Page 3345 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 12 October 1993
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provide information regarding mediation and arbitration facilities available, and the court may refer a matter before it to mediation or arbitration. Disclosures made in mediation procedures would be inadmissible in court proceedings. Rules or regulations for establishing procedures for the facilitation of these means are already available.
The proposed legislation would alert parties to an action under the legislation and those advising them, as well as the courts exercising jurisdiction under it, to the desirability of a resolution of the dispute by other means. It also empowers the court to adjourn the proceedings to allow the parties to pursue this approach to resolving the matter if it forms the opinion that there is a reasonable possibility that alternative dispute resolution will work. The use of courts and the consequent expense to the parties involved could be minimised by encouraging mediation by relevant mediation agencies as the normal means of settling disputes. Several mediation services are available in the ACT.
The Government believes that maintenance should be available where someone suffers detriment through providing child-care for a child for whom the parties are responsible. There are several examples which spring to mind: First, a woman who has been caring full time for the child of the other party and a third person but who has been accepted by the couple as part of their relationship. She continues to care for the child after they break up and is unable to support herself because of this care. A second example could be a woman who has been living with another person and caring full time for their child for 10 years. She previously, say, worked as a receptionist, but now finds that word processing has replaced typing in the workplace and, in fact, is a universal requirement for that position. She therefore requires training to acquire these skills and to secure accommodation for herself.
Thirdly, a woman might be living in a de facto relationship and has remained at home bearing and caring for children and supporting her partner in developing his business career for many years. When the relationship breaks up she is in her late forties, she lacks job skills and has few financial resources. Her partner has a successful career and has accumulated substantial wealth. A woman spends many years living with and caring for, say, her aged and frail father, forgoing the development of her own career in pharmacy. This enables her father to invest the money which otherwise would be spent on nursing and other domestic services and to pay off the mortgage on his house. They have a disagreement and the daughter leaves. She is in her mid-forties, she has few financial resources and she is having difficulty finding work because of her age and the need to update her professional experience.
Madam Speaker, it is recognised that there are arguments for and against contracts between those in domestic relationships. On the one hand there is the opportunity to arrange matters according to the wishes of the parties, and some people enter de facto relationships precisely to avoid the sorts of obligations and restrictions imposed by the Family Law Act. They would not wish to be subject to the legislation proposed here. These agreements provide the ability to plan with some degree of certainty, and to avoid disputes by prearrangement of their affairs. The preferred option is to provide for agreements and for their recognition by the court. The benefit of this approach is that it is a low-cost and quick way of determining property and maintenance issues. (Extension of time granted)
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