The assignment below is in the course of my undergraduate degree in Law. the subject is equity. Consider the following scenario: The Australian Office of National Security (‘AONS’) operates under the Australian Office of National Security Act 2017 (Cth) (‘the AONS Act’). Section 4 of the AONS Act includes the following provisions: (1) The functions of the Australian Office of National Security shall include: (a) the receipt, collection and collation of information relevant to national security; (b) cooperation with other Australian agencies in relation to national security. (2) In this section, (a) Australian agency includes any of the following: (i) the Australian Taxation Office; … (b) cooperation includes the sharing of information and the provision of recommendations for action in relation to such information; (c) national security means Australia’s defence, international relations, economic, or law enforcement interests. Specialist Traders Pty Ltd (‘STPL’) is an Australian company that sells hard-to-obtain industrial supplies to various persons and entities. One day, STPL receives a request to supply one of its customers, Axle Pty Ltd (‘APL’), with some materials that include, among their possible uses, the manufacture of explosives. The managing director of STPL is concerned about this, and uses a publicly-funded hotline to contact AONS and alert it to APL’s request. The director also tells AONS that STPL does not wish anything about the communication to get back to APL, as this could damage STPL’s reputation for discretion, and might also provoke retaliation against the company. AONS wishes to take a number of actions in response to receiving this communication. Two of these relate to a suspicion by senior officials within AONS that APL has not properly paid taxes owing in relation to its dealings with STPL. You are therefore asked to advise AONS in respect of the following two proposed actions: Would AONS breach a duty of confidence owed to STPL if it were to inform the Australian Taxation Office (‘ATO’) of the communication and recommend that the ATO investigate APL’s transactions with STPL? Would AONS breach a duty of confidence owed to STPL if it were to publish, in a national daily newspaper, a list of companies that included STPL and was headed ‘Good corporate citizens: these companies helped us catch tax cheats’?

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