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Rights and Freedoms
24 March 2025Opinion pieceCOVID report provides reality check on human rights during pandemic
Opinion piece | Human Rights Commissioner Lorraine Finlay Earlier this month the Australian Human Rights Commission released Collateral Damage: What the untold stories from the COVID-19 pandemic reveal about human rights in Australia. In the five years since COVID-19 reached Australia, this report is the first to assess the country’s pandemic response through a human rights lens. It is… -
Rights and Freedoms
14 March 2024Speech
Enhancing human rights in a post-COVID world
The catalyst of a pandemic Women in Property lunch Emeritus Professor Rosalind Croucher AM Acknowledgement Thank you to the Property Council for inviting me to speak to you today—and particularly Jane Fitzgerald whose idea it was. Let me begin by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the land on which we meet, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation and pay my respect to Elders, past,… -
Rights and Freedoms
3 March 2023Speech
Making rights a reality: the need for a Human Rights Act for Australia
This presentation, on International Human Rights Day, advances the case for a Human Rights Act for Australia, reflecting on experiences during COVID and the difference a Human Rights Act may have made. -
Rights and Freedoms
4 December 2024Opinion piece
The 41,000 urgent priorities our new anti-slavery commissioner has to tackle
In an opinion piece published in the Sydney Morning Herald, Human Rights Commissioner Lorraine Finlay reflects on the prevalence of modern slavery in Australia, as she welcomes the appointment of the country's inaugural Anti-Slavery Commissioner. -
Rights and Freedoms
13 March 2024Speech
The Commission’s model for a Human Rights Act for Australia
The Australian Human Rights Commission's model proposes a national Human Rights Act, safeguarding rights for all Australians and addressing human rights concerns. It aims to modernize the legal framework. -
Rights and Freedoms
31 August 2020Submission
Review of the ‘declared areas’ provisions (2020)
The Commission considers that the declared areas provisions place significant restrictions on the human rights of persons affected by them. -
Rights and Freedoms
13 May 2022Speech
Whither human rights and freedoms protections in Australia?
As I reflect on the past two years, it is clear that the pandemic has brought a renewed national focus on the importance of centralising considering rights and freedoms during times of crisis — a greater ‘rights consciousness’. -
Rights and Freedoms
3 May 2024Opinion piece
We need debate on sensible limits on free speech
When president Franklin D. Roosevelt gave the 1941 State of the Union address he spoke of four essential human freedoms people “everywhere in the world” ought to enjoy. The very first of these was freedom of speech and expression. Free speech was listed first because it is the bedrock of democracy. Salman Rushdie famously described it as “the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is… -
Rights and Freedoms
31 July 2019Speech
Free and Equal: A National Reform Agenda for Human Rights in Australia for the next decade
Commission President Emeritus Professor Rosalind Croucher AM addressed the Castan Centre human rights conference on July 26. The topic was ‘Free and Equal’: A National Reform Agenda for Human Rights in Australia for the next decade. Thank you to the Castan Centre, and its Director, Professor Sarah Joseph, for inviting me to speak. Let me begin by acknowledging the traditional custodians of…