Disability Rights
Attorney-General, conference delegates. Before I commence my presentation today I would like to thank Discrimination Alert and Occupational Health News for organising this very important forum to discuss recent changes in law and policy and the impact of these changes on equal employment opportunities for Australians and health and safety in our workplaces.
Disability Rights
While there were a range of factors that led the Commission to launch the Inquiry, the primary reason is that Australians with disability continue to be less likely to be employed than people without a disability.
Disability Rights
I have to admit that two months ago when I took the title " The Disability Discrimination Act and the continuing battle for equal rights for people with a disability" for my paper today I was not attaching great importance to the precise words of that title.
Rights and Freedoms
I am pleased to be participating in the opening of the Futures Victorian Rural Health Forum. I would also like to thank Neil Roxburgh and the Country AIDS Network (CAN) for inviting me to speak.
Commission – General
When I was invited to give this address, my first thought was to talk about unlawful discrimination in the context of higher education and, in particular, disability discrimination.
Disability Rights
The standard sort of speech that is often delivered by people in my sort of position at this sort of event is a combination of pep talk and pamphlet, with some bits of a law lecture thrown in: telling people with a disability and their advocates that they have rights under discrimination law, and telling employers that they have responsibilities, and attempting to set out the terms and the effect of the provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act (or "DDA").
Disability Rights
You would be aware that - according to its own reports - employment of people with disability in the APS has almost halved during the last two decades. You would also be aware of the strong public commitment by the Australian government to reduce the high unemployment and under-employment of Australians with disabilities.
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