Elise Archer,Attorney-General
I am pleased to announce that for the first time in Tasmania, a single tribunal will be established to streamline services and improve access to justice.
The Tasmanian majority Liberal Government is committed to establishing a single civil and administrative tribunal. This important reform has been discussed by Governments over many years, but we are getting on with making it happen.
Tasmania is currently the only state that does not yet have a single tribunal and, as the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, I have driven this significant reform to establish the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (TasCAT), confident that it will deliver a more client-centric focus particularly for our protective jurisdictions.
TasCAT will also assist to promote alternative dispute resolution programs and provide greater consistency in decision making, while enabling seamless service delivery to clients.
A significant amount of work will be undertaken in 2020 to deliver a new single tribunal for Tasmania.
The first step is the establishment of the new physical space for the co-location of the first tranche of Tribunals to come under the new TasCAT umbrella.
It is expected that Tasmania’s Resource Management and Planning Appeal Tribunal, the Guardianship and Administration Board, the Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Tribunal, Asbestos Compensation Tribunal, Motor Accident Compensation Tribunal, Anti-Discrimination Tribunal, Forest Practices Tribunal, Health Practitioners Tribunal and the Mental Health Tribunal will be the first to be co-located at the new Barrack Street facilities in Hobart.
These facilities are currently being specially fitted out for the needs of the new single tribunal and its broad range of clients.
We are working closely with Tasmania’s current tribunals and their stakeholders to ensure they are consulted through this transition phase.
In coming months, legislation will be brought before State Parliament to formalise the single tribunal arrangement.
The new single tribunal is expected it to be operational by the second half of this year.
