Cate Banks

I am a mediator. Well that’s the short version.

I am the Director and Principal of BUILDING BRIDGES – A Centre for Community and Dispute Resolution.

I’m considered an experienced and highly committed alternative dispute practitioner, probably because I have conducted more than 900 mediations in a number of areas including:
Family Dispute Resolution
Property and financial settlement
Workplace and employment disputes
Community disputes
Commercial Disputes
Community Conferencing
Minor and Civil debts
Residential Tenancy
Court ordered mediations
Restorative justice

However I consider myself a student of conflict resolution. I am on a lifelong journey of understanding conflict, what makes it so central to the lives of so many and what, why and how my own reactions to conflict affect my practice. In that sense while my ‘calling’ (if you like) is to assist people in conflict I believe I can never stop reflecting, learning, and sharing my thoughts and experiences. Thus the genesis for the conflict project.

I am a Nationally Accredited Mediator and a qualified Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner (Attorney-General’s Department). I am a current member of the Panel of mediators of the South East Queensland Dispute Resolution Centre, Dispute Resolution Branch (Justice and Attorney-General), LEADR and QPILCH. I am also a lawyer admitted in the Supreme Court of Queensland and the High Court of Australia. I am a part time academic and work as a consultant on legal research projects, particularly those which are focused on access to justice and family law practice.

I was the President of the Management Committee of the Ipswich Centre Against Domestic Violence for more than two years. I recently resigning from the position handing over the reigns to energetic and wonderfully committed women and to allow myself some space for other community work.

I believe I need to be the best possible practitioner for my clients. It’s easy to say you are a mediator, but it takes an immense amount of time, resources and energy to practice self reflection and personal mastery in order to focus on their needs and not on your own needs. I am blessed to be mentored and encouraged by colleagues who share similar philosophies to myself, but in the end the quest is one’s one and the responsibility is to take care and learn about who you are for your clients.