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Race Discrimination
23 July 2015Opinion pieceForty years of the Racial Discrimination Act
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 Australia’s first federal human rights and discrimination law. Enacted shortly after the formal -
Sex Discrimination
28 January 2020Publication
Respect@Work: Sexual Harassment National Inquiry Report (2020)
Also available: Webinar series May-August 2020 Community Guide Commissioner’s Foreword Australia was once at the forefront of tackling sexual harassment globally. Women’s organisations in Australia began to press for the legal and social recognition of sex discrimination in the early 1970s. This movement built on Australia’s ratification of two key international conventions: the… -
Rights and Freedoms
9 August 2019SpeechHuman Rights are not a foreign language
Human Rights are not a foreign language—reflections on the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Emeritus Professor Rosalind Croucher AM President, Australian Human Rights Commission [∗] University of Adelaide Faculty of Law Tuesday 4 September 2018 Acknowledgement I would like to begin my presentation by acknowledging the traditional custodians of this land, and to… -
Commission - General
3 September 2018PublicationHuman Rights & Climate Change (2008)
Climate change will have significant impacts in both Australia and across the globe. Australia is one of the most arid continents in the world. It is vulnerable to risks such as disruptions to water supply; increases in the severity of storms, floods and droughts, coastal erosion due to sea level rise; and to negative human health impacts, for example through an increase in the range and spread… -
Commission - General
27 November 2015Book page
The need for better engagement - Year in review
1.1 Introduction In last year’s Social Justice and Native Title Report, I raised concerns about the changes resulting from the 2014-15 Budget and the restructure to Indigenous Affairs through the Indigenous Advancement Strategy (IAS). Despite initial concerns about how these changes would impact our communities, I indicated that the streamlining of programs and the move away from a ‘one size… -
Disability Rights
18 August 2015PublicationReflections - first 5 years of the Disability Discrimination Act
As I reach the end of my appointment as the first Disability Discrimination Commissioner, and in the light of proposed structural and funding changes to the Commission, I am drawn to reflect upon the theory and practice, challenges and developments, lessons and achievements, of the first five years of operation of the Disability Discrimination Act, and to look towards directions for the next five… -
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice
1 March 2016PublicationToomelah Report (1988)
The Toomelah community of five hundred Aboriginal people endures appalling living conditions which amount to a denial to them of the most basic rights taken for granted by most other groups in society, and by other Australian communities of similar size. Their houses are substandard and overcrowded, actually contributing to a range of diseases. The community has for decades lived without an… -
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice
1 March 2016Publication
Toomelah Review (1989)
On 15 June 1988 the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission released the Toomelah Report, containing the results of its inquiry into the social and material needs of Aborigines in the New South Wales/Queensland border towns of Toomelah and Boggabilla. The Commission undertook at the time to review progress on the implementation of the Recommendations six months after its release.