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Rights and Freedoms
Queensland Law Society Mandatory Sentencing Policy Paper Launch
Acknowledgements Thank you for your kind introduction. I would like to begin by acknowledging the Turrbal People, the traditional owners of the lands on which we are meeting today. I would also like to acknowledge: The Honourable Justice, Margaret McMurdo AC Queensland Law Society President, Ian...
Disability Rights
Send Rosie Anne home
For most of us gaol is a theoretical concept. It's somewhere you go if you commit a serious crime. And that's fair enough. Neither of us have committed a crime, but in various roles during our lives we have visited places of detention. But for short times, and knowing we can always walk out. They are...
Disability Rights
Launch of Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District Action Plan
Sarah - not her real name - studied law at university. Not only did she earn a good law degree, she won the university medal. She also won competitions for mooting- conducting mock trials for those of you smart enough not to have chosen law as your profession. She could not get a job - or even an interview - with the Australian public service because she has a significant disability, including using a wheelchair, and some verbal communication issues.
Rights and Freedoms
Freedoms versus anti-discrimination laws? A false debate
Responsibility, anti-discrimination laws, human rights and freedoms - these words have been at the center of an ideological debate about how to protect fundamental freedoms, including freedom of speech, freedom of association and freedom from detention without trial. But if we are serious about...
Disability Rights
Launch of Love and Kisses- taking action on the reproductive and sexual health and rights of people with disability
Stella Young is a vivacious journalist, with a love of dinosaurs and Melbourne night life. She edits the ABC's Disability Portal Ramp Up. She uses a wheelchair. Her disability means that she often breaks bones, and her parents took her to hospital when she broke her leg whilst on a family holiday. Stella was about four years old. The doctor - whilst repairing the break - said to her parents "well, while she's under anaesthetic we may as well perform the hysterectomy." Luckily for Stella, her parents refused.
Disability Rights
Speech to Australia's Network on Disability International Day Function
Click here to download presentation slide I acknowledge the traditional owners of this land. *Slide with contact details* I've pondered for a while how to theme this speech. After all, it’s my last international day as Commissioner, as my term concludes in July next year. And 2013 - a huge year of...
Disability Rights
Launch of Telstra's 6th Disability Action Plan
Geoff Scott is your average Aussie bloke- so like most Australians, he's a prospective Telstra customer. Only difference is that Geoff is deaf.
Disability Rights
ABS International Day of People with Disability
I acknowledge the traditional owners of this land. I have a dream that my children will grow up in a nation where they are not judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character. Who said these words? Martin Luther King. If I can adapt that quote, I have a dream that my...
Disability Rights
Presentation to Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
I acknowledge the traditional owners of this land. Thanks for the chance to have this discussion this afternoon. It's a relatively small group so I hope it can be quite informal. We've just seen one of the films from the Australian Human Rights Commission's Twenty Years: Twenty Stories project. I...
Rights and Freedoms
Freedom of Speech and Racial vilification: one man’s freedom ends where another’s starts
The Sydney Institute Tuesday 26 November 2013 6pm Venue: King & Wood Mallesons, Level 61, Governor Phillip Tower, 1 Farrer Place, Sydney (Check against delivery) I am pleased to have the opportunity to contribute to the Sydney Institute speakers program and to discuss two freedoms- freedom of speech...
Age Discrimination
Whitehorse Accessible Communication Forum
Whitehorse City Council 9:30am-11:00am Whitehorse Centre Waratah Room, 397 Whitehorse Rd, Nunawading, VIC 3131 Introduction Acknowledge traditional owners – the Wurundjeri people Acknowledge the Mayor of the City of Whitehorse – Cr Sharon Ellis Thank you for inviting me to speak at your Accessible...
NDS Conference
The Nojin and Prior decisions in the Federal Court, Full Federal Court and High Court late last year and early this are probably the most significant decisions to employees with disability in Australian Disability Enterprises - and to ADE's - since the passage of the Disability Discrimination Act more than twenty years ago.
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