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147: Procedure in relation to mediation services
or “The person in charge of mediation decides how to handle problems and help people work things out.”
You could also call this:

“This rule says that people must keep secrets about what happens during mediation, except in special cases.”

You need to keep information private when you’re involved in mediation. This includes people who provide mediation services, people who receive these services, people who work for the department, and anyone who helps with mediation. You must keep secret any statements, admissions, documents, or information shared during mediation.

If you provide mediation services, you can’t give evidence about the services you provided or anything you learned while providing them. This applies to all types of legal proceedings.

Courts and judges can’t use any information that’s supposed to be kept private according to this law. The Official Information Act 1982 doesn’t apply to information shared during mediation.

There’s an exception when mediation is used to help people agree on new collective employment terms. In this case, some of the privacy rules don’t apply.

This law doesn’t stop you from using evidence that existed before the mediation. It also doesn’t prevent the department from collecting information for research or education, as long as they don’t identify specific people or issues. People who work for the department can share information with each other if it’s needed to carry out this law.

Lastly, these privacy rules don’t apply to some specific functions mentioned in section 149(2) or section 150(2) of this law.

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Next up: 148A: Certain entitlements may be subject to mediation and agreed terms of settlement

or “You can talk about some of your pay rights with a helper, but they can't make you give up your pay”
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Part 10 Institutions
Mediation services

148Confidentiality

  1. Except with the consent of the parties or the relevant party, a person who—

  2. provides mediation services; or
    1. is a person to whom mediation services are provided; or
      1. is a person employed or engaged by the department; or
        1. is a person who assists either a person who provides mediation services or a person to whom mediation services are provided—
            1. must keep confidential any statement, admission, or document created or made for the purposes of the mediation and any information that, for the purposes of the mediation, is disclosed orally in the course of the mediation.

          1. No person who provides mediation services may give evidence in any proceedings, whether under this Act or any other Act, about—

          2. the provision of the services; or
            1. anything, related to the provision of the services, that comes to his or her knowledge in the course of the provision of the services.

              1. No evidence is admissible in any court, or before any person acting judicially, of any statement, admission, document, or information that, by subsection (1), is required to be kept confidential.

              2. Nothing in the Official Information Act 1982 applies to any statement, admission, document, or information disclosed or made in the course of the provision of mediation services to the person providing those services.

              3. Where mediation services are provided for the purpose of assisting persons to resolve any problem in determining or agreeing on new collective terms and conditions of employment, subsections (1) and (3) do not apply to any statement, admission, document, or information disclosed or made in the course of the provision of any such mediation services.

              4. Nothing in this section—

              5. prevents the discovery or affects the admissibility of any evidence (being evidence which is otherwise discoverable or admissible and which existed independently of the mediation process) merely because the evidence was presented in the course of the provision of mediation services; or
                1. prevents the gathering of information by the department for research or educational purposes so long as the parties and the specific matters in issue between them are not identifiable; or
                  1. prevents the disclosure by any person employed or engaged by the department to any other person employed or engaged by the department of matters that need to be disclosed for the purposes of giving effect to this Act; or
                    1. applies in relation to the functions performed, or powers exercised, by any person under section 149(2) or section 150(2).