News

Disability Rights

Human rights for people with intellectual disabilities in Australia: where to from here?

I will not speak in detail about human rights conventions and disability because this topic is addressed by my co-speaker in this session, Karl Lachwitz. I will say though that international human rights law and human rights debate has not yet acknowledged adequately or sufficiently clearly that people with a disability are part of what the "human" in human rights means. Equally, there has not always been enough attention to human rights dimensions in disability discourse.

Disability Rights

Access to Electronic Commerce

Address By Graeme Innes Deputy Disability Discrimination Commissioner to the Conference Of The Roundtable For People With A Print Disability 22 May 2000

Sex Discrimination

Work Life Balance: AIM Breakfast

I hope you’re all enjoying your hot breakfasts and are extremely grateful for them. For a couple of reasons: First- you didn’t have to cook them yourself, or, to be more precise, wash up all the dirty frying pans yourself. This is because you are working and you don’t have time to cook hot breakfasts for a particularly fussy group of consumers, your family.

Rights and Freedoms

A Human Rights Act for Australia

I would also like to acknowledge the presence of Members of Parliament - Mike Reynolds (Speaker of the Legislative Assembly), Linda Lavarch, Dean Wells, Evan Moorhead; Christine Smith, Desley Scott, Kate Jones, Dianne Reilly and Vicky Darling.

Rights and Freedoms

The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission and the Protection of Human Rights at the Federal Level: Graeme Innes AM (2006)

I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we stand, and pay my respects to their elders both past and present.

Rights and Freedoms

“Long-term detention and mental health”: Dr Sev Ozdowski OAM (2003)

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.

Rights and Freedoms

Mission Australia National Management Team Meeting

Speaking notes for a presentation to the Mission Australia National Management Team Meeting in Sydney on 22 August 2001 by Dr Sev Ozdowski OAM, Human Rights Commissioner

Commission – General

President Speech: International Commission of Jurists (Vic) Opening of the Legal Year (2010)

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.

Commission – General

President speech: ‘How could a Human Rights Act lead to better Government?’

I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, the Ngunnawal peoples, and pay my respect to their elders past and present.

Commission – General

"An Acknowledgement of Traditional Custodianship"

At the start of the ceremony today a formal acknowledgement was made of our presence on the land of the Kaurna people. The Council of this University at its meeting in October 2004 resolved that this acknowledgement would be made at all major University of Adelaide functions. It is appropriate that something be said about the significance and reasons for the acknowledgment during these, the first group of graduation ceremonies after the Council resolution.

Commission – General

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I accepted the invitation to make this Oration and come here tonight with some trepidation: The person being honoured tonight, Dame Roma Mitchell, was the first federal Human Rights Commissioner and this is the territory that has known the powers of persuasion, conviction and commitment of the best human rights minds in the country, including Dame Roma Mitchell herself. Yet I reminded myself that we are both cultivators in the same vineyard, albeit that I both lagged behind her and sought to learn from her. My work today is made easier by the clear and decisive path cut out by my predecessor.

Commission – General

Other Speeches (non Commission)

Other Speeches (non Commission) Are we crossing the line? The Anti-Terrorism Bill 2005 - Forum at ACT legislature (31 October 2005) Dr Penelope Mathew presentation on the Anti-Terrorism Bill 2005 See also presentation by The Hon John von Doussa QC, President, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity...

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

NAIDOC Week Oration to Senior NSW Police

Firstly, I’d like to begin by paying my respects to the Gadigal peoples of the Eora nation, the traditional owners of the land where we gather today. I pay my respects to your elders, to the ancestors and to those who have come before us.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

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I would like to start today by acknowledging the Gimuy Walubara Yidinji people on whose land we are on today and pay my respect to your elders both past and present.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

Native Title and Service Delivery

My presentation today will focus on the content of my Native Title Report 2005. I will outline the debates about economic development on Indigenous land - the possibilities and the challenges. At the conclusion of this presentation I will provide some challenge statements about the responsibilities of service deliverers on Indigenous land.