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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-09-09 Daily Xml
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Online Family Dispute Resolution Tool

Mrs POWER (Elder) (15:24): My question is to the Attorney-General. Can the Attorney-General please advise the house about the recent launch of the online family dispute resolution tool?

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Planning and Local Government) (15:24): I thank the member for her question and interest in not only the use of technology but also the important initiative funded by the federal government to establish this project, with National Legal Aid and our own Legal Services Commission here in South Australia. We have a commission that is highly functioning in this state, and it has been recognised and was brought in with National Legal Aid to undertake this project.

Launched on 30 June this year amica, as it is known, is a dispute resolution tool for parties seeking to deal with the resolution of family law matters. It may be a child residence and access or contact arrangement, it may be in relation to settlement of property matters, and for many South Australians this has been an important initiative. It is an online service that has the driving philosophy behind it of ensuring that individuals are both informed as to what obligations they have to disclose to each other and are able to proceed to settle legal disputes after their relationship has broken down.

Not everyone has access to legal aid funding and not everyone has the financial resources to receive the services of a private legal service, so this has been a very important initiative. It also helps couples in dividing up their money, their property, their chattels, their furniture, cars, dogs and cats even, and to be able to deal with these things in a fairly difficult situation.

What is really important, apart from using artificial intelligence to facilitate the population of the information into the forms and the format to drive forward a suggested resolution and division for the parties, which is pretty groundbreaking in itself, is that there are a number of safeguards built into this program, and I will quickly list them:

screening steps that prioritise specific information about family violence prior to registration;

terms of use which inform users of their obligations for full and accurate disclosure;

referral out to a free legal helpline, a web chat service and support resources throughout the amica site;

the ability for each party to opt out at any time;

sentiment and tone analysis to prevent aggressive language being used in the tool; and

warnings to the users if the proposed division of assets falls outside the expected range, recommending they seek legal advice.

So there are important protections built into this service, and it is a valuable service.

I want to especially acknowledge Gabrielle Canny, the chief executive, who is not only very significantly experienced in providing new initiatives through the Legal Services Commission and a stellar administrator but she has now had exposure to international television and social media. She has done interviews in Europe and, of course, in the United States via AVL, and has also been on morning sunrise television programs, the news, and extensive social media.

I was very impressed by the catalogue of presentation of this, selling this extraordinary message to the world of an important initiative established here in South Australia. I am proud of her and I expect that the house will also be proud. I thank her for that contribution.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Sir, immediately prior to the deputy leader rising to answer that question I heard, very clearly, a statement from the Leader of the Opposition directed to you, sir. I quote: 'You put yourself in the spotlight, you pay the price.' I ask you to consider that threat and whether or not it is parliamentary. It seems extraordinarily out of order.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier has brought a matter to our attention. It is the subject, as I understand it, of an interjection of the leader. There have been a number of interjections from members—and on both sides—through the course of question time today. I must say, I was not paying attention to interjections to the extent of being focused on those words.

I would for the time being simply remind members of the house that it is important at all times that debate in this place is conducted in a courteous and orderly manner, and if on a review of the Hansard there is more to say about that then I will come back to the house accordingly.

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