Commission – General
Commission News June 2020 Commissioner update COVID-19 Dear friends, The last few weeks have seen a gradual return to some of our pre-pandemic freedoms in many parts of Australia. While physical distancing remains a vital element to maintaining low infection rates, it is clear that we welcome...
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner June Oscar AO and the Co-Chair of the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples Rod Little, will today release the 2019 Close the Gap report – “Our Choices, Our Voices”. The report, prepared by the Lowitja Institute, is being...
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice
This Opinion Piece by June Oscar AO and Rod Little was published by Guardian Australia on Thursday March 21, to mark National Close the Gap Day When the Prime Minister Scott Morrison tabled the 2019 Closing the Gap report last month, we were again reminded about the lack of progress made to address...
Sex Discrimination
The Australian Human Rights Commission has conducted an audit of Australian Universities, to coincide with the one year anniversary of the landmark Change the course report into sexual assault and sexual harassment at Australian universities. The Change the course report found one in five (21%)...
Commission – General
Emeritus Professor Rosalind Croucher AM Chancellor, David Gonski AC, Dean, Professor George Williams AO, distinguished guests, graduating students and families. Graduations are such a special moment— not just in a university calendar, but also in your lives. It is significant that this occurs on the...
Sex Discrimination
The Australian Human Rights Commission will conduct an independent review of residential colleges at the University of New England (UNE) in the regional centre of Armidale, NSW. The University has seven residential colleges, currently home to approximately 1800 students. The Australian Human Rights...
Disability Rights
It was 25 years ago this month that the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth) (the ‘DDA’) commenced operation. On 1 March 1993, Australians with a dis¬ability had a national law that was designed to provide them with equality in many areas of life. Over the past quarter of a cen¬tury, the DDA...
Rights and Freedoms
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...
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...
Race Discrimination
Monday, 12 April 2010 Racism, exclusion and poverty: key factors reducing international student safety On 31 March 2010, the Academy of the Social Sciences, the Australian Human Rights Commission and Universities Australia worked in partnership to plan and deliver the Racism and the Student...
Commission – General
Thank you for inviting me here today to speak about human rights in Australia. I would like to use this opportunity to focus on how human rights are protected in Australia; and how you, as human rights educators, can help students to understand these protections. I will also seek to shed some light on the role of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission and some of our responses to some current human rights issues.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice
I would like to begin by acknowledging the Nganawal people, the traditional owners of the land where we meet today and to pay my respects to their elders. I would also like to thank the Australian Medical Students Association and Shayne McArthur for organising this National Leadership Development Seminar, and ensuring that Indigenous health – so often overlooked in the ongoing debates about health and health reform in Australia – receives the attention it deserves in this context.
Commission – General
I was invited to pick my own topic for discussion. As an ex-judge being invited to speak to students of the law, I assumed that I was expected to speak on something related to the administration of the law from a judge's perspective. And as President of Australia's Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC), I assumed I was expected to mention the role of human rights promotion in our legal system.
Visit our media centre for up to date contact details for all media enquiries.
