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COMMUNITY JUSTICE CENTRES AMENDMENT BILL 2007
Thursday 29th November 2007
Rev Fred Nile, Leader of the Christian Democratic Party, has supported the ‘Community Justice Centres Amendment Bill 2007’ in Parliament. Rev Fred Nile gave the following address on the Bill in the NSW Legislative Council.
“The Christian Democratic Party supports the Community Justice Centres Amendment Bill 2007, the purpose of which is to implement a number of reforms to improve the operation of community justice centres in New South Wales. The bill specifies the object of the Community Justice Centres Act 1983. The Government has adopted the same approach with several other bills when the object of the principal Act was not stated specifically. Proposed section 3, "Object of Act", states clearly:
The object of this Act is to provide for the establishment and operation of Community Justice Centres for the purpose of:
(a) providing dispute resolution and conflict management services, including the mediation of disputes, and
(b) training persons to be mediators, and
(c) promoting alternative dispute resolution, and
(d) contributing to the development of alternative dispute resolution in New South Wales by entering into connections and partnerships with the legal profession, courts, tribunals, the academic sector and other providers of alternative dispute resolution services, and
(e) undertaking other matters incidental to the provision of dispute resolution and conflict management services.
The bill will also abolish the Community Justice Centres Council. I understand that the council voted for its own dissolution in 2001 and has not met since then. This is part of a pattern, as other government-sponsored bodies also exist in legislation but do not function. Obviously the Government should have taken action before 2007 either to abolish the council or to investigate whether it had a role and make it exercise that role. Bodies that are enshrined in legislation should not be left in limbo”, stated Rev Fred Nile.
“The bill also confers certain functions on the Director of Community Justice Centres that were exercised previously by the Community Justice Centres Council. The bill will enable the director to seek advice from any person or body in relation to the director's functions and achieving the object of the Act, and to establish advisory committees for that purpose. The role of the Community Justice Centres Council will be virtually assumed by the new Professional Reference Group and the Training Group. A stakeholder consultative committee will also be established. That appears to be a positive move, as those bodies will fill the vacuum left by the abolition of the council.
The bill also provides for mediators at community justice centres to be employed under the Public Sector Employment and Management Act 2002. The bill clarifies the legislation they are employed under and removes the need for them to be appointed by the Attorney General. Who will appoint the mediators now? I assume the director general will make those appointments. Perhaps the Parliamentary Secretary will clarify that point when she replies to the debate. The bill enables the director to accept disputes for mediation that have been referred by a court or tribunal without the consent of all parties to the dispute. At present only voluntary mediation is undertaken by community justice centres. That is a worthwhile move. If consent cannot be obtained, it may be necessary to force opposing parties to participate in compulsory mediation in order to resolve the matter.
The mediators will report to the Director General of the Department of Community Services information regarding children at risk of harm that was obtained during the exercise of their mediation functions. That provision ties in with the mandatory reporting requirement and should probably apply automatically. However, the requirement is now spelt out in the bill. Community justice centres play a valuable role in our society, and the Christian Democratic Party is pleased to support the bill”, Rev Nile said.