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Ladies and Gentlemen I am very pleased to be at the Catholic Independent Schools Employment Relations Committee Conference. Occasions such as this one allow me, as President of the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, to share with a very influential group my thoughts about how we can all better manage the complexity and diversity of today’s working environments.

Thank you for coming here this evening to take part in the launch of the new and updated version of HREOC’s publication, Federal Discrimination Law.

Thank you for inviting me here today to speak about human rights in Australia. I would like to use this opportunity to focus on how human rights are protected in Australia; and how you, as human rights educators, can help students to understand these protections. I will also seek to shed some light on the role of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission and some of our responses to some current human rights issues.

by President of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission John von Doussa QC Human Rights Medal and Awards Ceremony Sheraton on the Park Hotel, Sydney

It is now 12 months since the introduction of WorkChoices radically restructured Australia’s industrial relations system. Today, I propose to reflect on the implications of WorkChoices for the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) and to outline reforms HREOC believes are necessary to safeguard fairness and equality in the workplace.

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.

Thank you for inviting me here today, to speak about a topic which in my view receives too little attention yet is one of critical importance not only to the way we live but to the kind of society we live in – the topic of human rights education.

I am very grateful for the opportunity to address you today and express my admiration to you all for taking on the very necessary venture of providing practical legal assistance to some of the most powerless and marginalised people in society.

I would like to welcome you all to the first official event of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission's National Inquiry into Disability and Employment since its launch on 4 March.

I make this acknowledgment in all my public presentations around Australia, not only because I believe that it is good manners to do so, but also because recognising the indigenous history of this land is an important element in recognising the truth of our diversity as a people.

I do this in all my public speaking not only because it is proper to do so but because this acknowledgment reminds us that human experience has many levels of diversity, and this of course includes disability.

I am here today representing, firstly, the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC), and, second, I'm here to represent at least 20% of the population, and 20% of your customers and users if you are a web developer or web content manager: of course, I'm referring to people who have a disability.

Allow me to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we stand [the Nyoongar people] and pay my respects to their elders both past and present.

It is my custom to make this acknowledgement at public events because I think recognising Australia's indigenous history is an important element in recognising the truth of our diversity as a people.

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 ... .

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".

We would like to begin by emphasising the limited role of discrimination law - that is, we agree to some extent with comments by ACCI that equality cannot be achieved solely by providing stronger antidiscrimination legal provisions.

I am not here to present South Australia's government as having achieved the last word in access and inclusion for people with disabilities, any more than this report itself seeks to claim that the task is finished.

There is substantial attention in the international community being directed at present to the human rights of people with disabilities. An international convention on human rights and disability is being actively considered through the United Nations system. I would have been attending a regional meeting in Beijing in April this year as part of this process but this was cancelled because of the SARS outbreak.

For thousands of years, Aboriginal groups, who might spend much of their time living far apart in the expanses of this land, pursuing separately the business of survival, would come together at times to meet, to trade, sometimes to resolve differences, but also to exchange knowledge for mutual benefit.