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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-03-25 Daily Xml
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South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal

Mr GEE (Napier) (14:58): My question is to the Attorney-General. Can the Attorney-General update the house on the launch of SACAT?

The SPEAKER: That is the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Justice Reform, Minister for Planning, Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Child Protection Reform) (14:58): I thank the honourable member for his question, and I apologise for the interjection over there. On 30 March 2015, the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal will be open for business. This represents a significant milestone for South Australia with the establishment of a one-stop shop for civil and administrative disputes.

Mr Marshall: The last in Australia.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Until now—the best, actually.

Mr Marshall: The last state in Australia. You are stating the bleeding obvious.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: There is the WACAT, VCAT—

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Can I take the Leader of the Opposition back to that old song about cat food: 'The cats of Australia have made their choice'—and here it is, SACAT. It will only have one lodgement form, simplifying the process for lodging a dispute. Lodgement of this form can occur online. SACAT objectives emphasise accessibility, efficiency and fairness. The objectives are, firstly, to keep costs to a minimum, secondly, to be accessible and responsive to the South Australian public's needs—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.R. RAU: I think you are in sync with another space. Bear with me.

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Unley is right on the edge. If he moves his lips again out of order he will be leaving us early.

Mr Knoll interjecting:

The Hon. J.R. RAU: I think the member for Schubert appears to be channelling another press release, so if I can just go on. We will be keeping it accessible and responsive to the South Australian public's needs; process and resolve disputes—

Ms Sanderson interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Adelaide is also living right on the edge.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: —as quickly as possible; use language we can all understand; be as flexible as possible; promote the best principles of public administration, including independence, natural justice and fairness; make quality and consistent decisions; and have transparency and accountability. Now, with criteria like that, who couldn't be for this? SACAT will initially take on the work currently performed by the Residential Tenancies Tribunal.

Mr KNOLL: Point of order, Mr Speaker: everything that the minister has outlined so far is on sacat.sa.gov.au, including the objectives and the costs. He has actually just quoted word for word the objectives as part of the SACAT website.

The SPEAKER: I will listen carefully to what the minister has to say and, if he is providing the house with information that is already readily available on the net, his leave to answer will be withdrawn.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Mr Speaker, sometimes—

The SPEAKER: I would suggest some elegant variation.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Indeed. Sometimes some truths are so self-evident that people completely independently come to the same conclusion. We will have state-of-the-art management technology. In fact, I was talking to a chap only the other day who was going through the training regime for operating the SACAT equipment, and he informed me that this is absolutely state-of-the-art. The capability—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The deputy leader has been called to order and there have been two warnings.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: The information management systems that SACAT have are outstanding and I'm sure even for the cynics elsewhere will be absolutely shown to be first-class.

I would particularly like to take the opportunity to thank the hardworking staff from the SACAT implementation team. These people work within the Attorney-General's Department and they have done an absolutely extraordinary job. I mention in particular the manager of the team, Rob Templeton, who has done an outstanding job. I also want to mention registrar of the SACAT, Clare Byrt and, of course, Justice Greg Parker and Judge Susanne Cole.

The SPEAKER: The minister's time has expired.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: What a shame.

The SPEAKER: The member for Mitchell.

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