COMMERCIAL ARBITRATION BILL 2011

I rise to speak on this very important Commercial Arbitration Bill 2011. We have just heard from the member for Melton a diatribe about how expert members opposite are in doing business and running businesses. I make the point that running a trade union is not running a business. Being involved in the trade union movement, where a lot of time is spent in actually clogging up the courts and taking up time and ensuring that many businesses suffer and in some cases people go out of business, is not part of running a small business.

We have had a good measure of members in the federal Parliament giving very good examples of using credit cards as part of their activities in the union movement. That does nothing other than probably facilitate business, but not the sort of business that I want to talk about today.

I do want to talk today about a very important part of what this bill will do, which is to do away with the clogging up of the courts, to do away with spending time in arbitration and to ensure that we get on with solving problems and doing what is most important -- that is, allowing businesses to trade.

The first of two elements I would like to talk about today is keeping uniformity across the states and ensuring that when it comes to arbitration, business and trade, the law is consistent across all states. Most small businesses in Victoria trade on at least a national if not an international basis, and we need to ensure that the relevant laws are consistent. The second and most important element is that this bill goes a long way to supporting small business.

I will now touch on the first issue of having uniformity across the states. The procedural framework for the conduct of domestic commercial arbitration goes a long way towards uniformity. Equivalent legislation has been passed in New South Wales and Tasmania and has been introduced in the parliaments of South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory. With the passage of the commonwealth legislation and the progress of most of the states and territories, it is imperative that Victoria act in order to make our state consistent and competitive.

Given the large and growing customer base of small and medium-sized enterprises, which is due to globalisation and technology -- something we touched upon yesterday when debating the Electronic Transactions (Victoria) Amendment Bill 2011 -- it is important that we have consistency in our arbitration processes and tribunals. It is important that, with the passage of and assent to this bill, practitioners and courts be able to draw on case law, the practices of the commonwealth and overseas practices to inform the application of its provisions.

I also draw attention to the importance to creating an environment for small business which encourages better use of domestic and commercial arbitration regimes. Among the objectives of this bill is to ensure that businesses have better access to processes for fair and final resolution of commercial disputes through impartial arbitral tribunals without unnecessary delay or expense. Often when you look at even appointing an arbitrator, you see that in terms of that process alone it can be some time before an agreement can be reached.

Particularly in situations involving a small business and a larger business, quite often such delays are used as tactical measures to wear down the smaller enterprise. This bill provides an even playing field. It allows both parties to get on with it -- to appoint an arbitrator as quickly as possible, to have the dispute heard, to settle the dispute and to move on -- enabling both businesses to go about doing what they have set out to do, which is to operate as businesses.

The other objective of the bill is to develop the model law expertise of Australian courts, lawyers and businesses and to develop Australia as a centre for international arbitration.

These key reforms will give parties flexibility; they will structure the procedures of arbitration to ensure that there is fairness in the application of the legislation for both parties; they will restrict parties in relation to the grounds on which they can challenge an arbitrator for an award; and they will impose an obligation of confidentiality upon the tribunal to ensure that there is due process. The bill also grants powers to the tribunal in terms of interim measures relating to protection to prevent any party taking action to circumvent a potential action against it.

It is very important for us to ensure that this bill receives a smooth passage. It supports our government's commitment to promote business and to promote an environment that encourages fairness and efficiency.

There have been a number of consultations, and in accordance with the decisions of cabinet there was targeted consultation with a number of key stakeholders, including the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the Victorian Bar, the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and the Institute of Arbitrators and Mediators Australia. They were generally supportive of this model of implementation of the legislation. They saw it as a way of creating uniform means for potential actions across Australia, ensuring that there would be no delay in court processes. It is certainly consistent with earlier positions, and as it forms part of the model law it allows uniform legislation across the board.

We have all had experiences -- or know somebody who has had experiences -- that have involved the court process. Quite often courts get clogged up with very small or minor issues which cause delay, preventing people who have more serious complaints being heard.

We should therefore do whatever we can to create smoother movement for people through the court process, and that is certainly what this bill is about. Ensuring smooth passage and ensuring that disputes are heard quickly, fairly and reasonably is the sort of thing we can do in this house, and it is what this Parliament should be about. It should be about making business dealings easier. In Parliament we often talk about cutting red tape, and that is what we are looking at doing as part of this process.

This is a very important bill and one that we on this side of the house all support. I commend the bill to the house and look forward to its smooth passage.