11th Anniversary of Rwandan Genocide Memorial: Dr Sev Ozdowski OAM (2005)
I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we stand, the Eora People, and pay my respects to their elders both past and present.
I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we stand, the Eora People, and pay my respects to their elders both past and present.
It is a pleasure to be able to address you today and I would first like to acknowledge the Gadigal people, the traditional custodians of the land on which we stand.
I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, the Ngunnawal peoples, and pay my respect to their elders past and present.
Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world
I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of Cairns, the land where we meet today, and to pay my respects to their elders. I would also like to thank the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists and Professor Ernest Hunter for organising this event and inviting me to open this very important conference.
Allow me to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, the Bidjigal clan of the Eora people. I also acknowledge Bryan Woodford, ACROD President; Ken Baker, ACROD Chief Executive, my fellow speakers and participants.
Attorney-General Ruddock; Michael Apps and representatives of the bus and coach industry; Margo Hodge and representatives of the disability community; ladies and gentlemen.
A very big thank you, in particular, to our colleagues from the Australian Attorney-General's Department and theDepartment of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Mostly, of course, for their work with us, over many years, in advancing the human rights of people with disability, internationally and domestically. But also, for being (as far as I know) the first in the world to refer, officially, to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities not by its unappealing acronym of CRPD, or as the Disability Convention, but as the "DisCo".
I've always been fascinated by numbers. Although remembering some of my maths exam results, I'm not so sure that they have been as fascinated by me. If you ask a group of people to say the first number that comes into their heads, you'll get a lot of 7's. Perhaps it's because we all have an intuitive awareness that 7 is the smallest number of faces of a regular polygon that cannot be constructed with a ruler and compass.
Thank you especially to Margaret Ward, the previous National Convenor of the network and Amelia Starr the current Convenor for the excellent debate you have nurtured over the past few years between Government, the housing industry and the community.
I follow this custom wherever I go to speak in public. I think recognising Australia ' s indigenous peoples and their prior ownership of this land in this way is more than just good manners. It is an important part of recognising our diversity as a nation.
I am here today representing, firstly, the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC), and, second, I'm here to represent at least 20% of the population, and 20% of your customers and users if you are a web developer or web content manager: of course, I'm referring to people who have a disability.
I always like to begin my presentations with a humorous anecdote or joke of some kind. For one thing, it lets me know that someone is actually listening, and it also lulls the audience into a false sense of security for the dry parts to follow. So as part of my preparation for this morning's discussion of disability discrimination law in Australia, I decided to find an answer to the important question, "how many audiologists does it take to change a lightbulb". Fortunately there is a website devoted to lightbulb jokes, and so I duly consulted it.
I am particularly pleased to welcome the Honourable Daryl Williams, Attorney-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, who has kindly agreed to open our proceedings.
Presentation to Ageing and Disability Department training workshop on Disability Action Plans Michael Small, Disability Rights Unit, HREOC. February 1999
Visit our media centre for up to date contact details for all media enquiries.