Disability Rights
I am here today partly because Michelle Castagna was quick off the mark in organising me to come before I had accepted any of the numerous other possibilities for events for the international day.
Rights and Freedoms
Thank you, Megan McNichol, conference organisers and the Isolated Children's Parents' Association for inviting me to speak at your annual federal conference today.
Disability Rights
I congratulate EOPHEA for organising this discussion. Although, of course, your focus is primarily on employment in the university environment, the conference program is clearly designed to address equal opportunity issues of much more general significance. I have approached my own paper in the same spirit: I hope it will be particularly relevant in your own context as equity practitioners in higher education, but I have taken the opportunity to raise issues of wider relevance.
Disability Rights
Thanks for the opportunity to speak to this conference today. You are embarking on this topic, in my view, at just the right time. Unemployment is the lowest it has been for over a decade. Our economy is strong and needing more employees, and our population is ageing, reducing the relative size of the workforce. In coming years, there will be fewer of us to support more of us, so as many people as possible need to be working and paying taxes rather than receiving welfare benefits. What better time to introduce employees with disabilities in larger numbers.
Disability Rights
One day a few years ago I went in to wake my son. I told him that it was good to get up in the morning, to which he grumpily replied, "yes, but dad, it's even better to stay in bed".
Disability Rights
I hope that you are not expecting from me a speech full of stirring rhetoric, to inspire you before you settle into detailed and practical discussions throughout the rest of this conference.
Disability Rights
Graeme Innes AM Deputy Disability Discrimination Commissioner Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission 15 October 1999 Note: This is the full version of Deputy Commissioner Innes' paper, which was presented in summary form at the convention for reasons of time.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice
I would like to begin by acknowledging the Nganawal people, the traditional owners of the land where we meet today and to pay my respects to their elders. I would also like to thank the Australian Medical Students Association and Shayne McArthur for organising this National Leadership Development Seminar, and ensuring that Indigenous health – so often overlooked in the ongoing debates about health and health reform in Australia – receives the attention it deserves in this context.
Disability Rights
Attorney-General Ruddock; Michael Apps and representatives of the bus and coach industry; Margo Hodge and representatives of the disability community; ladies and gentlemen.
Disability Rights
MATT LAFFAN: I once used to say to some mates of mine that all I really wanted was 24 hours without a disability. I just wanted 24 hours so that I could do certain things. Since then, I've got a little greedy and now I want one week. And during that one week there'd be hell to pay, because Sydney just would not be big enough. I think the night club scene would be in a world of trouble, because dancing is something I'd really like to do. There'd certainly be a rugby match I'd have to get involved with. I'd go running with the old man.
Disability Rights
I recently returned from attending a United Nations meeting, where work is progressing on the development of an International Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.
Disability Rights
Allow me to commence by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today, and by so doing remind ourselves that Australia's cultural traditions stretch back many thousands of years. I acknowledge also people with disabilities here together with advocates and other conference participants.
Disability Rights
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.
Rights and Freedoms
I'm very pleased to be speaking to you today. I'm especially encouraged that so many young people have put aside a weekend to think about, and talk about, human rights.
Disability Rights
I'm honoured to give this address. I completed my law degree at this university, and well remember the December day in 1977 when I received it. It was the culmination of four years of hard work, experiencing the pleasures and trials of campus life, and acquiring - as well as a reasonable amount of legal knowledge - a much broader appreciation of the world around me, warts and all.
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