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Disability Rights

National Disability Services NSW State Conference ‘Turning Plans into Outcomes’

I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we meet, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation and pay my respect to their elders past and present. I also pay respect to Aboriginal people present here today. Anne Bryce – thank you for the introduction. NDS board members, NDS members...

Category, Speech
Race Discrimination

The AHRC and the Racial Discrimination Act: setting the record straight

Federal racial hatred legislation and the complaints-handling processes of the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) are currently the subjects of an inquiry by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights. The Committee’s ‘Freedom of speech in Australia’ inquiry, due to report by 28...

Category, Opinion
LGBTIQ+

World AIDS Day breakfast: Hobart

Terrace Room, Best Western Hobart, 156 Bathurst St, Hobart Speaking notes CHECK AGAINST DEIVERY Acknowledgements: Muwinina [pron: ‘mou wee nee nar’] people TasCAHRD (who invited me to speak) Elders in the LGBTI community. Introduction 15 years ago, when I was an idealistic law student with lots of...

Category, Speech
Rights and Freedoms

Human rights in action: the role of social workers in detention

Speech to Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) Queensland State Social Work Conference University of Queensland, St Lucia Campus – Lecture Theatre Room 234, Parnell Building Check against delivery Acknowledgements: the traditional Aboriginal owners of the land, the Turrbal and Jagera...

Category, Speech
Rights and Freedoms

Striking the right balance on free speech

Discover how a former Human Rights Commissioner was asked whether the Racial Discrimination Act impinges on freedom of expression under international law.

Category, Opinion
LGBTIQ+

Transgender Day of Remembrance

Transgender Day of Remembrance Harmony Park, Goulburn St, Surry Hills Edward Santow, Human Rights Commissioner Check against delivery Acknowledgements Gadigal people of the Eora Nation Elders in the trans community, past and present. In particular, those people who have been victims of hate crimes...

Category, Speech
Rights and Freedoms

National Faith and Civil Marriage Equality Forum

National Faith and Civil Marriage Equality Forum Hosted by Australians 4 Equality Main Committee Room, Parliament House, Canberra Edward Santow, Human Rights Commissioner, Australian Human Rights Commission Check against Delivery Introduction My late father used to talk about our family’s motley...

Category, Speech
Rights and Freedoms

Peering through human rights-tinted glasses

Annual Lecture, Castan Centre for Human Rights Law. Given at the State Library of Victoria on 7 October 2016. This year, we celebrate (or mourn, according to your perspective) the 60th anniversary of the first computer to defeat a human in chess. It occurred, predictably enough, in Los Alomos, and...

Category, Speech
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

Indigenous Property Rights: Land, Business and Governance

Thank you Galarrwuy for your warm welcome to Gulkula on your country. It is really wonderful to be here on the occasion the 40th anniversary of the Northern Territory Land Rights Act and another successful Garma Festival. I am a Gangulu man from the Dawson Valley in Central Queensland, I acknowledge...

Category, Speech
Rights and Freedoms

Jessie Street Trust Annual Lunch 2016

Jessie Street Trust Annual Lunch - I am pleased to join you today to honour the work and annual birthday of Jessie Mary Grey Lillingston Street, a remarkable, and very modern Australian woman. Well before the First World War, she was an advocate for many of the social issues we care about today; equality for women, constitutional recognition of indigenous Australians, world peace and for disarmament.

Category, Speech
Disability Rights

Australian Network on Disability Annual National Conference 2016

I would like to thank the Australian Network on Disability for inviting me to speak about the work I have been doing. As many of you would know, I have recently concluded the Willing to Work National Inquiry into Employment Discrimination against Older Australians and Australians with Disability...

Category, Speech
Rights and Freedoms

Human rights across the Tasman: a widening gulf

I am honoured to have been invited to give this lecture at the Law School of the University of Canterbury, funded by the generosity of the Sir Eric Hotung Fellowship. While I had settled the subject matter of this lecture, I thought it would be helpful to know what other Hotung Fellows had discussed...

Category, Speech
Sex Discrimination

National Press Club speech - Kate Jenkins

‘Accelerating change: gender equality from the household to the workplace’ Kate Jenkins Sex Discrimination Commissioner Australian Human Rights Commission National Press Club 20 April 2016 CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY I would like to acknowledge the Ngunnawal people, the Traditional Custodians and First...

Category, Speech

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