Page 3405 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 19 August 2009
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Attorney-General ensure that litigation conducted on behalf of the territory is conducted in accordance with proper standards.
The government has a strong track record of encouraging that all litigation on behalf of the territory is conducted in a way that is both fair and proper. The obligation of government to behave in accordance with the highest standards of conduct in this field is undisputed. The government, therefore, supports this bill as an unobjectionable restatement of the government’s ongoing program of ensuring fairness and honesty in litigation, as in all of the government’s activities. The method chosen in this bill to supposedly help further enshrine fairness in this bill does raise some concern, however, as it creates a new reporting requirement that may turn out to be imprecisely drawn. The government will be supporting this bill on the basis of the government’s strong commitment to fairness in litigation. However, I should add that it will be important to carefully monitor the effects of the new legislation to ensure it achieves optimal results.
The Law Officer Amendment Bill seeks to amend the Law Officer Act 1992 to allow for the notification of mandatory model litigant guidelines. The bill will give the Attorney-General the responsibility to ensure that litigation conducted on behalf of the territory is started and conducted in accordance with proper standards. Adopting this bill will not constitute a substantive change in the government’s policy or practices in the conduct of territory litigation.
The legal obligation of the Crown to behave as a model litigant in all affairs is well established in the courts of the territory and, indeed, across Australia. Behaving as a model litigant means acting in all stages of a legal matter in accordance with the highest standards of fairness and honesty. Model litigant behaviour ensures that whenever legal action occurs on behalf of the territory the legitimate rights and concerns of opposing parties and the public are protected. Enshrining the model litigant guidelines into legislation will merely duplicate this firmly rooted legal principle. As first law officer of the territory, the Attorney-General is already obligated to act as a model litigant in all matters. The same requirement applies to the Chief Solicitor, who is responsible to the Attorney-General for all conduct on behalf of the territory as a litigant.
The government already has strong measures in place to ensure that the territory behaves as a model litigant. The government’s current policy of centralising litigation services promotes scrupulous adherence to the existing model litigant guidelines. By centralising most of the territory’s litigation under the supervision of the Government Solicitor, the government is able to effectively monitor and manage that litigation. Because clear recognition of the obligation to act as a model litigant is already a feature of the territory’s litigation practices, changing the status of the existing model litigant guidelines is not a change in policy or practice. Model litigant conduct is already obligatory, and the government has a long and proven track record of behaving as a model litigant.
The government also has a longstanding policy of publishing guidelines to ensure model litigant behaviour and is committed to continuing its policy of adhering to the guidelines that were formally adopted by the government in February 2004. The existing guidelines provide very clear standards for the conduct of all litigation on
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .