Mr NATT - 2005-08-18
The Community Justice Centre recently celebrated its second birthday. Could you please advise members of the valuable work performed by the Community Justice Centre?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for his question. Again, it is a topic I very much welcome the chance to talk about. The Community Justice Centre was opened on 30 May 2003, just over two years ago. Since that time, the Community Justice Centre has conducted 100 mediations. Output from the Community Justice Centre is such that we have now taken it into core funding within the Justice agency. That is the value we place on it.
The service is free, timely and confidential. It is quicker than a court action and a lot less costly. It can deal with matters such as neighbourhood disputes, small claims, tenancy disputes, civil claims, planning disputes and, sometimes, family arguments. Some 85% of the 100 matters that they have dealt with have been settled to the satisfaction of the participants, which has saved a lot of court time in our lower courts for low end matters which would otherwise have taken up a lot of our magistrates’ time.
This was a first term election commitment, and we are very happy to have not only delivered on this but to see it performing so well. I commend all the people involved in our Community Justice Centre; they are doing a fantastic job. When you look at it, this is removing all those little bits of angst in our community that can blight a neighbourhood and give our communities greater strength and greater safety.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for his question. Again, it is a topic I very much welcome the chance to talk about. The Community Justice Centre was opened on 30 May 2003, just over two years ago. Since that time, the Community Justice Centre has conducted 100 mediations. Output from the Community Justice Centre is such that we have now taken it into core funding within the Justice agency. That is the value we place on it.
The service is free, timely and confidential. It is quicker than a court action and a lot less costly. It can deal with matters such as neighbourhood disputes, small claims, tenancy disputes, civil claims, planning disputes and, sometimes, family arguments. Some 85% of the 100 matters that they have dealt with have been settled to the satisfaction of the participants, which has saved a lot of court time in our lower courts for low end matters which would otherwise have taken up a lot of our magistrates’ time.
This was a first term election commitment, and we are very happy to have not only delivered on this but to see it performing so well. I commend all the people involved in our Community Justice Centre; they are doing a fantastic job. When you look at it, this is removing all those little bits of angst in our community that can blight a neighbourhood and give our communities greater strength and greater safety.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016