Statement on Mandatory Sentencing
For Australia's Indigenous communities and those associated with us, the death in custody of the young Aboriginal boy last week is nothing new. Lamentably, it is nothing new.
For Australia's Indigenous communities and those associated with us, the death in custody of the young Aboriginal boy last week is nothing new. Lamentably, it is nothing new.
Comprehensive Area Psychiatrists Special Interest Group Rozelle Hospital Dr Sev Ozdowski OAM Human Rights Commissioner and Acting Disability Discrimination Commissioner May 17 2005
Have you ever stopped to think about all the things that we take for granted? When you're wandering through the breakfast cereal isle at the supermarket, for example, do you ever wonder whether Uncle Toby really was? If so, was he related to Sara Lee? Were Nana's apple pies originally made by Granny Smith? It's not so much that familiarity breeds contempt as that it lulls us into a state of mind where we no longer feel the need to question or even test our assumptions and presumptions.
I would like to open today by reading you part of an e-mail that a work colleague of mine received recently from a young Australian woman in her early twenties, who recently completed her Bachelor of Communications degree from UTS in Sydney. As it happens she also holds Polish citizenship and is currently visiting her grandparents in Warsaw.
I am very pleased to be here tonight at the Rural Ageing Seminar dinner. Thank you, to Dame Roma and the Rural Ageing Seminar Reference Group, for inviting me to attend an event that (for once) takes place where it counts - in rural South Australia.
I would like to begin by acknowledging the Traditional Owners of this land, the Pambalong clan of the Awabakal people, and pay my respect to their elders, past and present. Today I would like to explore the question: ‘What does it mean to believe in human rights in Australia today?’ This is an ambitious project, and I am aware that the question does not have a short and simple answer.
I was first approached by one of your Committee to speak tonight on a topic which sounded an easy one: "talk about your experiences in consensus judgments and how committees of more than one function". I shall amplify why that would be an easy topic in a moment.
I begin today by thanking Granny Alice Yeatman for her warm welcome to Yarrabah and paying my respects to the Traditional Owners, on whose land we meet. Good morning ladies and gentlemen, my Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander brothers and sisters, distinguished guests.
I begin by paying my respects to the Gadigal peoples of the Eora nation, the traditional owners of the land where we gather today. I pay my respects to your elders, to the ancestors, and to those who have come before us.
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 respects to their elders past and present.
I would like to begin by acknowledging the Arrernte people – the traditional owners of the land we are meeting on today and by paying my respects to their ancestors.
I would like to start today by acknowledging the Gimuy Walubara Yidinji people on whose land we are on today and pay my respect to your elders both past and present.
May I also congratulate the organisers for convening this important Forum. We know that rates of diabetes among indigenous peoples across the globe, and in Australia, are extremely high and require specific, focused attention. And we also know that we need action urgently.
Thank you Tom, for inviting me to speak today. Firstly, I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners, the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation, and thank Uncle Charlie for his generous welcome to country.
Thank you for attending this press conference to discuss the release of the Social Justice Report and Native Title Report for 2002. As you would be aware, these reports are the annual report card on the government's performance on Indigenous issues and native title.
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