South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal

The Hon. M. EL DANNAWI (14:41): My question is to the Attorney-General. Will the Attorney-General inform the council about the 10^th anniversary of the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector, Special Minister of State) (14:41): I thank the honourable member for her question. The South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, more commonly known as SACAT, first opened its doors to the public 10 years ago last week, I think on 30 March 2015 in fact. With the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2013 having come into operation on 14 November 2013, SACAT has long been assisting South Australians in resolving legal issues either via agreement in conference, conciliation or mediation, or through a decision of the tribunal at a formal hearing.

In 2014, the founding president, Justice Greg Parker, and the founding principal registrar, Clare Byrt, worked with a team from the Attorney-General's Department to create the foundations of what over the last 10 years has been known as SACAT. Several years later, in 2017, the Hon. Justice Judy Hughes was appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court and president of SACAT, and continues to lead SACAT in this role to the day, along with an exceptional and hardworking SACAT team.

Having issued, I am informed, some 307,070 orders over the past 10 years, the tribunal plays a significant role in the lives of many South Australians, including protecting some of the most vulnerable members of our community. If you think about the volume of work that SACAT does—over 307,000 orders over 10 years—if you look at 10 years of sitting, it's approximately 1.2 million minutes. What that means is SACAT is making an order on average once in about every 3.9 minutes, an order in under every four minutes since it has been in operation. I want to particularly thank Elle from SACAT, who spent a little bit of time looking to see just how much work SACAT has done over the 10 years.

SACAT is involved in decision-making in relation to over 100 different pieces of legislation affecting many aspects of South Australians' everyday lives, such as renting a home, engaging a tradesperson, obtaining a guardianship order, seeking compensation for discrimination, registering a change of name, and much more. Just last year I had the privilege of attending the ninth anniversary of SACAT to coincide with the launch of LexisNexis annotated SACAT legislation. That was a wonderful event celebrating how far SACAT had come in just nine years. Now in their 10^th year, SACAT are looking stronger than ever in their delivery of accessible and high-quality justice for South Australians.

I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the dedicated people who work at SACAT, each and every member of the team, for the high-quality service they provide to our community. I am looking forward to seeing the tribunal continue to operate and flourish over the next 10 years.