In July 2008 Neil Twist was appointed to the newly created position of Director, Appropriate Dispute Resolution in the Department of Justice, Victoria.  

The Directorate was formed to act as a champion for ADR and to implement the $17.8 million worth of ADR initiatives funded by the Victorian Government over the 2008 – 2012 period.

The initiatives include:

• The development of a pilot of judicial dispute resolution in the Supreme and County Courts.
• Introduction of the Judicial Resolution Conference Bill into the Victorian Parliament.
• Increased resources to the Dispute Settlement Centre of Victoria to implement the following:
• The diversion to mediation of non-family violence intervention order applications.
• The mediation of civil cases before applications are lodged in Court.
• The development of a communications and online strategy to improve the public’s awareness of ADR.
• The development of a data and reporting framework with which to evaluate the Government’s initiatives and to improve the Government’s current data collection.