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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

Role of social workers as human rights workers with Indigenous people

Thank you to the Australian Catholic University for inviting me to speak today. As you no doubt know, I am a social worker by training , graduating in 1978, so it is wonderful to have an opportunity to address you. It is great to see so many upcoming social workers here today, as well as a number of you who have a wealth of experience and do so much good in our communities. It’s a tough job at the coal face. One that you often do in difficult circumstances, with little support, not to mention little money!

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

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I would also like to thank the Law Council of Australia and its Advisory Committee on Indigenous Legal Issues for inviting me to deliver this address, and to take part in the customary law panel discussion later today.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

Indigenous Peoples in the UN System's Political Institutions

At the outset, I would like to extend my warmest thanks for the invitation addressed to me to present my views concerning on timing and important subject entitled: "the participation of Indigenous Peoples in the political institutions of the United Nations system."

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

Geography at the Millenium: Dr Bill Jonas (1999)

I would like to begin by acknowledging the Eora people, the traditional owners, custodians and kinsfolk of the land where this conference is being held.

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.

Disability Rights

Innes: Launch of City of Sydney Inclusion (Disability) Action Plan

Thank you, Deputy Lord Mayor Councillor Hoff for the invitation to participate in this early celebration of International Day of People with a Disability and the launch of the City of Sydney Inclusion Action Plan .

Disability Rights

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Thank you AMTA for support in attending the first meeting of the TEITAC Committee, held from Sep 27-29 at the National Science Foundation in Arlington Virginia, near Washington. While in Washington I also had a meeting with the Telecommunications Industry Association during which I briefed them on the legislative background and current situation concerning access to telecommunications products and services in Australia by people with disabilities.

Disability Rights

Disability Enterprises Annual meeting

It is my custom to make this acknowledgement at public events because I think recognising Australia's indigenous history is an important element in recognising the truth of our diversity as a people.

Disability Rights

Presentation to the NSW Subcommittee of the Australian Braille Authority

Have you ever stopped to think about all the things that we take for granted? When you're wandering through the breakfast cereal isle at the supermarket, for example, do you ever wonder whether Uncle Toby really was? If so, was he related to Sara Lee? Were Nana's apple pies originally made by Granny Smith? It's not so much that familiarity breeds contempt as that it lulls us into a state of mind where we no longer feel the need to question or even test our assumptions and presumptions.

Sex Discrimination

Launch of ‘Medical responses to adults who have experienced sexual assault: an interactive educational module for Doctors’

Launch of ‘Medical responses to adults who have experienced sexual assault: an interactive educational module for Doctors’ Speech by Pru Goward, Sex Discrimination Commissioner, RANZCOG College House, East Melbourne, 31 March 2005 Acknowledgements. Thank you for inviting me to launch this module...

Rights and Freedoms

Queer Rights At Work

I also want to thank the conference organisers for the opportunity to speak today. conferences such as this are great opportunities to discuss some of the pressing human rights issues in Australia. I'm particularly pleased to be talking about queer rights in the workplace, as fair employment conditions are some of the most fundamental of all human rights. Trade unions have a long history of fighting for justice in the workplace, and I encourage the unions here today to continue that fight for gay, lesbian, transsexual and intersex workers.

Rights and Freedoms

Diversity in Health 2003: Dr Sev Ozdowski OAM

Conference Convenors and Co-directors, distinguished guests from both Australia and overseas, ladies and gentlemen, all. I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we stand and by so doing remind ourselves that Australia’s cultural traditions stretch back many thousands of years.

Rights and Freedoms

Surviving the bush: health and rural communities: Chris Sidoti (1999)

I would like to thank the Victorian Healthcare Association for inviting me to speak today. I hope that the Congress has been stimulating and has provided all of you with both an understanding of the problems facing healthcare in Australia, and some sense of optimism for what can be achieved to improve the health outcomes for all Australians.

Commission – General

President Speech: 2010 Human Rights Day Oration

We meet today on the lands of the Gadigal peoples of the Eora nation. On behalf of the Australian Human Rights Commission I pay my respect to their elders past and present.

Commission – General

Address to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry Annual Conference

A little over a month ago, I started as the new President of the Australian Human Rights Commission, ending my time as a judge of the Federal Court of Australia.