Australian Red Cross National Conference
I wish to start today by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we are meeting. On behalf of the Australian Human Rights Commission, I pay my respects to their elders past and present.
I wish to start today by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we are meeting. On behalf of the Australian Human Rights Commission, I pay my respects to their elders past and present.
I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nation, and pay my respects to their elders past and present.
As many of you know, for over a decade Dr Kidd has been a tenacious and dedicated advocate for the rights of Indigenous people. She has focused especially on the gross inequities that occurred through and under the various 'Protection Acts' that operated in Queensland from the 1890s to the 1980s.
I also want to make mention of the fact that we are 130kn south west of an area of great significance to the Aboriginal communities of western NSW, which is now called Mutawintji National Park - the first park to be handed back to its Traditional Owners under the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Act in 1998. [1] The caves and overhangs in the park have been transformed into expansive galleries of Aboriginal rock art, and it comes as no surprise that they have formed the backdrop for ceremonies for at least 8,000 years.
Speeches delivered by Professor Alice Tay President, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission: 1998 - 2003 Note: Professor Tay, term as President ended on 31 May 2003. The Hon. Catherine Branson was appointed President of the Australian Human Rights Commission on 7 August 2008 for five year...
I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land we are meeting on tonight. I pay my respects to their elders past and present.
Between December 2007 and July 2008 the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Tom Calma, will deliver a series of key speeches setting out an agenda for change in Indigenous affairs.
I would also like to thank the conference organisers for two things: – firstly for inviting me to present today, and secondly, for developing a conference on such a critical but very marginalised theme on the national stage – Indigenous policy development – and how we can all do it better.
The position of Social Justice Commissioner was created in 1993 in response to the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and HREOC"s National Inquiry into Racist Violence. It was created to ensure an ongoing, national monitoring agency for the human rights of Indigenous peoples.
George Bernard Shaw once said that the only alternative to torture in life is art. I'm not sure that you could my presentation this morning art, but I do hope it isn't torture.
Amongst all this expertise, it is fair to ask why is the President of the national human rights commission – and particularly a President who has only fairly recently commenced in this role - here presenting the keynote speech to such a conference?
But people with disability for the most part were either invisible within mainstream education, or invisible because they were excluded and segregated off somewhere else.
I also acknowledge Ministers with us here today; Ambassador Don Mackay joining us from New Zealand by video link; and many friends and colleagues from the disability and human rights community.
I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we stand and pay my respects to their elders both past and present. And I would like to thank the Australian Employers’ Network on Disability for organising this very important seminar to examine this critical issue of ‘disclosure’ which continues to be a significant issue for employers and a barrier to employment for people with disability.
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.
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