Search results

The title of this morning’s session is ‘Recognition of Aboriginal people in the Constitution and the possibility of Aboriginal advancement’. Without a doubt, I see constitutional recognition as a pathway for advancement. I have said again and again, that is it is a real nation building opportunity and the benefits will extend to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians and non-Australians alike. It is a journey that will mark our maturity as an inclusive, just nation.

We all share a responsibility to lead cultural change for inclusion of people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex. Building on the previous work of the Commission, I’ll be using my term as Human Rights Commissioner to ensure these issues are given national attention. It was an honour to be a keynote speaker at the Human Rights Forum of the Asia Pacific Outgames in Darwin.

It is a great pleasure to deliver a Blackfriars Lecture. A few weeks ago I gave a speech to the Sydney Institute outlining the approach I plan to take to human rights as the Federal Commissioner titled ‘The Forgotten Freedoms’. In this speech I outlined that I have concerns about the key freedoms of expression, worship, association and property rights. Reasserting them will be the focus of my tenure as Human Rights Commissioner.

I thought I might begin today by sharing with you the words of a few of the young people I heard from during my national listening tour last year.

In coming here today, we celebrate 40 years of hard work and dedication by the Network of Community Activities, to the promotion of children’s rights in Australia.

It is a real pleasure to be here in Brisbane and to speak to so many people who are all committed to the protection of children and young people across Australia.

I am honoured to be invited to participate in the Grand Rounds at the Royal Children’s Hospital. What a Grand title indeed, and it makes me feel a little as though I should be appropriately attired in a white coat with stethoscope.

While I believe most Australians wish for children in this country an equal chance at life - an opportunity to not just survive but to thrive - and to be free from violence, abuse and neglect, it is, perhaps, less understood or acknowledged that this opportunity is also the right of every Australian child.

(check against delivery) I acknowledge the traditional owners of this land. I do so not as a formulaic beginning, but as a sincere recognition of the place which the land holds in the lives and culture of our first Australians. I saw much of the disadvantage Aboriginal people experience during my time as Race Discrimination Commissioner, and fail to understand why - at a time when we are seeking ...

Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. Some of you may recall that I addressed your conference 2 years ago and 2 years before that I spoke at your Council meeting. Obviously, this shows the enormous respect and admiration that I have for all of you as educators. But I think it also shows just how crucial I think that teachers are to progressing our human rights and social justice agenda.

Friends, today marks the three year anniversary of when the western system, through the Federal Court, recognised the Quandamooka system by acknowledging you as the owners of this land.