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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
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
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
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

Charles Perkins Oration 2015

Acknowledgements Thank you Stephen for your sincere welcome and can I also thank Uncle Chicka for your generous Welcome to Country. I begin by acknowledging the Traditional Owners of the land on which we sit this evening, the Gadigal Peoples of the Eora Nation. I honour your Elders that have come...

Category, Speech
Rights and Freedoms

Austin Asche Oration in Law and Governance

Austin Asche Oration in Law and Governance Thursday 3 September 2015 I am honoured to have been invited to speak tonight at this, the 5 th Austin Asche Oration in Law and Governance. As I had not met or known the Hon. Austin Asche. As any researcher would do, I ‘googled’ him to learn about his...

Category, Speech
Rights and Freedoms

NSW Council for Civil Liberties

I was pleased to have been invited to speak to the NSW Council for Civil Liberties at this your annual fund raising dinner for you are, above all, best placed to understand the phenomenon of the last few years that is of concern to the Australian Human Rights Commission; that is, the encroachment of...

Category, Speech
Race Discrimination

Building social cohesion

I’d like to begin by acknowledging the Darug people, the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and pay my respects to elders past and present. I also acknowledge the fine work of the University of Western Sydney, particularly Dr Sev Ozdowski, in putting together this conference. It’s most...

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
Rights and Freedoms

Is freedom under pressure globally?

Behind human rights is the still revolutionary idea that every human being is free and equal, that individuals own their own bodies and should be free to pursue their lives, opportunities and enterprise. Human rights provide the foundation for our liberal democracy, our market economy and our civil...

Category, Opinion
Commission – General

Australian Corporate Lawyers Association Corporate

Check against delivery Keynote Address - Australian Corporate Lawyers Association Corporate Good morning and thank you for your warm introduction. I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet – the Gadigal people of the Eora nation and their elders past and present...

Category, Speech

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