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The Covid-19 response inquiry report is an important first step, but there is much more that needs to be done if the government wants to start rebuilding public trust. The number one lesson should be that response measures do not operate in a vacuum. The full human impact needs to be understood and human rights need to be embedded into future emergency responses. The 877-page inquiry report…

“It’s gone.” That’s what Mick Gooda said to me plaintively half an hour into counting the votes to enshrine a First Nations Voice to parliament in our constitution on October 14, 2023. I’d started that day – a year ago today – with a high level of optimism that Australia was going to do this, that Australia would get this right, that Australia would make history. How wrong I was. Instead,…

The following opinion pieces have been published by the President and Commissioners. Reproduction of the opinion pieces must include reference to where the opinion piece was originally published.

This opinion piece by Human Rights Commissioner, Lorraine Finlay, appeared in The Australian on Monday 29 April 2024. When President Roosevelt gave the 1941 State of the Union Address he spoke of four essential human freedoms that 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…

Learn more about how Neuralink's successful implantation could raise human rights issues about neurotechnology.

Learn more about the federal government’s proposed Communications Legislation Amendment (Combating Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill.

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.

In an opinion piece for the Sydney Morning Herald, Human Rights Commissioner Tim Wilson says this week's Free Speech Symposium, together with the Prime Minister's decision not to proceed with changes to the Racial Discrimination Act, marks the beginning of a national conversation about free speech. View the news story from the Commission's website.

The legacy of Ian Thorpe’s “coming out” is whether corporate Australia will dispel the myth that it won’t support gay and lesbian Australians reaching their full potential, says Human Rights Commissioner, Tim Wilson, in an opinion piece first published in The Australian. Ian Thorpe won the Australian Human Rights Commission's Human Rights Medal in 2012. View the news story from the…

A uniting, not dividing, approach is needed to reform restrictions on free speech, writes Human Rights Commissioner Tim Wilson, in an opinion piece first published in The Australian on 9 August 2014. View the news story from the Commission's website.

Arguing that old rich white men have too much power is just a backdoor attempt at censorship, writes Human Rights Commissioner Tim Wilson, in an opinion piece first published on 5 April 2014 in The Australian.