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Race Discrimination5 March 2025Opinion piece
Would Sam Kerr have been charged if she were a man – or white – or straight?
This opinion piece by Sex Discrimination Commissioner Dr Anna Cody and Race Discrimination Commissioner Giridharan Sivaraman was published in The Guardian. Imagine how this case would have played out for the thousands of women of colour who don’t have Kerr’s platform, financial resources or legal support. Sam Kerr is one of the most celebrated football players in the world. Captain of the… -
Rights and Freedoms20 January 2023Opinion piece
Australia needs to deliver on our treaty promises
As with any agreement, there are certain requirements that OPCAT signatories need to fulfill, and Australia has been given longer than any other country to meet our OPCAT commitments. Today – 20 January 2023 – is our extended compliance deadline, and Australia has failed to deliver on our promises. -
Race Discrimination30 May 2024Opinion piece
Race Discrimination Commissioner: Why ABC chiefs should back Laura Tingle for calling out racism
This opinion piece by Race Discrimination commissioner Giridharan Sivaraman appeared in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. -
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice28 September 2023Opinion piece
The referendum is Australia’s gateway moment
Read Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, June Oscar's op-ed in support of the Voice Referendum, published in The Guardian Australia. "We’ve been advocating for a permanent representative body for decades. My old people wanted this. My family in remote Australia facing unbelievable struggles daily want this." -
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice17 January 2019Opinion piece
Turning the tide on Indigenous children in out of home care
Child protection intervention in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families across the country is at crisis point. Women are telling me it’s like another stolen generation and as I travel across Australia hearing their stories, it certainly does feel that way. As the 2018 Family Matters report reveals, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children make up just over 36 per cent of all… -
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice5 July 2021Opinion piece
Return to country endangered by failure to invest
Covid-19 has triggered the most significant return to country by First Nations people since the homeland movement commenced in the 1960s. Thousands, like myself, returned to remote communities out of necessity. Facing the unknown, our family leaders who could made the courageous decision to gather loved ones and travel out to country, with minimal resources. Importantly, Australian… -
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice11 February 2015Opinion piece
We must keep striving to close the gap in Indigenous health
"Just in the last week, three of my closest friends and a relative have been diagnosed with cancer. This is not an uncommon story, to be – as a community – constantly in grief, loss and trauma." These words, from Janine Mohamed, chief executive of the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives, will be familiar to our communities across Australia. As will her… -
Commission – General25 May 2020Opinion piece
Turning the Uluru Statement into action
On the ancient lands of the Anangu, dust settled and ink dried on a document that marked an extraordinary moment in Australia’s history. From all points of the southern sky, we gathered in the centre of the country we’ve called home for more than 60 thousand years, to endorse a statement that would pave the way for First Nations peoples to have a voice enshrined in the Constitution. A voice… -
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice10 March 2016Opinion piece
Children's rights must come first, says Mick Gooda
The recent death of a 10-year-old in the Kimberley is a tragedy and I pass on my condolences to her family at this particularly distressing time. This tragedy has heightened my conviction that the lives of all of our children in Australia are precious and should be protected at all costs. Nearly 20 years after the Bringing Them Home Report documented the experiences of the Stolen Generations… -
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice14 December 2012Opinion piece
Act closed wounds but not the gap (2009)
In 1994, phone numbers had seven digits, we listened to Crowded House, and it was legal to own a semi-automatic rifle. Mother And Son and A Country Practice disappeared from television screens, and The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert and Muriel's Wedding showed off our magnificent country and sense of humour while touching on tough issues such as marginalisation, sexuality and racism. -
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice24 May 2018Opinion piece
The Wiyi Yani U Thangani (Women's Voices) project so far...
The following opinion piece by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner June Oscar appeared on ABC Online on May 24, 2018 Next month, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians will celebrate NAIDOC week — with the theme Because of Her We Can. It's because of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner June Oscar AO that… -
Rights and Freedoms14 December 2012Opinion piece
Opinion Pieces - Protecting Australians' rights (2008)
The new century has thrown up enormous challenges, as well as breathtaking opportunities to us all. One such challenge is the protection of human rights. -
Rights and Freedoms14 December 2012Opinion piece
A question of human rights (2008)
As the Government points out on its Australia 2020 Summit website, the new century has thrown up enormous challenges, as well as breathtaking opportunities to us all. -
Rights and Freedoms14 December 2012Opinion piece
Bill of rights is essential to best serve human rights (2008)
Five years ago I began my term as the President of the Australian Human Rights Commission, confident in the ability of the common law and a robust democracy to protect human rights. I leave convinced we need a major legal and cultural overhaul in order to deal with the human rights challenges of the 21st century. -
Disability Rights14 March 2014Opinion piece
Send Rosie Anne home
For most of us gaol is a theoretical concept. It's somewhere you go if you commit a serious crime. And that's fair enough. Neither of us have committed a crime, but in various roles during our lives we have visited places of detention. But for short times, and knowing we can always walk out. They are places where fear, despair and anger- a pretty potent cocktail as most prison staff would…