Page 2775 - Week 09 - Thursday, 25 August 1994

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in the process. It has also been suggested to me that under the current provisions of the Bill, when a hearing occurs, there is a substantial likelihood of adversarial positions becoming more entrenched, thus reducing the possibility of achieving a mutually agreed outcome.

There were strong views expressed to this effect at the National Access to Justice Forum, which was held in Parliament House on Monday and Tuesday of this week, that informal dispute resolution, or mediation, should be encouraged as the first step in resolving disputes, and that this mediation should not be linked to litigation processes.

I commend to the government the concept of mediation, by an approved mediator, being a first step in dealing with disputes under this Bill and Code.

Madam Speaker, as I said earlier substantial agreement exists between the partieson the provisions of the Bill and the Code. I welcome the governments efforts to reach consensus between landlord and tenant groups on the remaining outstanding issues which I understand include, from the tenants perspective, the scope of the Code (to which I alluded earlier), the

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