Race Discrimination
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...
Rights and Freedoms
Charlie Hebdo would have risked being censored by the courts, but self-censorship is the reality of Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.
Rights and Freedoms
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...
Rights and Freedoms
In an opinion piece for the Sydney Morning Herald, Human Rights Commissioner Tim Wilson says this week's Free Speech Symposium, together with the Prime Minister's decision not to proceed with changes to the Racial Discrimination Act, marks the beginning of a national conversation about free speech. V...
The legacy of Ian Thorpe’s “coming out” is whether corporate Australia will dispel the myth that it won’t support gay and lesbian Australians reaching their full potential, says Human Rights Commissioner, Tim Wilson, in an opinion piece first published in The Australian. Ian Thorpe won the...
Rights and Freedoms
Before anyone screams "free speech", they should actually know what they are talking about. Earlier this week the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet released new social media protocols. The protocols limit the capacity of public servants to make statements that are "harsh or extreme in their...
Rights and Freedoms
THE proposed amendments to the Racial Discrimination Act provide the basis for correcting the legal limits of free speech, promoting pluralism, opposing reprehensible racism and highlighting the importance of responsibility. Arguably the most important change is assessing an 18C violation based on...
Rights and Freedoms
Responsibility, anti-discrimination laws, human rights and freedoms - these words have been at the center of an ideological debate about how to protect fundamental freedoms, including freedom of speech, freedom of association and freedom from detention without trial. But if we are serious about...
Rights and Freedoms
Freedom of speech is alive and well in Australia but, with respect to Voltaire, we will not defend to the death those who abuse this right by vilifying others in public on the ground of race.
Rights and Freedoms
The Australian Human Rights Commission has this week lodged its submission with the National Human Rights Consultation, recommending that Australia implements a human rights act.
Commission - General
Predictably, opponents of a human rights act reacted swiftly to Mr McHugh's comments, misrepresenting concerns about specific aspects of one model of a human rights act as a reason to reject any such act.
Rights and Freedoms
Australia is a great country to live in — for most of us most of the time. We don’t suffer the terrible poverty witnessed in some parts of the world, our judicial system works well by international standards and most of us can vote in elections by secret ballot. Most of us can live pretty safely, say what we like most of the time and, if we are so inclined, practise our faith in peace. Most of us have access to decent education and health services.
Commission - General
‘How could a Human Rights Act lead to better Government?’ The Hon Catherine Branson QC President, Australian Human Rights Commission Australian Public Service Commission’s Senior Executive Service (SES) Breakfast The Boat by the Lake, Grevillea Park, Menindee Drive, Barton ACT 28 April 2009...
Commission - General
We are gathered this evening on the land of the Ngambri people, from whom Canberra takes its name, and I pay my respects to their elders past and present.
Legal
It would clearly test to destruction the tolerance of the ordinary red-blooded Australian to have a Pom getting off the plane from London and telling them how to run their country. So I shall not presume to say how the current human rights debate in this country should be resolved. But perhaps I may contribute some thoughts, prompted by our own experience in the United Kingdom, acknowledging as I do so that the Australian context, while in some ways similar, is in others significantly different.
Visit our media centre for up to date contact details for all media enquiries.
