Page 2937 - Week 10 - Thursday, 15 August 1991
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We, the English lawyers, the common lawyers, move all the way across to technical precision in our drafting so that if we have not drafted it right and they can find a loophole we are almost fair game. That is the difference between the way our systems work in Australia, with our British heritage, and the way the Asians often work in their business dealings. We need to do more work on that.
If we could bring our dispute resolution machinery, particularly conciliation and mediation, which are more likely to appeal to oriental traders, in line, we could get an exciting, honest process going here, because many people in this hemisphere would not trust the environments in other parts of the hemisphere to provide an honest, incorruptible venue for commercial arbitration.
Mr Speaker, this Bill is the beginning, I hope, of more exciting reforms that the ACT, as a city-state, with a reformist momentum behind it, such as the South Australians had in the 1970s and we can inherit, should bring forward. I commend the Bill that has been brought in by the Attorney. It is the end of a long road, but it should be the beginning of a new canvas.
MR STEFANIAK (5.28): The Liberal Party supports the Bill, Mr Speaker.
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (5.28), in reply: Mr Speaker, I welcome the speeches of both Mr Collaery and Mr Stefaniak. Mr Stefaniak's was somewhat briefer but told us what we wanted to know, which was that the Liberal Party supports the Bill.
Mr Collaery went into somewhat greater detail to outline the origins of commercial arbitration and his view, which we share, that this is an area that offers an opportunity to the ACT. It is an area where we do have a real natural economic advantage, and this legislation now before the house will aid that. Mr Collaery referred to the work that Pat Brazil has done in focusing attention on Canberra as a centre for international commercial arbitration. I would echo his endorsement of the good work that Mr Brazil, a former secretary to the Federal Attorney-General's Department, has done in this regard.
One concern that was raised by Mr Collaery was that there was a tendency to lawyerise commercial arbitration. I share his concerns about that. This is an area where legal skills can be helpful, but it should not be the exclusive preserve of lawyers. Section 20, to be inserted by clause 12 of the Bill, does give some flexibility to allow persons
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