COSBOA speech: Pru Goward (2006)
Fact one, no where in the developed world is paid maternity leave funded a scheme mandating employers to directly pay employees taking maternity leave.
Fact one, no where in the developed world is paid maternity leave funded a scheme mandating employers to directly pay employees taking maternity leave.
In our new strategic plan we commit to 'motivating big business to incorporate human rights into their everyday business practice'.
Firstly I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we stand and by so doing remind ourselves that Australia's cultural traditions stretch back many thousands of years. The acknowledgement also expresses our aspiration for a just and inclusive Australia for all.
Thank you, Megan McNichol, conference organisers and the Isolated Children's Parents' Association for inviting me to speak at your annual federal conference today.
I would like to begin by acknowledging the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation, the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, and pay my respect to their elders past and present.
When I was invited to give this address, my first thought was to talk about unlawful discrimination in the context of higher education and, in particular, disability discrimination.
I am very pleased to have been asked to open the 9th Conference of the International Student Advisers Network of Australia (ISANA). I am pleased to welcome those who come from abroad, to exchange ideas and thoughts with a variety of people and across a range of disciplines and institutions.
I’d like to begin by acknowledging the Noongar people, the traditional owners of the land where we meet today, and pay my respects to their elders past and present.
I speak as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner and National Race Discrimination Commissioner of Australia. I am a member of Australia’s national human rights institution.
I would also like to thank the conference organisers for two things: – firstly for inviting me to present today, and secondly, for developing a conference on such a critical but very marginalised theme on the national stage – Indigenous policy development – and how we can all do it better.
The position of Social Justice Commissioner was created in 1993 in response to the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and HREOC"s National Inquiry into Racist Violence. It was created to ensure an ongoing, national monitoring agency for the human rights of Indigenous peoples.
Just over a month ago I wrote an opinion piece on reconciliation that was published in The Australian newspaper. That article was published on the eve of Corroborree 2000 and the handing over to the people of Australia of the declaration towards reconciliation by the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation. In that article, I posed the following question:
Welcome all of you to HREOC and to this workshop run by the Australian Electoral Commission. May I particularly thank Deputy Electoral Commissioner Andy Becker and his staff for making this process available today.
I also want to thank Bill Shorten for being with us, and acknowledge the energy and leadership he is providing on disability issues within Government, both on specific issues and on the big picture cross government and inter-governmental issues.
One day during the Christmas school holidays, my nine-year-old daughter came into the loungeroom, where I was relaxing with a glass of Scotch, and said: "Dad, the window won't pop up -- you have to come and fix it".
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