Derek Minus

Contact details:

Areas of experience:

• Accountancy
• Administrative
• Banking
• Commercial
• Company
• Contracts
• Corporate
• Environment
• Estates
• Family
• Finance
• Industrial relations
• Property
• Resources
• Securities
• Succession
• Taxation
• Tort
• Trade practices
• Trusts

Affinity with rural industries:

I am a nationally accredited mediator, barrister-at-law and chartered arbitrator. I have worked to assist farmers and people living in rural areas resolve their disputes since I was first qualified as a farm debt mediator in 1997.

Since 2017, I have been appointed as the Commonwealth Government’s Mediation Adviser under the Horticulture Code of Conduct. I am responsible for the appointment of mediators for all horticulture disputes under the Code.

I am the only mediator appointed by the federal Minister for Agriculture to the farm debt roundtable to advise on developing a better national farm debt mediation process with the banks, farmer organisations, financial advisors and government agencies.

I have assisted farmers’ associations by conducting negotiation training and providing advice to dairy farmers and their cooperatives, mediating disputes between egg producers over chicken cage regulations and resolving disputes with coal mining companies seeking access to farms.

I have been accredited as a mediator since 1992 and teach the Dispute Resolution course at the University of Sydney Law School. As well as settling disputes between parties I practise a transformative style of mediation that seeks to get people back into relationship with each other, as either business or family partners.

I also have experience as a senior commercial manager and understand the legal and financial implications of decisions and can assist farmers to properly explore all of the options available for the resolution of their dispute.