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Purpose

Mother Bench is a research and publishing community operating in service of public interest, journalism, and education. All content is published under the protections of Defamation Act 2005 (Cth) ss 30 and 31 — qualified privilege, honest opinion, and fair comment on matters of public interest.

Where Australian family-law proceedings are referenced, s121 of the Family Law Act 1975 is honoured until repealed. Mother Bench identifies no party, child, or witness to live family-law proceedings. All material refers to roles, patterns, statistics, and published judgments only.

Where errors are identified, corrections are issued openly with public diff. Retraction policy applies.

Without prejudice

All content on this site, and all communications referencing it, are made without prejudice and with full reservation of rights. No publication, statement, or communication shall be construed as a waiver of any right, claim, or defence available at law or in equity.

Privacy

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What is collected. Your email address, which is required, and your own words, which are optional and may be left empty. Nothing else. There is no account, no profile, and no tracking of what you read on this site.

What it is used for. Two things, and nothing else: to tell you when the bench is calling, and to invite you to the networking and the regular online meetings. It is not a newsletter and it is not a fundraising list. You will not be sold anything.

Your words are never published without your explicit consent. Not quoted, not excerpted, not shown anonymously. If we ever want to publish something you wrote, we ask you first, and no answer means no.

Who else sees it. The form is handled by Jotform, which passes the message to us and stores it under its own privacy policy. We do not share, sell, rent or trade your address with anyone else, ever.

How to be removed. Write to matri.collective@gmail.com and say so. We delete what we hold of yours and confirm it. You do not have to give a reason, and you may also ask for a copy of what we hold, or for it to be corrected.

How long it is kept. Until you ask for it to be gone, or until the bench stops calling — whichever comes first.

This site is run from Australia and is subject to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). If you are in the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area, you also hold rights of access, correction, erasure, restriction, portability and objection under the UK and EU General Data Protection Regulation, and the address above is how you exercise them.