ADOPTION

AGM. 26.10.74.

The Council for Civil Liberties favours legislative amendments to correct anomalies in the legal position of unmarried fathers.

CHILD WELFARE

CM. 27.3.74.

'That the denial or absence of legal representation for young persons in Crown appeals raises an issue of civil liberty where deprivation of their liberty is involved and that the Council for Civil Liberties ought to support these cases and give them legal representation.'

DOCK STATEMENTS

Letter to press (March 1974).

'The New South Wales Government's proposal to abolish the longstanding right of people accused of serious crimes to make statements from the dock in their defence without having to subject themselves to cross-examination in the witness box deserves closer public scrutiny than it has so far had. The Council for Civil Liberties believes that the present right give proper protection to many inarticulate, unprepossessing or even untruthful people who are in fact innocent of crimes charged against them. The virtue of such protection more than outweighs the vice that may be done should any guilty person escape through use of this right'.

N.B. This Government proposal was subsequently defeated.

OMBUDSMAN

AGM. 26.10.74.

The Council for Civil Liberties favours extending the powers of the Ombudsman to investigate the affairs of Local Government bodies.

SOLICITOR APPEARANCES

AGM. 26.10.74.

The Council for Civil Liberties is of the view that the Legal Practitioners Act should be amended so as to provide for the right of a solicitor to appear before any public tribunal in New South Wales.