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I’d like to acknowledge the traditional owners of this country and pay my respect to Elders past and present. I’d like also to acknowledge my fellow panel members and thank Richard for inviting me to speak tonight.
I’d like to acknowledge the traditional owners of this country and pay my respect to Elders past and present. I’d like also to acknowledge my fellow panel members and thank Richard for inviting me to speak tonight.
I would like to begin by acknowledging and paying my respects to the Traditional Owners, the Wurundjeri people, and to pay my respect to their elders.
Furthermore, I would like to thank Professor Mick Dodson and Mr. Parry Agius for the invitation addressed to me to deliver this lecture within the framework of the National Title Conference. In particular, I express my warmest thanks to the Acting Chairperson of the Conference Mr. Parry Agius for his very kind words about my humble work in the field of the protection of the rights of the world's Indigenous Peoples and my background.
I congratulate the Probation and Parole Officers' Association for their initiative in organizing this conference on Mental Health, Criminal Justice and Corrections.
It's a great pleasure for me to be back in Perth , and particularly here at the Association For The Blind. During the eighties and nineties I lived in Perth for around ten years. I met and married my wife here, and still have strong family links. We still own property here and, if I have my way, we'll retire back here. Despite the fact that I have lived over East now for 16 years, I still barrack for the Eagles and the Western Warriors, and pronounce the suburb Coogee rather than Coogee.
Read a keynote speech on the inclusivity of people with a disability at a NSW Department of Education and Training teachers conference.
In such company my role as Human Rights Commissioner is not to speak as an expert on mental health, but to emphasise the human rights dimensions of the way that we as a nation respond to mental health issues.
Allow me to commence by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today, and by so doing remind ourselves that Australia's cultural traditions stretch back many thousands of years. I acknowledge also people with disabilities here together with advocates and other conference participants.
I also thank Professor Barry Brook for his survey of the latest scientific assessments and forecasts on the impact of climate change on our planet. They are indeed alarming. The fact of climate change, and the rate of change, has become all too clear, even if there are still sceptics that wish to debate the causes. Our title reference to “Catastrophic Impacts” seems fully justified.
As lawyers who work every day with ordinary people, you will all have first hand experience of the value that we, in Australia, place on human rights. You will also be acutely aware of the significant gaps in human rights protection in Australia.
I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we stand and by so doing remind ourselves that Australia’s cultural traditions stretch back many thousands of years.
Keynote presentation delivered at the 8th National Conference of the Association for the Welfare of Child Health (AWCH) - "Children on the margin: addressing the health care needs of marginalised children and young people", 11 October 2001, Dr Sev Ozdowski
I would also like to acknowledge the Victorian Governor Professor David de Krester, and his wife Mrs Jan de Krester; Chief Justice Hon Marilyn Warren; other senior representatives of each of the three branches of the Victorian government; the many community leaders present and also the many members of the legal profession present. I feel greatly honoured to have been invited to participate today in the opening of the legal year.
I speak to you now, not as the Chancellor of this University, but as the President of Australia’s national Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. And while my remarks are addressed primarily to today’s graduands, I suspect what I am about to say will resonate among parents and friends.
I begin today by thanking Granny Alice Yeatman for her warm welcome to Yarrabah and paying my respects to the Traditional Owners, on whose land we meet. Good morning ladies and gentlemen, my Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander brothers and sisters, distinguished guests.
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