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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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1. 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 proposals foreshadowed in the Blazley Report, released just before Christmas 09, will replace much work done by the private independent bar, and remove the individual’s right to choose his or her own lawyer, all in the name of efficiency and cost savings. 2. There are 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. 3. People can now be automatically committed for trial without any issues being explored. 4. The balance of power has shifted to the State. 5. My submissions to this Inquiry on legal aid reinforced “social control” as an underlying aspect, otherwise they would have named and shamed the lawyers rorting the system, by now. 6. As a politically driven exercise, when you closely examine the arguments for the extension of the PDS and “bulk funding”, they do not stand up to close scrutiny, as the New Zealand Government has been getting bargain basement legal aid up to now, without an overall decline in quality. 7. This grab for power at the expense of the private bar which has been around for centuries, is part of the overall loss in personal liberties and economic freedom taking place all over the Globe: ZEITGEIST. To read these submissions click on MK Submissions |
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The clock is ticking on NZ human rights |
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Towards a more authoritarian state? |
