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Rights and Freedoms
9 March 2023Media ReleaseCommission launches model for an Australian Human Rights Act
Australia is the only liberal democracy that does not have an act or charter of rights at the national level, and there are currently very few legal protections for the fundamental rights of Australians. -
Rights and Freedoms
21 September 2023Media Release
Human Rights Commissioner critical of COVID inquiry scope
Australia’s Human Rights Commissioner has welcomed the Federal Government’s announcement of an inquiry into Australia’s handling of the COVID pandemic but has criticised the inquiry’s terms of reference for not having a specific focus on human rights impacts and for excluding the unilateral actions of state and territory governments. Today Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed the… -
Commission - General
30 August 2023SubmissionSubmission: Inquiry into Australia's Human Rights Framework – supplementary to submission 1
The purpose of this submission is to provide further information to complement the Commission’s first submission. In proposing key elements required to ensure that a future National Human Rights Framework is robust and achieves outcomes that improve the protection of human rights in Australia, this second submission: focuses on how promoting and protecting human rights in the light of a… -
Rights and Freedoms
2 May 2024Media Release
Michael Kirby and Jennifer Robinson to deliver joint keynote address at landmark human rights forum
Two of Australia’s most famous legal eagles are set to team up to prosecute the case for an Australian Human Rights Act at an historic two-day forum in June during the Vivid Sydney festival. Eminent international jurist and former High Court judge Michael Kirby and leading international human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson (who represents Julian Assange) will tag team at the Free + Equal… -
Age Discrimination
16 May 2023SpeechHuman Rights Don't Diminish With Age (2023)
Hon. Dr Kay Patterson AO Age Discrimination Commissioner Speech to Chris Barnard Nursing Agency (CBNA) MACG Grand Cedar, Ashwood VIC, 3 May 2023 CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY Welcome everyone - I wish to acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and Bunurong people as the traditional owners of the lands from which I speak and pay respect to their Elders, past, present and emerging. I also want to -
Technology and Human Rights
15 May 2023Opinion piece‘Weaponised' AI an existential threat to truth, human rights
This opinion piece by Human Rights Commissioner Lorraine Finlay appeared in The Australian on Monday 15 May 2023. In George Orwell's 1984, the Ministry of Truth exercises absolute control of information according to The Party ethos, “Who controls the past, controls the future: who controls the present, controls the past”. If the Ministry of Truth existed today, a more accurate slogan would… -
Rights and Freedoms
18 November 2022Speech
Housing and human rights - rights where it matters
Sandy Duncanson Memorial Lecture Housing and human rights – rights where it matters Hobart, 11 October 2022 Abstract Homelessness can happen to anyone. People with disability are at an increased risk and they are joined by a growing invisible cohort of older women. COVID-19 was a trigger for state governments to find shelter for people living rough, illustrating that solutions to… -
16 December 2020Webpage
An introduction to human rights
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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’.
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