Getting it right - a baker's dozen
Read a speech that highlights the importance of the design and construction of buildings and to ensure equal access to people with a disability.
Read a speech that highlights the importance of the design and construction of buildings and to ensure equal access to people with a disability.
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.
Thank you, Dr Morgan, for the invitation to attend this launch of the Westpac Disability Discrimination Act Action Plan. I am most pleased to formally receive a copy for the Commission to register.
As lawyers who work every day with ordinary people, you will all have first hand experience of the value that we, in Australia, place on human rights. You will also be acutely aware of the significant gaps in human rights protection in Australia.
I am delighted to be invited to speak today at the Biennial Conference of the Association of Childrens Welfare Agencies, in association with partner organisations dedicated to the wellbeing of children.
This paper advocates that National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) have a very valuable role to play in the Pacific, and that the promotion and protection of human rights in the Pacific would benefit immensely by Pacific nations each establishing a NHRI.
I was invited to pick my own topic for discussion. As an ex-judge being invited to speak to students of the law, I assumed that I was expected to speak on something related to the administration of the law from a judge's perspective. And as President of Australia's Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC), I assumed I was expected to mention the role of human rights promotion in our legal system.
Allow me to begin by also acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, and pay my respects to their elders both past and present.
I am particularly pleased to join in opening this international conference on mobility and transport for elderly and disabled people and to be discussing accessible transport here in Western Australia. The Government of Western Australia deserves recognition for the commitment it is showing to making public transport accessible: a commitment adopted in principle, policy and plans and increasingly being delivered in practice.
I would also like to thank the HSA group for inviting me today to speak with you about a significant human rights issue – the right of people with disability to work and participate in the social and economic life of our community without discrimination and with appropriate support.
Thank you AMTA for support in attending the first meeting of the TEITAC Committee, held from Sep 27-29 at the National Science Foundation in Arlington Virginia, near Washington. While in Washington I also had a meeting with the Telecommunications Industry Association during which I briefed them on the legislative background and current situation concerning access to telecommunications products and services in Australia by people with disabilities.
You might have noticed that somehow governments never seem to want the same long term commitment from Human Rights Commissioners. In fact, they often seem quite happy to see us arrive at the end of a term of office ... .
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.
Presentation to Ageing and Disability Department training workshop on Disability Action Plans Michael Small, Disability Rights Unit, HREOC. February 1999
I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we stand, and pay my respects to their elders both past and present.
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