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Rights and Freedoms20 May 2014Opinion piece
Twitter trolls have a right to offend – but we don't have to listen
Storms on social media demonstrate we don't need laws to regulate free speech – social norms are enough Internet outrage tells us more about how we ensure civil conduct face-to-face, than how we behave online. People behave in strange ways online. But social media provides the clearest evidence of people behaving on their first instinct. All that the internet has demonstrated is there were always ... -
Rights and Freedoms14 December 2012Opinion piece
Opening a door on the bleak truth of homelessness (2010)
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. -
Disability Rights14 December 2012Speech
Launch of the Home to Home Digital Stories Exhibition (2012)
Whether you're recovering from the celebrations of your 19th birthday and experience a severe asthma attack; enjoying the highs and lows of a three-month-old baby and have a stroke; enjoying life when an assault causes a brain injury; or playing doubles with Sam Stosur when you have a skate-boarding accident; acquiring a disability can be a very tough experience. -
Rights and Freedoms14 December 2012Opinion piece
Stand on your rights, or see them trampled (2009)
Australia is a great country to live in — for most of us most of the time. We don’t suffer the terrible poverty witnessed in some parts of the world, our judicial system works well by international standards and most of us can vote in elections by secret ballot. Most of us can live pretty safely, say what we like most of the time and, if we are so inclined, practise our faith in peace. Most of us have access to decent education and health services. -
Disability Rights1 May 2024Webpage
Customising a job for a person with disability
Check out this employer’s guide to customising jobs for people with disability, and the steps, features and benefits of job customisation. -
Disability Rights14 December 2012Speech
Achieving equal access to telecommunications
Paper for Consumer Telecommunications Network conference, "Is the future calling: consumers and new telecommunications technologies", Sydney, 24 November 2000 David Mason, Director, Disability Rights policy, HREOC -
Disability Rights14 December 2012Speech
Shut Out: The Experience of People with Disabilities and their Families in Australia (2009)
I also acknowledge Minister Macklin, Parliamentary Secretary Shorten, and other representatives from Australia's governments, and from disability community organisations. -
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice14 December 2012Speech
Site navigation
We are here to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Bringing them home – the Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families. -
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. -
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice14 December 2012Speech
LAUNCH OF THE NATIVE TITLE AND SOCIAL JUSTICE REPORTS
The two reports launched in Adelaide today provide a scorecard on how Australian governments are meeting their obligations to ensure that Australia's Indigenous peoples can fully exercise their rights and interests. -
Disability Rights14 December 2012Speech
Workshop on using the Disability Discrimination Act effectively
Let me first pass on regrets from Sev Ozdowski that he was not able to be here as planned. He very much wanted to attend this as the first major disability conference since he commenced duty as Disability Discrimination Commissioner at the end of last year - but he had surgery this week that meant he could not travel. -
LGBTIQ+18 June 2013Project
New protection
Learn about new protections against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity and intersex status. -
Disability Rights14 December 2012Speech
Housing, human rights and sustainability
Thank you especially to Margaret Ward, the previous National Convenor of the network and Amelia Starr the current Convenor for the excellent debate you have nurtured over the past few years between Government, the housing industry and the community. -
Disability Rights14 December 2012Speech
Speech - Launch of Macquarie University’s Disability Action Plan (2012)
Ten years ago I gave the occasional address at a graduation at Sydney University. I accepted the invitation to speak in the Great Hall and then informed the University that - as the platform on which students received their degrees was not accessible for people with mobility disability - I would speak from the floor of the hall. I did that, and told the story of Bradley Kinsella. He had studied at QUT for three years about a further decade ago, and used his wheelchair all of that time. Despite their knowledge of his disability, QUT scheduled his degree in an inaccessible venue. -
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice14 December 2012Speech
NAIDOC Week 2008 - Ministerial Event
I would like to begin by acknowledging the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and pay my respects to their elders past and present. -
Disability Rights20 February 2014Speech
Launch of Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District Action Plan
Sarah - not her real name - studied law at university. Not only did she earn a good law degree, she won the university medal. She also won competitions for mooting- conducting mock trials for those of you smart enough not to have chosen law as your profession. She could not get a job - or even an interview - with the Australian public service because she has a significant disability, including using a wheelchair, and some verbal communication issues. -
Rights and Freedoms14 December 2012Speech
THE CLASH OF CIVILISATIONS: Dr Sev Ozdowski OAM (2003)
"....the fundamental conflict in the next millennium will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural"... -
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice14 December 2012Webpage
Reparations for the stolen generations - Government responds - Senator Aden Ridgeway
Acknowledgement of guests from overseas, Parliamentary colleagues, Social Justice Commissioner Mr Bill Jonas, Justice Elizabeth Evatt, ATSIC Commissioners, distinguished guests. -
Disability Rights14 December 2012Speech
Using the Disability Convention for practical change (2009)
Some of us here were sitting in a stuffy conference room in the UN headquarters in New York when the Working Group completed its drafting of the convention. It was only stuffy because - in true UN style - we had exceeded our time limit for the session, the interpreters had gone home, and the air-conditioning had been turned off. But for most of us, these disadvantages paled in the excitement of what we had achieved. And that excitement was amplified as we watched the General Assembly confirm our work. -
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice8 July 2014Speech
96th NSW Teachers Federation Annual Conference
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.