MIC annual report (Jan 05) #3426_v4.qxd - Mallesons

During 2005, we continued to help asylum seekers and refugees with immigration and visamatters. Lawyers volunteer at the Refugee and Immigration Legal Centre in Melbourne and theRefugee Advice and Casework Service in Sydney.Downing Centre duty solicitor schemeThirty one of our lawyers participate in the DowningCentre's duty solicitor scheme coordinated by the City ofSydney Law Society. The scheme provides advice, referralsand representation for people who are unrepresentedand who have criminal cases at the Downing CentreLocal Court. Most commonly our duty lawyers advise on:apprehended violence orders (AVOs), assault, minor drugoffences, traffic and debt matters.Refugee and asylum seekersDuring 2005, we continued to help asylum seekers andrefugees with immigration and visa matters. Lawyersvolunteer at the Refugee and Immigration Legal Centre inMelbourne and the Refugee Advice and Casework Servicein Sydney. These centres have a high demand for pro bonolegal assistance.Mallesons supports the valuable contribution that theselawyers make in their own time and in a personalcapacity. The firm pays the costs associated with ourvolunteer advisers becoming registered as migrationagents at the centres.The following stories are examples of the significantimpact our help can make on the lives of refugees andasylum seekers.• Lawyers in our Melbourne office succeeded inoverturning a decision to refuse a protection visa to afemale Sri Lankan asylum seeker on the basis that theRefugee Review Tribunal had ignored her attempts toreveal sensitive information which she was reluctant,for cultural and gender-related reasons, to disclose infront of men.• Members of Mallesons' Human Rights Law Group inour Melbourne office were involved in a case involvingan asylum seeker who was removed by the AustralianGovernment to Dubai, and then returned to detentionin Sydney.• Lawyers in our Brisbane office successfully challengeda decision by the Minister for Immigration andMulticultural and Indigenous Affairs to cancel a client'spermanent visa on character grounds. The outcome ofthis case was important as it clarified an issue regardingthe scope of the aliens power that had previously beenleft unresolved.Critiquing law reformDuring 2005, we assisted various community partners toprepare law reform submissions. Some examples areincluded below.• Lawyers and summer clerks in our Sydney office assistedthe Sydney Regional Aboriginal Corporation LegalService to draft a submission responding to the "Reviewof Bail Law in NSW" Discussion Paper released in 2004.The submission identified ways the New South Walesbail system could be reformed to reduce the timeAboriginal people spend in prison while on remand.• The National Children's and Youth Law Centre (NCYLC),together with Defence for Children InternationalAustralia, prepared a non-government organisationreport on Australia's implementation of the Conventionon the Rights of the Child. Louise Pounder, a Mallesons'secondee to NCYLC, researched and wrote specificmaterial on child labour and homelessness in Australiathen helped compile and edit the final report.• We assisted Sydney Regional Aboriginal CorporationLegal Service to draft a submission responding to theAustralian Government's discussion paper, "A NewApproach to the Family Law System". The submissionindicated that while it approved of the Government'sbroad intention to reform the family law system, themodel proposed failed to adequately address theproblems faced in Aboriginal communities.6