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Rights and Freedoms

Charlie Hebdo V 18C: no contest

Charlie Hebdo would have risked being censored by the courts, but self-censorship is the reality of Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.

Category, Opinion
Rights and Freedoms

Fraser Lecture 2014

Professor Gillian Triggs President Australian Human Rights Commission Fraser Lecture Canberra Check against delivery Thank you Dr Andrew Leigh for your invitation and introduction. It is an honour to be here in your electorate of Fraser in north Canberra. I would like to acknowledge that we meet on...

Category, Speech
Rights and Freedoms

The government should fix two free-speech obstacles together: 35P and 18C

The Abbott government should correct the festering sores of 35P of National Security Legislation and 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act together. Since the passage of Section 35P of the National Security Legislation Amendment Bill a number of journalists have decried the threat to free speech of...

Category, Opinion
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

Nulungu Reconciliation Lecture

Acknowledgements Thank you for your kind welcome and can I reciprocate as I begin today by respecting the Yawuru, the traditional owners of Rubibi the place that is now known as Broome. I thank them for allowing me on their country. I salute the Elders who are here today, those that have gone before...

Category, Speech
Race Discrimination

The Asianisation of Australia?

Keynote speech to Asian Studies Association of Australia Annual Conference, “AsiaScapes: Contesting Borders”

Category, Speech
Disability Rights

National Press Club address

(check against delivery) I acknowledge the traditional owners of this land. I do so not as a formulaic beginning, but as a sincere recognition of the place which the land holds in the lives and culture of our first Australians. I saw much of the disadvantage Aboriginal people experience during my...

Category, Speech
Rights and Freedoms

The Forgotten Freedoms – Freedom of Religion

It is a great pleasure to deliver a Blackfriars Lecture. A few weeks ago I gave a speech to the Sydney Institute outlining the approach I plan to take to human rights as the Federal Commissioner titled ‘The Forgotten Freedoms’. In this speech I outlined that I have concerns about the key freedoms of expression, worship, association and property rights. Reasserting them will be the focus of my tenure as Human Rights Commissioner.

Category, Speech

Changing Hearts, Changing Minds

We all share a responsibility to lead cultural change for inclusion of people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex. Building on the previous work of the Commission, I’ll be using my term as Human Rights Commissioner to ensure these issues are given national attention. It was an honour to be a keynote speaker at the Human Rights Forum of the Asia Pacific Outgames in Darwin.

Category, Speech
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

2014 WACOSS Conference

The title of this morning’s session is ‘Recognition of Aboriginal people in the Constitution and the possibility of Aboriginal advancement’. Without a doubt, I see constitutional recognition as a pathway for advancement. I have said again and again, that is it is a real nation building opportunity and the benefits will extend to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians and non-Australians alike. It is a journey that will mark our maturity as an inclusive, just nation.

Category, Speech

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