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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 10 Hansard (23 September) . . Page.. 3173 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

at which you start. Instead, they are starting to think, "Here is the course of usual court adjudication on issues, but here is the alternative. Here is mediation. Here is a way of factoring that in at an early stage of proceedings to identify and crystallise issues and to get people to consider alternatives to litigation".

Of course, the great strength of that process is not simply that people have an alternative forum in which to have a dispute resolved. It is that they are involved in a process where they themselves control the movement towards resolution. They are not asking somebody sitting up on a bench to tell them who is right and who is wrong. They are able to say to themselves, "Here is my case; hear the case of the other side", and, through the process of give-and-take and understanding, work out between them a solution which is acceptable.

I think it is very difficult to overstate the importance of mediation in the future of our legal system. I sincerely hope that we can increasingly ratchet up the position it occupies in the legal hierarchy. This step today, the passage of this Bill, is to establish a process of accrediting mediators. If you use a mediator who is accredited, you will know that it is a person with certain qualifications and training to be able to do an effective job of helping two parties mediate a dispute. The Bill also offers protection to mediators for the work they do within a mediation. The next step will be to attach the mediation process in certain guises to the court process, so that it becomes an intrinsic part of the process towards getting a judgment through a court. You will have to have mediation. That may well divert many people from having to appear in courts. That itself will be a tremendous improvement.

I hope that the process does produce those results. Certainly, the ACT can be proud of the steps it has taken so far. The accreditation protocols which are being used in the ACT for accrediting mediators are so well regarded that they have actually been picked up and used in a number of legal centres in New South Wales for their accreditation process. The enthusiasm of those who are steering mediation through the ACT community is commendable and it has produced some quite exciting results. I thank members for their support, and I commend the Bill.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

Bill agreed to in principle.

Bill, by leave, taken as a whole

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General) (5.44): Mr Speaker, I seek leave to move together amendments 1 to 3 circulated in my name.

Leave granted.

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