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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 6 Hansard (23 May) . . Page.. 1775 ..

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other jurisdiction which provides for court staff to have such a determinative role. This innovation is aimed at reducing the cost of determining claims and settling them faster, where they involve relatively small amounts of money. It is a procedure that will be monitored and evaluated once a reasonable amount of experience has been gained with it.

Currently the Act provides that at the conference stage, a person, can only be represented by a unpaid agent with the leave of the Registrar, while at hearing, a person, is only able to be represented by an unpaid agent with leave of the Court.

The Bill will allow for a person to be represented by another person as of a right without leave of the Tribunal. There are many reasons why a person may want a third party to represent them. Generally this may include issues stemming from cultural background, language difficulties and a lack of self-confidence. There may also be more specific reasons as to why a person would want a third party to represent them. I am aware of a case where a teenager wanted to be represented by his older brother at a hearing and was anxious about having to explain to the Magistrate why he wanted his older brother to represent him. Surely the reason why the teenager wanted his older brother to represent him was irrelevant to the actual point of issue in the proceedings. The new legislation will overcome this shortfall and offer greater flexibility.

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