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Introduction Thank you. It is a great pleasure to attend the Australian Libertarian Society’s Third Friedman Conference. I’d like to acknowledge the outstanding efforts of Tim Andrews and John Humphrey for bringing this important conference together. I’d also like to acknowledge the previous speaker, Tom Palmer, and his outstanding work in advancing liberty across the world. Human rights…

I would like to acknowledge that we are meeting on the traditional country of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation and pay my respects to their elders past and present.

One day a few years ago I went in to wake my son. I told him that it was good to get up in the morning, to which he grumpily replied, "yes, but dad, it's even better to stay in bed".

This paper deals with two aspects of the bill: the preventative detention orders and the new sedition offence. It does not touch on the problematic control orders.

Good morning, and thank you for the opportunity to speak at this conference. I'm very pleased to be here.  Firstly as a senior Commonwealth public servant not based in Canberra I immediately warm to this forum. The challenges of interacting with, and learning from, our colleagues are increased greatly by the fact that we aren't located in the city viewed by most commonwealth public servants as…

I am honoured to have been invited to address you this evening on this beautiful campus of the Flinders University of South Australia. Let me begin my address by recalling that, long before the establishment of this prestigious place of learning in the European tradition, there was learning of another tradition here; the learning of the Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains.I would like to…

Debates about a charter of rights are often monopolised by the contentious issue of the proper role of the courts. While this is undoubtedly an important question, it overlooks the impact a charter would have on the role of Parliament as a guardian of rights of freedoms.

This session focuses primarily on relationships between National Human Rights Institutions (NHRI’s) and the Judiciary, but as well touches on their relationship with officers of the executive government such as the Attorney-General. One of the stated aims of this session is to assess how the independent institutions of the judiciary and NHRI’s can mutually and independently strengthen…

I suppose we all have things we've passionate about - causes that we'd be prepared to die for, issues that give us the will to carry on in the face of criticism and ridicule.

You might have noticed that somehow governments never seem to want the same long term commitment from Human Rights Commissioners. In fact, they often seem quite happy to see us arrive at the end of a term of office ... .