AUSTRALIA–ISRAEL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE BOARDROOM LUNCH
Sydney
Thursday, 27 August 2009
CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY
Economic management is one of the highest responsibilities of the Government.
When the Rudd Government took office in October 2007 few could have predicted the extent to which the economic landscape would change.
It is startling to recollect that it is not yet 12 months since September 2008 when in just one month:
- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which provided over half of US mortgages, were rescued in one of the largest Government bailouts in US history;
- Lehman Brothers, one of the world’s biggest banks, collapsed; and
- a host of other major banks, insurers and financiers were brought to their knees.
In the year since then, the Rudd Government has done an extraordinary amount to strengthen the Australian economy and invest in the future:
The Government’s guarantee of wholesale funding for Australian banks was critical to maintaining the stability of Australia’s financial system. In addition, the Government’s fiscal stimulus is supporting demand, protecting jobs and building the infrastructure we’ll need in the future.
Today I want to discuss some of the vital micro-economic reforms which the Rudd Government is undertaking, particularly some key legal reforms in my portfolio.
They include, for example:
- strengthening international legal cooperation arrangements;
- promoting better dispute resolution processes, including arbitration at the national and international levels;
- personal property securities reform; and
- uniform regulation of the legal profession across Australia.
These reforms will reduce costs for business and support business confidence and will be vital to growing our economy into the future.
International Civil Legal Cooperation
Increased international trade requires the support of strong legal cooperation mechanisms between nations.
I am pleased to say that Australia and Israel both actively contribute to forums such as the Hague Conference on Private International Law which support this goal. [1]
Israel has adopted a number of the Conference’s multilateral legal cooperation Conventions, including those which streamline procedures for:
- taking evidence, and
- serving documents, in court proceedings where parties are located in different countries.
Australia is already a party to the Hague Evidence Convention and is currently working to adopt the Hague Convention on the Service of Documents Abroad. This work is difficult and technical, but unquestionably important.
Accession to the Hague Service Convention will make it easier for parties involved in legal proceedings to serve documents abroad. This will help parties resolve cross-border legal disputes, and ultimately should give greater confidence to parties engaged in international trade and business.
In turn, I hope it will promote trade and investment between Australia and Israel too.
International Arbitration
Another way in which the Rudd Government is working to support international trade and investment is through reforms to the International Arbitration Act.
International arbitration is an important – but in Australia, still perhaps an under-utilised – way of resolving cross-border disputes.
Arbitration offers the potential for expeditious, confidential and less expensive resolution of commercial disputes.
International arbitration also offers the key advantage that arbitral awards can be enforced around the world much more readily than can judgments of national courts.
I expect to make further announcements about the Government’s review of the International Arbitration Act in the near future.
Complementing these reforms, the Commonwealth, States and Territories have also agreed to develop a new model commercial arbitration Bill for domestic arbitration.
The Bill will be based on the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration.
I hope it will provide a harmonised regime for both international and domestic arbitration in Australia.
Alternative Dispute Resolution
More broadly, increasing the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanisms, such as arbitration, mediation, conciliation and early neutral evaluation, is a key component of my domestic access to justice agenda.
Two months ago, I introduced legislation to help reduce the cost of litigation and minimise unnecessary court delays.
The Access to Justice (Civil Litigation Reforms) Amendment Bill 2009 amends the Federal Court of Australia Act so that cases before the Federal Court will be resolved by the simplest and most cost-effective means possible.
The Government is developing an Access to Justice Framework which will emphasise the importance of ADR, including in the context of court proceedings.
In addition, the National Alternative Dispute Resolution Advisory Council will report shortly on strategies for greater use of ADR in the civil justice system.
ADR should be the first step when resolving disputes. One of the overriding reasons for promoting ADR is to help businesses resolve disputes in better and quicker ways.
Again, this is an important micro-economic reform which will underpin future growth in the Australian economy.
Personal Property Securities
Arrangements governing personal property securities in Australia will also greatly benefit from reform.
The Government considers it a priority to increase the availability of finance for small business, reduce costs and attract more investment and international financial transactions to Australia.
To achieve this, we are pursuing reform through the Personal Property Securities Bill 2009 which I recently introduced into the Commonwealth Parliament.
The Bill will replace a complex, inconsistent and ad hoc web of legislation involving over 70 Commonwealth, State and Territory Acts, with a single national law supported by an online national register.
This will assist lenders in verifying the legitimacy of securities on the one hand, and assist borrowers to establish their property interests on the other.
In the long term, we believe that this will improve the availability of credit – and bring the price of credit down.
National Legal Profession Reform
In addition to these initiatives, I’d also like to mention important work that the Council of Australian Governments is pursuing to achieve uniform regulation of the legal profession in Australia.
Some of the objectives of this project are to reduce compliance costs for law firms (and businesses using legal services) and improve interaction with the national and international legal services market.
This is another important micro-economic reform.
Current legislation regulating the legal profession is overly complex and inconsistent.
This can be due to differences in costs disclosure, admission and practising certificates, complaints handling and discipline as well as the large number of different regulators.[2]
I established a specialist Taskforce in April to:
- prepare draft legislation
- deliver the concept of an Australian Legal Practitioner, and
- develop models for a national standard-setter and a national system for handling consumer complaints.
The Taskforce is expected to report to COAG by April next year.
Conclusion
I would like to thank the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce for your hard work in fostering dialogue between Israel and Australia and encouraging bilateral trade between our countries.
As we face the current global economic crisis, the Government recognises the important and unique role the Chamber plays in building cooperative relationships in the Australian business community.
I wish you every success for the future.
Thank you.
Footnotes
[1] The Hague Conference on Private International Law is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to developing multilateral treaties to simplify the conduct of transnational civil and commercial litigation.
