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Dr. Michael John Kidd |
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Barrister & Solicitor |
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To contact us: |
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Phone: +64-9-8331805 |
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Reform of Legal Aid NZ |
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The NZ Government is reforming the NZ legal aid system and the test is: will it enhance human rights and allow important cases to be argued, even those that involve graffiti? The proposal announced already will already replace much work done by the private profession - in the Auckland area - in the name of efficiency and cost savings. When you consider that there are also proposed laws to make it easier for police to force people to tell them what they want to know, obtain bodily samples and search and seizure without warrant—it makes for an ever tougher role for defense lawyers. When you consider people can be automatically committed for trial without any issues being explored, the balance of power has shifted to the State. My submissions to the Inquiry on legal aid reinforced that this is a politically driven exercise, for when you closely examine the arguments for the extension PDS and the possibility “bulk funding”, (which has not disappeared) they do not stand up to close scrutiny. Clearly the NZLS should have taken up the issue of targeting lawyers who rort the system before the need for the inquiry which co-incidentally was announced the day after I faxed the Minister Power (April 09) an example of an outrageous use of “preferred counsel’ by a defendant which actually acted to get around an order of the Court. |
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The clock is ticking on NZ human rights |
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Towards a more authoritarian state? |
