Page 2936 - Week 10 - Thursday, 15 August 1991
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The growth rates in terms of the gross national product of the economies in our hemisphere, particularly in the Asian regions near Australia, mean that by the year 2000, if Professor Ross Garnaut is correct, our GNP will exceed that of Western Europe and probably equate with that of North America. That means that there is going to be a fantastic explosion of the need for people to resolve ambiguities in commercial contracts. I am not speaking vulture-like, waiting for those disputes; but it is an issue that the Canberra groups who are working towards expanding our region should look to.
I personally believe that the exciting prospect of a legal precinct across City Hill, that had a lot of forward leasing prospects from our local bar, should not have been canned so quickly by the Follett Government, because part of the ambitions for that site was a venue for international commercial arbitration and national commercial arbitration, as a centrepiece, supported by the Law Council of Australia and others. That was part of my lurking ambition beneath my merchant interest in this affair.
I feel that Australia has great strength, in terms of our linguistic capacities, the lingual schools available to Australian lawyers, Australian arbitrators and our world-class interpreting skills, to make Canberra a capital for international commercial arbitration machinery. What a great site that would be next to City Hill. I will continue to press the prospect of a legal precinct that embraces that and all those other functions I have spoken about before.
To conclude, Mr Speaker, we should not just stop here and believe that the Bill that is before us is sufficient, even given the amendments to date. The fact is that the commercial arbitration models we use are essentially eurocentric, in my view, although the Latin American and South American countries have developed some variants of their own. They had the Calvo doctrine. All those Latin states agreed that proceedings could be taken in their jurisdictions in support of disputes. The fact is that we in Australia still need to take a lead, in terms of all of our near neighbours, in getting a lot of these eurocentric conventions, including conventions like the UN refugee convention, and the rest, related to the existential condition of the Third World.
The first thing you notice when you are dealing with an oriental frame of mind in Asia is that they have a far more peaceful method, usually, of resolving interpersonal disputes. They believe in personal good faith. They believe in shaking on a deal and believing that you will stick to it. If you do not, you lose face, not them. I am simplifying it, of course, and putting it into a homily.
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