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Rights and Freedoms

What are the proper limits on the power of Parliament?

Distinguished guests, friends and colleagues - thank you for your welcome to this Law Institute of Victoria seminar. I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land and pay my respects to their elders past and present. I will always have a soft spot for the Law Institute of Victoria. I was admitted...

Category, Speech
Rights and Freedoms

What are the proper limits on the power of Parliament?

Distinguished guests, friends and colleagues - thank you for your welcome to this Law Institute of Victoria seminar. I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land and pay my respects to their elders past and present. I will always have a soft spot for the Law Institute of Victoria. I was admitted...

Category, Speech
Rights and Freedoms

Religious Freedom in a Secular Society

Freedom of religion is a close ally and friend of the absolute freedoms of thought and conscience. Government cannot regulate it, and nor should they. Equally, it is closely allied to freedom of expression.

Category, Speech
Rights and Freedoms

Freedom, Parliament and the Courts. Speech to the Human Rights Dinner

Please check against delivery Distinguished guests, friends and colleagues- thank you for your welcome tonight. I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land, the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, and pay respect to their elders past and present. I am honoured to be a patron of Justice Connect...

Category, Speech
Commission – General

Freedom, Parliament and the Courts

Speech to the annual Human Rights Dinner, co-hosted by Justice Connect and the Human Rights Law Centre. Draft: check against delivery Thank you for your welcome tonight. Acknowledgement of country I am honored to be a patron of Justice Connect that has so successfully aligned probono lawyers with...

Category, Speech
Race Discrimination

Forty years of the Racial Discrimination Act

In October 1975, at a ceremony for the proclamation of the Racial Discrimination Act, then Prime Minister Gough Whitlam described the legislation as ‘a historic measure’, which aimed to ‘entrench new attitudes of tolerance and understanding in the hearts and minds of the people’.(1) The Act was...

Category, Opinion
Rights and Freedoms

Speech to the Australian Libertarian Society’s 3rd annual Friedman conference

Introduction Thank you. It is a great pleasure to attend the Australian Libertarian Society’s Third Friedman Conference. I’d like to acknowledge the outstanding efforts of Tim Andrews and John Humphrey for bringing this important conference together. I’d also like to acknowledge the previous speaker...

Category, Speech
Asylum Seekers and Refugees

The Government, the High Court and the Migration Act

  The long running, if muted, struggle between the High Court of Australia and the Government over refugees recalls a bitter legal battle in the early 17th century. Sir Edward Coke, the first Lord Chief Justice of England, defied King James 1 by asserting the supremacy of the common law over the...

Category, Opinion
Rights and Freedoms

Launch of the Rights & Responsibilities Consultation 2014 Report

Thank you for coming. It's a great pleasure to launch the report from our Rights and Responsibilities Consultation . Like my Commissioner colleagues, the role of Australia’s Human Rights Commissioner is to look at systemic public policy issues. No Commissioner investigates complaints from the public...

Category, Speech
Rights and Freedoms

Isabelle Lake Memorial Lecture. Australia's Transgender Awakening

The Isabelle Lake Memorial Lecture is an initiative of the Equal Opportunity Commission of Western Australia in partnership with the University of Western Australia to honour the work and achievements of Ms Isabelle Lake. Ms Lake was a young trans rights activist, who was also a former employee of the Equal Opportunity Commission and University of Western Australia student.

Category, Speech

Homosexual Histories Conference 2014, Pride History Group

1 Acknowledge traditional owners I would like to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Traditional Owners of the land on which we are gathered and pay my respects to their elders, both past and present, and extend that respect to other Aboriginal people present. 2 Introduction Thank...

Category, Speech
Age Discrimination

Homosexual Histories Conference 2014 - Pride History Group

1 Acknowledgement of traditional owners I would like to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Traditional Owners of the land on which we are gathered and pay my respects to their elders, both past and present, and extend that respect to other Aboriginal people present. 2...

Category, Speech
LGBTIQ+

Homosexual Histories Conference 2014

Pride History Group Event 1 Acknowledge traditional owners I would like to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Traditional Owners of the land on which we are gathered and pay my respects to their elders, both past and present, and extend that respect to other Aboriginal people...

Category, Speech
Rights and Freedoms

Fraser Lecture 2014

Professor Gillian Triggs President Australian Human Rights Commission Fraser Lecture Canberra Check against delivery Thank you Dr Andrew Leigh for your invitation and introduction. It is an honour to be here in your electorate of Fraser in north Canberra. I would like to acknowledge that we meet on...

Category, Speech

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