In the latest edition of the Bulletin‘s series profiling the exceptional contributions of Australian ADR Award recipients, this week we turn the spotlight on the winner of the Ombudsmen & Commissions ADR Group of the Year in 2024, the Queensland Small Business Commissioner (QSBC), whose tireless efforts in advocating for and supporting ADR initiatives have made a significant impact across the state. Renowned for their commitment to fostering a fairer business environment through clear, client-facing dispute resolution processes, mediation coaching and regular knowledge-sharing sessions, the Commission has set new standards in crises management – including deploying staff to Cairns in the wake of Cyclone Jasper and offering ongoing training in crises preparedness.
This week, the ADC spoke with the office of the Queensland Small Business Commissioner to discuss their success and innovative integration of accessible ADR processes to empower countless Queensland small business owners and lessors to resolve conflicts outside of the courtroom, fostering a more collaborative and resilient business landscape.
As a recipient of the Ombudsmen & Commissions ADR Group of the Year in 2024, how has the Australian ADR award impacted your practice as a mediation service for small and family businesses in Queensland?
As a relatively new entity (established in 2020 as a response to COVID19) the recognition of Ombudsmen & Commissions ADR Group of the Year in 2024 has helped the QSBC with awareness raising of the ADR services offered but also ADR in general. Within the government the QSBC has used the award as a catalyst to share our story with other departments and agencies to highlight the alternatives to court and tribunal for small businesses. ADR is vital in helping small businesses reduce the time or cost involved in resolving disputes.
As a Commission operating under a statutory mandate, in what way does this position present unique challenges to the mediation process?
There are some unique challenges to our role including that we have ‘small business’ in our name but we actually help both parties (the small businesses and their lessors) reduce the time and cost involved in resolving disputes. It can seem to lessors that ‘we’re on the small businesses side’ but we work hard to ensure that both parties are equally afforded the opportunities that mediation and ADR present.
How does your approach to mediation need to change when working with communities and businesses that have been affected by natural disaster crises?
In Queensland (and Australia) we’re faced with natural disasters all too often. When we work with businesses that have faced a natural disaster the key, we have found it important to be conscious of time. It can be very lonely being a small business owner and allowing time for someone to debrief and share the story can help with their grief and associated healing process following a disaster. Additionally, we need to match the pace of the parties. Often the public think we’ll be inundated with requests immediately following a disaster but in fact it often takes some months for small business owners and their lessors to get all their affairs in order and work their way through their own priorities before reaching out for help. That is why we deliberately leave our fee waivers for disaster affected areas open for at least 12 months, knowing that those affected will come when the time is right for them.
Given the variety of diverse industries and communities within Queensland, what strategies do you employ to ensure efficiency and fairness in managing cases with parties from different legal and cultural backgrounds?
To ensure fairness and efficiency we focus our team on the fundamentals of good customer service. We try to make it easy to reach us in whatever way suits the customer and we allow enough time for them to share their story and be heard. Time and time again we hear from those in dispute that this is the first time someone has stopped to hear their story in full, and we find it works as a strategy regardless of the background because it is a fundamental human need for those in dispute. We also work on providing clear, concise information in a variety of languages – because good information so often leads to good decisions and regardless of their background, the people in the dispute are the ones who decide what to do.
How do you facilitate peer-to-peer mediator integration and what effect does this have on the success of your practice?
We’re strong believers in committing time and resources to achieve a goal. The same stands for our mediator panel which is why we pay them for attending our mediator update meetings every 8 weeks. The team works collaboratively on the agenda and we look to these meetings as an opportunity to update the mediators on our progress as a team but also draw learnings and inspiration from them. To fuel the collaboration amongst mediators we set aside time in each meeting to hear their ideas or sound board challenges and we paired up the mediators on our panel to facilitate peer-to-peer debriefing. Debriefing is encouraged as part of the mediation process for our panel and also as part of the intake process for our team.
Acknowledging Country
We acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands on which the Australian Disputes Centre is located, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, and we pay our respect to the knowledge embedded forever within the Aboriginal Custodianship of Country. We recognise their continuing connection to land, sea, culture and community, and pay respect to Elders past and present.
By Brendan Sheana, Juris Doctor at Monash University
