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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
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
Sex Discrimination

Australasian Law Reform Agencies Conference

Domestic and family violence and human rights - We all have a right to live our lives free from violence, especially in our relationships, our families and in our homes.

Category, Speech
Rights and Freedoms

Another 'aberration' shows that 18C is the problem and must be changed

State and federal governments should reform laws that make offensive acts unlawful and refocus them on protecting free speech and stopping workplace and public harassment. This week a news story broke about a complaint made under section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act by a Queensland University...

Category, Opinion
LGBTIQ+

I want to hold your hand: LGBTI people have some surprisingly modest aspirations

Visibility remains one of the greatest challenges in tackling the legacy of state-sanctioned discrimination against people on the basis of their sexual orientation, gender identity and intersex status. In the past 30 years we’ve made great strides in ensuring people are treated equally before the law...

Category, Opinion
Race Discrimination

Forty years of the Racial Discrimination Act

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...

Category, Opinion
Rights and Freedoms

Isabelle Lake Memorial Lecture. Australia's Transgender Awakening

The Isabelle Lake Memorial Lecture is an initiative of the Equal Opportunity Commission of Western Australia in partnership with the University of Western Australia to honour the work and achievements of Ms Isabelle Lake. Ms Lake was a young trans rights activist, who was also a former employee of the Equal Opportunity Commission and University of Western Australia student.

Category, Speech
Commission – General

Australian Corporate Lawyers Association Corporate

Check against delivery Keynote Address - Australian Corporate Lawyers Association Corporate Good morning and thank you for your warm introduction. I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet – the Gadigal people of the Eora nation and their elders past and present...

Category, Speech
Children's Rights

Children and young people as complainants

Children and young people as complainants Complaint Handlers’ Information Sharing and Liasion (CHISaL) Seminar Introduction Good afternoon everyone and thank you Sandra for the introduction. I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and I pay my respects to...

Category, Speech
Sex Discrimination

Sydney Girls High School – Annual Presentation Day

It is indeed a privilege to be invited to speak to you all at such an important time in many of your lives. In my job I get the opportunity to see and be with people of all walks of life, across all parts of Australia. And it is wonderful to be able to include today in my experiences – it is giving the chance to be with an incredibly talented group of young women, who I hope to see in leadership and decision-making positions across Australia in the future – it is incredibly inspiring.

Category, Speech
LGBTIQ+

It's time for the transgender talk, Australia

The backlash against tweets directed at Catherine McGregor on Q&A last week should spark a conversation about transgender people in Australia. We must improve attitudes, writes Tim Wilson. We all need to learn something new for the first time, so let's use the opportunity presented by last week's...

Category, Opinion
Children's Rights

Privileging the Voice of Children

Megan MitchellNational Children's Commissioner Early Childhood Australia Riverina Dinner Evening25 August 2014 Check Against Delivery IntroductionGood evening everyone and thank you for having me here. Thank you in particular to Julia Ham, Riverina Early Childhood Australia, for inviting me to...

Category, Speech

Changing Hearts, Changing Minds

We all share a responsibility to lead cultural change for inclusion of people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex. Building on the previous work of the Commission, I’ll be using my term as Human Rights Commissioner to ensure these issues are given national attention. It was an honour to be a keynote speaker at the Human Rights Forum of the Asia Pacific Outgames in Darwin.

Category, Speech

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