DAN’S REVEALS MEDIATOR

Consultation review to be completed by native title expert

DAN Murphy’s parent company Endeavour Drinks has chosen a majority Indigenous owned and managed company to be the independent expert to help mediate discussions between concerned parties.

DAN Murphy’s parent company Endeavour Drinks has chosen a majority Indigenous owned and managed company to review its stakeholder consultation process in Darwin, ahead of any store development.

RREDD (Risk, Response, Engage, Design, Deliver) is led by a Federal Court registered Native Title mediator with more than 30 years experience in assisting parties to best understand and address Indigenous rights and concerns, and will provide the link between Endeavour Drinks and the community in discussing the best way forward.

Endeavour Drinks managing director Steve Donohue said contracting the thirdparty-mediator was important in ensuring complex issues were properly addressed.

“Endeavour remains committed to addressing alcoholrelated harm in the Territory,” he said. “Our credentials as a leader in RSA practices was recognised by the director in his decision, and it remains our strong belief that with collaboration by community, we have an opportunity to use our consultation to lift the standards of responsible sale in the Territory.”

RREDD director Craig Jones said while he was unable to comment on the case given his role hadn’t officially begun, he was looking forward to working with all parties to see a mutually satisfactory outcome to the development of the store.

“What I’d like to do is build confidence in stakeholders they can be heard, the complexity of their position can be understood, and any issues they want to put on the table will be put on the table,” he said. “We will maintain our independence and neutrality.”

Mr Jones said he wanted to facilitate conversations which hadn’t yet happened to ensure every aspect of the case was covered: “Do I want to talk to everybody? Absolutely. I’ll probably speak to others no one else has,” he said.

It is expected that the mediator will provide information to the Independent Panel Review on the consultation occurring in parallel to the IPR itself.