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Sex Discrimination

Changing Demography with Public Policy: Pru Goward (2006)

Thank you for inviting me to speak this afternoon about the relationship between public policy and demography- policy, demography and destiny. The proposition that public policy can change the composition of our population- its age distribution, its ethnicity or even its class, in other words its demography is, as far as I can see, uncontestable. It has, it can and it will.

Category, Speech
Sex Discrimination

Deacon’s lawyers seminar on women and workplace issues

Work and family: The legal perspective Speech delivered by Pru Goward, Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner at the Deacon’s lawyers seminar on women and workplace issues, 9 July 2003 Chairman of Deacon’s Melbourne office, Peter Beaumont, National Workplace Relations Team Leader, Neil Napper...

Category, Speech
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.

Category, Speech
Disability Rights

Matt Laffan Memorial Address (2009)

MATT LAFFAN: I once used to say to some mates of mine that all I really wanted was 24 hours without a disability. I just wanted 24 hours so that I could do certain things. Since then, I've got a little greedy and now I want one week. And during that one week there'd be hell to pay, because Sydney just would not be big enough. I think the night club scene would be in a world of trouble, because dancing is something I'd really like to do. There'd certainly be a rugby match I'd have to get involved with. I'd go running with the old man.

Category, Speech
Sex Discrimination

Accumulating poverty: Women’s experiences of inequality over the lifecycle (2009)

My father first took me to the Institute of Public Affairs as it was then known, before Anne and Gerard Henderson revolutionised it as the Sydney Institute. I remember the topic was “Should Australia have an Aircraft Carrier?” I sat next to an English engineer who was on the first nuclear submarine. He spend 4 months submerged near the Russian base of Murmansk. There was absolute radio silence and he didn’t learn of the birth of his daughter until he returned to England many months later.

Category, Speech
Sex Discrimination

Westpac IT Women’s Forum: Women, men, life and having it all

At the time I nominated that as a topic, I had something clearly in mind. But that was a while ago and I have long since forgotten what it was. Which is the wonderful thing about being forgetful; every day is new and exciting. Today’s idea about women, men, life and having it all are likely to be different to yesterday’s. By the time I have finished speaking both of us might have discovered something new.

Category, Speech
Sex Discrimination

Speech to the LHMU Child Care Conference

1. ABS Cat. No. 6302.2 at May 2001. 2. ABS Labour Force Surveys July 1979 to June 2000 - quoted in ABS Australian Social Trends 2001 Cat no 4102.0. 3. Smith and Ewer ABS 6310. 4. ABS Cat No. 4402.0 Childcare June 2000 5. Ibid. 6. ABS Labour Force Surveys July 1979 to June 2000 - quoted in ABS Australian Social Trends 2001 Cat no 4102.0. 7. ABS Cat. No. 6302.2 at May 2001. 8. ABS Statistics, 'Australia Now: A Statistical Profile'. 9. ABS Cat. No. 6203.0 August 2001. 10. ABS 6303.0, May 1996 11. ABS 6302.0 May 2001. 12.

Category, Speech
Commission – General

Graduation Address

I speak to you now, not as the Chancellor of this University, but as the President of Australia’s national Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.

Category, Speech
Disability Rights

Notes for presentation to Productivity Commission DDA review

Thank you for the opportunity to be here today. Can I begin by apologising for the Acting Disability Discrimination Commissioner Dr Sev Ozdowski. Sev has been following this inquiry very closely but had arranged to be away this week before the schedule for these hearings was settled.

Category, Speech
Rights and Freedoms

Lawasia Conference

In the contemporary world, and particularly amongst developed economies, many of us believed that the culture of civil liberties, freedoms and non-discrimination are reasonably well established and these precepts have clear links to innovation, creativity and the broader concepts of economic productivity and a well functioning civil society. Indeed, I believe that many of us had come to accept and expect this to be the situation, and that conferences like the one we attend here today could be built on this very premise.

Category, Speech
Commission – General

Federal Anti-discrimination Law - 2004

In May last year I stepped down from my position as a Judge of the Federal Court to accept the role as President of HREOC. It has been a time of new challenges, such as the need to balance the legislative and administrative responsibilities that the Commission has been given by the federal government, with the important role of advocating for the rights of those on the margins of Australian society.

Category, Speech

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