News

Rights and Freedoms

Queer Rights At Work

I also want to thank the conference organisers for the opportunity to speak today. conferences such as this are great opportunities to discuss some of the pressing human rights issues in Australia. I'm particularly pleased to be talking about queer rights in the workplace, as fair employment conditions are some of the most fundamental of all human rights. Trade unions have a long history of fighting for justice in the workplace, and I encourage the unions here today to continue that fight for gay, lesbian, transsexual and intersex workers.

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.

Disability Rights

Launch of ABC Disability Awareness resources: An ABC for all Australians

Tonight's ceremony is, in part, a belated celebration of the recognition of the ABC as national award winner in the Prime Minister's Employer of the Year awards for 2000.

Commission – General

Strategies to address discrimination to build a more inclusive country

I would like to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora people, the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today, and pay my respects to their elders.

Commission – General

Site navigation

Amongst all this expertise, it is fair to ask why is the President of the national human rights commission – and particularly a President who has only fairly recently commenced in this role - here presenting the keynote speech to such a conference?

Sex Discrimination

Human rights, Democracy and Women's Choices

Review a speech about human rights, democracy and women's choices delivered by former Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Pru Goward in Newcastle in 2002.

Disability Rights

Recognition matters: Human rights and the rights of carers

For thousands of years, Aboriginal groups, who might spend much of their time living far apart in the expanses of this land, pursuing separately the business of survival, would come together at times to meet, to trade, sometimes to resolve differences, but also to exchange knowledge for mutual benefit.

Rights and Freedoms

USING THE LAW TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE Graeme Innes AM (2007)

Scarlett Finney was only six when she saw the brochures for the Hills Grammar School, set in park-like grounds in Sydney's outer suburbs. She indicated her keenness to attend "the school in the bush". Her parents were prepared to pay the fees, and saw the setting and curriculum as providing her with a great education. But the school refused her enrolment due to the fact that she had spina bifida, and sometimes used a wheelchair [1].

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

Democracy, the media and human rights: Dodson (1997)

Throughout many western democracies contemporary beliefs about the role of the media are directly shaped by enlightenment ideals and the struggle against state despotism. Although somewhat tarnished, these ideals continue to inspire resistance to oppression, and sustain battles for freedom of conscience, speech, and individual liberty, for political self determination and democratisation.

Commission – General

Site navigation

Thank you Professor Lansbury, and thank you to Marian and the Women and Work Research Group for organising today’s forum. Thank you also to our panellists – Dr Lyn Craig, Petra Stirling, and John Murray.

Commission – General

Site navigation

To be honest, this is a rare occasion for me. Much of my career has been spent in the monastic cells of academic institutions teaching the young about different legal systems; their origins and growth, their strengths and weaknesses. Your world - the world of business and industry, finances, profit and loss, sales and marketing - is largely foreign to me in a practical sense.

Disability Rights

Accessible Procurement: A Market Driven Approach Which Benefits All Australians

Some of you might recall media coverage regarding a young man undergoing cancer treatment who was required to attend a job capacity assessment the day he got out of hospital, to establish his entitlement to disability support payments.

Rights and Freedoms

Police Checks - A Human Rights perspective

Acknowledgments I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet. I'd also like to thank the Aged and Community Services Association for inviting me to speak about police checks today. Introduction I suspect the average person in the street associates police checks with high-security jobs, such as airport security, or, on the other hand, with jobs working closely with children. However, police checks are required for an increasing number and variety of occupations and industries in Australia, including those providing aged and community services.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

Site navigation

I’m sorry that I can’t be with you in person to deliver these remarks, but through my voice for the day, Mr Glenn Pearson, I am very pleased to be invited to talk about my perspectives on the new arrangements in Indigenous affairs. Glenn – I owe you one!

Disability Rights

Burdekin: The Human Rights Of Australians With Disabilities

I would like to thank ACROD for inviting me to deliver the Kenneth Jenkins Oration; both because I regard it as a privilege and because it gives me the opportunity to address a gathering of the key people in the disability field at an important time in the work of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.