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Access to justice

Your Honours, distinguished guests: I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land, the Wurrindjeri people of the Kulin nation and pay my respects to their elders, especially to those elders present today. May also thank our host the Hon Justice Mordy Bromberg and the ICJ for inviting me to this...

Category, Speech
Disability Rights

Time to regulate housing accessibility

With the scale, complexity and massive costs of recent reforms in disability services and aged care, we need constant monitoring and patience as the changes are put into place.According to what I hear and see this is all happening pretty well, in general.There is however a big shortcoming, a gap...

Category, Opinion
Commission – General

The future of human rights in Australia

AHRC Awards 2015 Thank you Craig for your generosity, for the 4th time, in guiding us through the awards. Well done for your very funny and successful Media Circus. Your honours, distinguished guests, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen. I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land, the Gadigal...

Category, Speech
Business and Human Rights

Launch of Human Rights in Supply Chains: Promoting Positive Practice

After years of debate and consultation led by Professor John Ruggie, the United Nations Special Representative for Business and Human Rights, there is now clarification at the international level about the responsibility of business through the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

Category, Speech
Disability Rights

2015 International Day of People with Disability

Good afternoon. To begin, I acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which we are meeting, the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation. I pay my respects to their Elders past and present, and the Elders from other communities who may be here today. I make particular mention of Indigenous Peoples...

Category, Speech
Rights and Freedoms

Tony Blackshield Lecture

HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE OVERREACH OF EXECUTIVE DISCRETION: CITIZENSHIP, ASYLUM SEEKERS AND WHISTLEBLOWERS It is a special pleasure for me to speak in honour of Professor Blackshield, who is a long time colleague of mine in the law. He is a constitutional law scholar of the highest order and one of the...

Category, Speech
Sex Discrimination

Achieving a Gender Equal World

Over the last 7 years I have become more and more convinced of one thing - this is my second theme. To deliver equality for women we need to focus on men. We need men taking the message of gender equality to other men. It’s not about men speaking for women or saving women. We can take care of ourselves, thank you very much. It is about men stepping up beside us, working in partnership with us, so that promoting women’s leadership becomes everyone’s business. It’s about men as equal partners with us in ensuring that the WEPs come to life to transform our businesses and communities to move us to a world where – power and leadership is shared equally between men and women.

Category, Speech
Sex Discrimination

Women of Influence Awards

Thank you Brian and Westpac and Greg and Fairfax for conceiving and sponsoring these awards. The WOI awards not only lift the visibility of female leaders, but provide a crucial platform for women to expand their influence – and in so doing create a more gender equal Australia. And for that I am very grateful. Thank you.

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

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

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