Statement to the 61st session of the Commission on Human Rights
On behalf of the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (hereafter referred to as the Commission), I welcome the opportunity to make this statement.
On behalf of the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (hereafter referred to as the Commission), I welcome the opportunity to make this statement.
The Annual Mitchell Oration is held as a tribute to Dame Roma’s lifelong efforts to improve the respect in Australia for human rights, and to counter discrimination experienced by many people, especially women, members of Indigenous communities, and of ethnic minorities.
It would clearly test to destruction the tolerance of the ordinary red-blooded Australian to have a Pom getting off the plane from London and telling them how to run their country. So I shall not presume to say how the current human rights debate in this country should be resolved. But perhaps I may contribute some thoughts, prompted by our own experience in the United Kingdom, acknowledging as I do so that the Australian context, while in some ways similar, is in others significantly different.
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