal conference at Hamilton Island on Friday.
He was only made aware of his wife's hospital admission after meeting Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath on Thursday.
A spokesman for the chief justice said the family is with Mrs Carmody at the hospital.
Ms D'Ath revealed she had "constructive" talks with the judge over a "range of issues" after their meeting in her Brisbane office but would not elaborate further.
Justice Carmody has been under mounting pressure to resign since being forced to withdraw from the appeal of Daniel Morcombe's convicted killer last month.
He last week started a month of sick leave for a back problem that followed his high-profile public spat with Court of Appeal president Margaret McMurdo, who is refusing to sit with him on any court.
Justice Carmody on Monday offered to stand down to quell the squabbling - but on the condition that his departure be on "just terms" and that judicial reform, including the establishment of a judicial commission by the government, would follow. He was expected to use his opening-session speech at the fully-booked North Queensland Law Associates conference to call for those behind the campaign against him to stand down - ending the judiciary's structural problems. Those problems, he claimed, were "festering" long before he was controversially elevated to his post by the former Newman government in mid-2014.
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