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Disability Rights14 December 2012Speech
Mental Health Council of Australia Annual Board Dinner
I also acknowledge Keith Wilson, President of the Mental Health Council of Australia; Chief Executive Officer Dr Grace Groom; and others here who have profound knowledge of mental health issues as family members and carers, as professionals, and as people directly affected by mental illness. -
14 December 2012Book page
Ending family violence and abuse in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities – Key issues (2006)
Family violence and abuse is causing untold damage to the cultures and fabric of Indigenous societies. It is damaging our communities, our families, our women, our children and our men. All Indigenous people are entitled to live their lives in safety and full human dignity - without fear of intimidation, family violence or abuse. This is their cultural and their human right. Like all Australians, Indigenous peoples are also entitled to the full and equal protection of the law. -
Race Discrimination23 July 2015Opinion piece
Forty years of the Racial Discrimination Act
In October 1975, at a ceremony for the proclamation of the Racial Discrimination Act, then Prime Minister Gough Whitlam described the legislation as ‘a historic measure’, which aimed to ‘entrench new attitudes of tolerance and understanding in the hearts and minds of the people’.(1) The Act was Australia’s first federal human rights and discrimination law. Enacted shortly after the formal ... -
Disability Rights14 December 2012Speech
OHS & HREOC Inquiry
Attorney-General, conference delegates. Before I commence my presentation today I would like to thank Discrimination Alert and Occupational Health News for organising this very important forum to discuss recent changes in law and policy and the impact of these changes on equal employment opportunities for Australians and health and safety in our workplaces. -
14 December 2012Book page
Social Justice Report 2001: Chapter 4: Laws mandating minimum terms of imprisonment (‘mandatory sentencing’) and Indigenous people
On 13 April 2000, the Senate requested the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission to inquire into all aspects of the agreement between the Northern Territory Government and the Commonwealth regarding the Territory’s mandatory sentencing regime; the consistency of mandatory sentencing regimes with Australia’s international human rights obligations; and Western Australia’s mandatory sentencing regime.[1] -
Disability Rights14 December 2012Speech
Notes for presentation to Productivity Commission DDA review
Thank you for the opportunity to be here today. Can I begin by apologising for the Acting Disability Discrimination Commissioner Dr Sev Ozdowski. Sev has been following this inquiry very closely but had arranged to be away this week before the schedule for these hearings was settled. -
Commission – General14 December 2012Speech
Society of University Lawyers
When I was invited to give this address, my first thought was to talk about unlawful discrimination in the context of higher education and, in particular, disability discrimination. -
14 December 2012Book page
Bringing them Home - Chapter 21
Indigenous children throughout Australia remain very significantly over-represented `in care' and in contact with welfare authorities. Their over-representation increases as the intervention becomes more coercive, with the greatest over-representation being in out-of-home care. Indigenous children appear to be particularly over-represented in long-term foster care arrangements. A high percentage of Indigenous children in long-term foster care live with non-Indigenous carers. -
Disability Rights14 December 2012Speech
Site navigation
Acknowledgment of where we stand and where we are is, it seems to me, an essential precondition to good decisions about where we want to go, and how we might get there. -
Commission – General14 December 2012Speech
Federal Anti-discrimination Law - 2004
In May last year I stepped down from my position as a Judge of the Federal Court to accept the role as President of HREOC. It has been a time of new challenges, such as the need to balance the legislative and administrative responsibilities that the Commission has been given by the federal government, with the important role of advocating for the rights of those on the margins of Australian society. -
Disability Rights14 December 2012Speech
Initiatives to achieve better access to the built environment
As you know, the Commonwealth Disability Discrimination Act, and equivalent laws in all States, make it unlawful to discriminate on the ground of a person's disability. One of the areas covered by the Act is access to premises. The only exception to this is where a building is already constructed not providing access, and alteration to provide access would cause unjustifiable hardship. -
Commission – General3 September 2018Publication
Human Rights & Climate Change (2008)
Climate change will have significant impacts in both Australia and across the globe. Australia is one of the most arid continents in the world. It is vulnerable to risks such as disruptions to water supply; increases in the severity of storms, floods and droughts, coastal erosion due to sea level rise; and to negative human health impacts, for example through an increase in the range and spread of disease -
Legal14 December 2012Webpage
exemption decision: infinity
The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission gives notice of a decision made on 27 June 2000 under section 57 of the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 ("DDA") concerning access to premises. -
Legal31 May 2016Speech
Hotung Fellowship Public Lecture 2016
Human rights across the Tasman: a widening gulf. I am honoured to have been invited to give this lecture at the Law School of the University of Canterbury, funded by the generosity of the Sir Eric Hotung Fellowship. -
Legal14 December 2012Webpage
Federal Discrimination Law: full Table of Contents
Back to index Table of Contents Foreword Chapter 1 - Introduction 1.1. Nature and Scope of this Publication 1.2 'HREOC' and the 'Australian Human Rights Commission' 1.3 What is 'Unlawful Discrimination'? 1.3.1 ‘Unlawful discrimination’ defined 1.3.2 Distinguishing ‘unlawful discrimination’ from ‘ILO 111 discrimination’ and ‘human rights’ under the HREOC Act (a) ‘ILO 111 discrimination’ (b) ‘Human ... -
Legal14 December 2012Webpage
Commission submissions: CEO
For the purposes of this Act, a person (discriminator) discriminates against another person (aggrieved person) on the ground of a disability of the aggrieved person if the discriminator requires the aggrieved person to comply with a requirement or condition: -
Legal14 December 2012Webpage
Commission Submission Amicus Curiae - Vickers v Ambulance Service NSW
These submissions are filed on behalf of the Acting Disability Discrimination Commissioner ('the Commissioner') in the event that leave is granted by the Court for the Commissioner to appear as amicus curiae in these proceedings pursuant to s 46PV(2) of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Act 1986 (Cth) ('HREOC Act'). Such leave was sought by the Commissioner by way of Notice of Motion and affidavit affirmed by the Commissioner on 16 June 2006 and filed on the same date. -
Commission – General14 December 2012Speech
National Legal Aid Best practice Conference
I would like to acknowledge the Kaurna People, the traditional owners of the land on which we stand and pay my respects to their elders, both past and present. -
14 December 2012Book page
10 years of the DDA: Employment forum
As part of events to mark the tenth anniversary of entry into force of the Disability Discrimination Act the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission is conducting a series of forums on employment discrimination issues. -
Rights and Freedoms14 December 2012Speech
"The local face of global justice policy": Dr Sev Ozdowski OAM (2004)
Firstly I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we stand and by so doing remind ourselves that Australia's cultural traditions stretch back many thousands of years and express our aspirations for Australians of the future to be socially just and inclusive.