News

Commission – General

President Speech: The role of the Australian Human Rights Commission in protecting and promoting human rights in Australia

I would like to begin by saying how delighted I am to be here speaking this evening about the work of the Australian Human Rights Commission. I hope also to learn more about the protection of human rights in Japan and about your proposal for a national human rights institution in Japan. This is my first time to Japan and I am thrilled to be here. I am grateful for all the work that has gone into the preparation for this session and for my visit. And I thank those who have looked after me so well since I arrived in your country.

27 April, 2010

Commission – General

Occasional Address (2002)

It is an honour and a pleasure to be here today to share with you, Graduands, your families and friends, the joys of today, a day that represents the culmination of much work, learning, striving and not a little occasional frustration and anxiety. I add my very good wishes to the many that others have already conveyed.

2 April, 2002

Disability Rights

Hastings: Transition

When I was discussing this event with Jenni Huon we talked about whether the theme should be "transition" or "transitions". At the time I thought it did not matter much, but as soon as I started to write this address I realised that I am going to talk about "transition". "Transitions" (plural) suggests one discrete thing after another, a beginning, middle and end before another beginning. It is a word describing things, separate events, bits of life that can be captured, have edges put round them.

5 March, 1996

Sex Discrimination

The Hidden Business Problem: Domestic Violence

Thank you, Bob, for that generous introduction and warm welcome. And thank you to G&T for hosting this event. I am so pleased to be able to join you this evening for this year’s Vincent Fairfax Speaker Series. I thought I might never make it – for the last two days I have had the privilege of being on-board the warship HMAS Sydney as it undertook war exercises offshore – part of my defence review. As my staff gradually hit the decks one after the other with sea sickness, I wondered whether arranging the sea visit to coincide with tonight’s event was a smart move.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

Site navigation

Good evening distinguished guests, my Indigenous brothers and sisters and non Indigenous friends. May I begin by acknowledging the Wurrundjeri People of the Kulin Nation on whose land we are meeting on tonight, and thank the dancers for cultural expression and your welcome to country. Thank you also to the Vice Chancellor, Professor Paul Johnson for your introduction, and to La Trobe University for inviting me to present this year’s Hyllus Maris Memorial Lecture. May I also acknowledge Ms Lois Peeler and the other family members of Hyllus Maris who are with us tonight.

Disability Rights

Pokemons in the Amazon Jungle

I am here today representing, firstly, the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC), and, second, I'm here to represent at least 20% of the population, and 20% of your customers and users if you are a web developer or web content manager: of course, I'm referring to people who have a disability.

Sex Discrimination

Paid maternity leave: Working for women

Because in addition to being integral members of the workforce, women are the bearers of and remain the primary carers for children. So if it isn't working for her then it isn't working for her family, her partner, her children and babies.

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.

Disability Rights

Equal employment opportunity for people with disabilities: how to move from the theoretical to the actual

I congratulate EOPHEA for organising this discussion. Although, of course, your focus is primarily on employment in the university environment, the conference program is clearly designed to address equal opportunity issues of much more general significance. I have approached my own paper in the same spirit: I hope it will be particularly relevant in your own context as equity practitioners in higher education, but I have taken the opportunity to raise issues of wider relevance.

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.

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.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

The Informa 3rd Annual Negotiating Native Title Forum (2009)

I begin today by paying my respects to the Wurundjeri peoples, 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

Spinning an Accessible Web

One day during the Christmas school holidays, my nine-year-old daughter came into the loungeroom, where I was relaxing with a glass of Scotch, and said: "Dad, the window won't pop up -- you have to come and fix it".