Chapter 723 - Success

Six months later

Under Hou Yi's careful observation a seven-month pregnant Anna carefully stood up and walked to the podium after being invited by the government officials to speak about the trial representing children victims of parental violence.

Hou Yi was so proud of her.  Here was his wife, a woman when they married who was only confident in dealing with the law, to this powerful strong woman who was willing to take on the establishment and challenge the status quo to make things better in her new home.  The respect that she had been able to garner in such a short time was amazing.  People, now when she said something was wrong were willing to listen to her articulated opinion, and respect it regardless of whether they agreed with her position or not/

More importantly ANX were happy.  She not only was still able to handle a portion of Hou Enterprises Australian legal work here, but they had gained prestige here for their support of what Anna was doing in the legal profession.  For them, it resulted in them receiving significant international corporate work from companies here, they not only opened an office here they had no problem that her work for them was reducing.  As the current partners said to him, just the other day, she was worth so much in terms of advertising, they were willing to accommodate what she wanted to do.

Hou Yi, knew that being involved in the law was what Anna needed.  It made her become everything he always knew that she could be.  Even the local university law school had approached them to see if she would become a part-time lecturer.  As he made it clear, it would be Anna's choice alone.  That was the one thing he had learnt since the trial began, Anna would always make the right choice for the right reason and he now did not question her decision making if she was happy with it.

Leaving his thoughts, he turned, and Anna commenced her speech.  "Ladies and Gentleman, I have to thank the government for inviting me to speak, but also at the outset thank my husband and family for allowing me to be involved. I am not going to waste people's time going through a lot of my history to get to this point. I gained my university degree in Australia and practiced as a lawyer in Australia. While my work was varied, most people would call me a litigator. I represented people in court, before judges. The system there, was extremely different to the system that faces people here. There the judges sit and listen to what people like me are able to get before them to listen, they are more passive people, than the judges that we have in the system here who question people and are active in trying to get to what is the truth in a case. That is all based around the foundations of their system. Neither is right, neither is wrong, they both have their faults and benefits."

"But as I found here, while there is a tendency of wanting agreements reached in matters, simply to make the system effective, there can be a hollowness. But that, is nothing compared to what can happen in the Australia system where after the court process the person is found not guilty and there is no penalty."

"However, one thing common, and it would be throughout the world, is that children are precious. They need to be safe and secure. What has prompted us to get to this point in time, was a request from the last person that I ever thought would come to me. Lu Jinhu has every reason to hate me, given our past, and the fact of my involvement in the matters that led to him receiving sentences of home detention under deals."

"As someone said to me, I was the cause of his misery. But he decided that in the end I was the one person who he could trust to have the right motives in coming in to represent his twin girls, when their mother was before the courts for hurting them. I remember the look on the judge's face when I came in and said that I had been asked, despite not having my local qualifications finalised to be there to ensure the best outcome for them."

"The process, however, when it came down to a fight between parents, made the judge realise that the right step had been made for someone to be there for the children. That led to the decision locally to push for a trial program, where children victims of crimes perpetrated by their a_d_u_l_t family members, regardless of their age, had their own lawyer not paid for by the family who had the sole purpose to represent their best interests."

"The initial funding, in part came from multiple courses including my husband and my Charitable initiative, that created by Lu Jinhu and Yang Lin, and surprisingly the charitable foundation established by Jane Gang.  The key for everyone who provided the funding for the trial was to help and protect children.  All the companies involved in funding the trial provided help in some way, allowing legal staff to volunteer time without loss of wages, administrative support, of just money to help others to do that.  The Local Law Society, received many offers to be involved from local practitioners"

"In the past six months, not only has the scheme been established and running for almost five months, there have been multiple children helped and the priority of ensuring their safety has always been at the forefront of actions undertaken.  The trial is maintaining its objective to help them, and the companies and charitable organisations involved in funding it intend to do so.  They see there is great benefit to society for it to continue, as children are the future of society.  It is, in some respect a pity to me that I am stepping back from frontline work with the scheme until a few months after I give birth.  I will, remain involved behind the scenes as this is too important to fail.  Now, I know that government officials are here to talk about their intention with the scheme, but more importantly…"

Anna paused dramatically and then placed her hand on her pregnancy bump "This little one is telling its mother they want her to shut up and sit down as they are sick of her voice, pushing an agenda.  As I keep telling him or her, they are lucky, and not all children are so they have to put up with their mother being passionate about other children as it will make a difference for all."

After hearing a round of laughter Anna stepped back and sat down while the government officials in attendance commenced explaining the government's next phases in the trial in forming a team that will step in to protect children when no actual crime is easily provable. Sitting there listening, she was proud about how her pushing them over the last few months had made them realise that just dealing with those hurting children criminally was not enough, there had to be within reason means to be proactive to ensure children remained safe. Given what had come out about Yang Lin's actions to her girls they knew if this had been in place at that time, they girls would not have been exposed to all her violence.  This progress made Anna proud of her achievements to date.

From the Author.

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