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Domestic abuse survivor takes UK justice ministry to court over legal aid | Domestic violence

A single mother and domestic abuse survivor is taking the Ministry of Justice to court this week after being refused legal aid because she was deemed to have no dependents, even though she had applied for the funding to enforce a child custody arrangement.

Susie (not her real name) and her abusive ex-partner initially shared custody of their son equally, but when he breached their agreement, limiting her access, she applied for legal aid to assert her rights.

However, in a decision her lawyers say has wider ramifications for domestic abuse survivors, the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) decided that as her son was not presently living with her, he was not her dependent. The result was that she was not deemed to have costs relating to him which meant the LAA found that her disposable income was too high to qualify for legal aid.

Susie, who is training to be a healthcare professional, said: “I’m trying to get him back from somebody I know is alcohol dependent, so already as a mother, I am super stressed. To then find that actually, I have to tick a box to say I have no child … It’s almost kind of slapping you in the face again.

“It’s just awful because he’s not my dependent according to the LAA, but he is. I want him to be with me because I don’t want him to be in that situation.”

Susie said she lived in a “constant state of anxiety” with her partner, who would abuse her verbally and physically when he had been drinking, and that she still suffered from night terrors. She said she “escaped a relationship which was incredibly abusive; only to be further abused by a legal aid system which vilifies those who are trying to make a home for

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March 16, 2023 by LEGAL

Scott Morrison warned against further cabinet disclosures in letter from attorney general | Scott Morrison

The attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, has written to Scott Morrison to warn the former prime minister against any “further disclosures” that “undermine national security and the integrity of the cabinet process”.

In a letter to Morrison that was tabled during a Senate hearing on Monday, Dreyfus raised concern at “the apparent extensive disclosures of cabinet information” in the recently published book Plagued: Australia’s two years of hell.

The book, which was promoted as giving the “inside story” of the Morrison government’s handling of the pandemic, was written by Simon Benson and Geoff Chambers of the Australian newspaper.

Its publication triggered political fallout because of revelations Morrison had secretly appointed himself to multiple ministries, starting with health and Treasury – but it also contained previously unknown details of deliberations of Australia’s national security committee of cabinet.

Dreyfus, the cabinet secretary in the Albanese government, said in the tabled letter that the book was “granular in its description of cabinet and cabinet committee deliberations”.

“I understand that the authors were informed by interviews conducted contemporaneously over the 2020-2022 period, including deliberations of the National Security Committee of Cabinet,” Dreyfus wrote.

Dreyfus wrote that several disclosures “appear to have been made in contravention of the expectation of discretion regarding sensitive Cabinet discussions, including the disclosure that the then secretary of your department briefed cabinet on planning on Chinese economic coercion”.

Dreyfus also cited disclosures “that the national security implications of Covid-19 were further discussed at the National Security Committee of Cabinet … which includes alleged quotes from you and paraphrases discussions allegedly from those meetings”.

Dreyfus wrote that references to a ‘secret intelligence briefing’ from the Office of National Intelligence “would appear to be Contrary to the confidentiality of information from the intelligence and security agencies”.

Dreyfus’ letter did not make any

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November 8, 2022 by ATTORNEY

Companies could be forced to delete customer data used to prove ID, Labor suggests | Optus

Companies could have the right to retain customers’ data stripped back by an ambitious suite of privacy reforms proposed by the Albanese government.

The attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, revealed on Thursday that in addition to completing a review of Australia’s privacy laws, the Albanese government will look to legislate “even more urgent reforms” later this year or in early 2023.

The immediate reforms could include penalties, safeguards on personal information and strengthening requirements for companies to notify customers of breaches.

On Thursday, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, endorsed changes to data retention laws.

Albanese told FiveAA Radio that requiring companies to dispose of data when they no longer need it, such as after a customer leaves a provider, was a “pretty commonsense proposal” and confirmed it was under consideration.

Earlier, Dreyfus told reporters in Canberra the government was considering whether companies “should be permitted to go on keeping data when the purpose of collecting it in the first place might have been no more than establishing someone’s identity”.

Checking a customer’s driver’s license or passport number to establish their identity “should be the end, one might think, of the company keeping all that data”, he said.

“They don’t seem to me to have a valid reason for saying we need to keep that for the next decade.

“Obviously the more data that’s kept, the bigger a problem there is about keeping it safe, the bigger a problem there is about the potential damage that’s going to be done by a huge hack [like the one] that’s occurred here.”

Labor has spoken up the need for tougher laws since the Optus attack affected up to 10 million customers, including 2.8 million people who had their license or passport number leaked.

The home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, has suggested reforms will include

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October 6, 2022 by ATTORNEY
May 2024
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