Children's Rights
This year around 900 children and young people will spend Christmas in jail. More than 5 per cent of this population are between 10 and 12 years old and 74 per cent of this age group are Indigenous. Most have been charged or convicted with petty crimes, like graffiti, vandalism, shop lifting or fare...
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice
Decades of reports and inquiries have largely echoed what Indigenous leaders have long asked for: we want Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to be at the heart of any reform agenda involving our people, says Robynne Quiggin. The 2016 Social Justice and Native Title Report details the...
Children's Rights
Introduction Good morning everyone. I want to begin by speaking about an artwork submitted by a young person detained in a youth justice centre. This was sent to me as an entry to an art competition I ran for children and young people in youth justice centres this year. I asked them to show me how...
Rights and Freedoms
Speech to Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) Queensland State Social Work Conference University of Queensland, St Lucia Campus – Lecture Theatre Room 234, Parnell Building Check against delivery Acknowledgements: the traditional Aboriginal owners of the land, the Turrbal and Jagera...
LGBTIQ+
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...
Children's Rights
Introduction I would like to start by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, the Arrernte people, and pay my respects to elders past, present and future. I would also like to thank Geraldine for the Welcome to Country, and to Tiara for her fabulous emceeing here tonight...
Rights and Freedoms
Annual Lecture, Castan Centre for Human Rights Law. Given at the State Library of Victoria on 7 October 2016. This year, we celebrate (or mourn, according to your perspective) the 60th anniversary of the first computer to defeat a human in chess. It occurred, predictably enough, in Los Alomos, and...
Disability Rights
I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and pay my respect to their elders past and present. I am delighted to be here today to deliver the 2016 Annual Costello Lecture. Last year, the President of the Australian Human Rights Commission, Professor Gillian Triggs, delivered...
Children's Rights
Association of Children’s Welfare Agencies Conference 2016 Introduction Good afternoon everyone and thank you Wendy for the introduction. It’s fantastic to be here today amongst so many people committed to the wellbeing of children in Australia. I too would like to acknowledge the traditional...
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice
I was shocked but not surprised by the ABC’s Four Corners revelations last Monday night. Incontrovertible CCTV evidence of Aboriginal children subject to demeaning, debilitating and dehumanizing behaviour has galvanised the Australian community and prompted the creation of a Royal Commission with an...
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice
Thank you Galarrwuy for your warm welcome to Gulkula on your country. It is really wonderful to be here on the occasion the 40th anniversary of the Northern Territory Land Rights Act and another successful Garma Festival. I am a Gangulu man from the Dawson Valley in Central Queensland, I acknowledge...
Age Discrimination
“The ageing revolution is not over” - Last time I spoke here I called my address “the longevity revolution”, and asked, “crisis or opportunity?”. I intended that question as a challenge but it seems my challenge has not been met. We are as a community, still floundering on the crisis side of the binary. Our approach is still steeped in the language of “burden” and “deficits”. We are still failing to realise the opportunities that longevity can create for us.
Rights and Freedoms
Jessie Street Trust Annual Lunch - I am pleased to join you today to honour the work and annual birthday of Jessie Mary Grey Lillingston Street, a remarkable, and very modern Australian woman. Well before the First World War, she was an advocate for many of the social issues we care about today; equality for women, constitutional recognition of indigenous Australians, world peace and for disarmament.
Race Discrimination
Graduands, my warmest congratulations. It may be Friday the 13th, but this is clearly an auspicious day. I am honoured to be celebrating this occasion with you. It gives me special pleasure to be with you as an alumnus of the Department. There is a special bond among Sydney’s graduates of Government...
Rights and Freedoms
I am honoured to have been invited to give this lecture at the Law School of the University of Canterbury, funded by the generosity of the Sir Eric Hotung Fellowship. While I had settled the subject matter of this lecture, I thought it would be helpful to know what other Hotung Fellows had discussed...
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