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The Commission has a number of concerns about the impact on the human rights of people whose applications for visas are refused or whose visas are cancelled under section 501 of the Migration Act. The Commission is particularly concerned about the consequences for: refugees who have their applications for protection visas refused on character grounds long-term permanent residents of Australia who ...

(a) Progress against the achievement of life expectancy equality In 2009, the ABS began to estimate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander life expectancy over periods of three years (to have a greater deaths certificates ‘pool’ than that provided by one-year periods) and to use the five-yearly Censuses to verify the accuracy of the identification of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people on ...

Homelands still belong to the people, we want to build homes on our land and live there. When we come to the homeland we come back to the peace and quiet. ... It is a much better environment on the homelands, better things for the children.[1]

The consultation invited comments on the potential benefit of federal laws protecting people from discrimination and harassment. Overwhelmingly, participants argued that introducing such protections would result in significant benefits for the Australian community as a whole. A small number of participants argued that there would be no benefit from these protections.

The challenge of finding the appropriate balance between rights is not one which is specific to the Internet. It is difficult to know if Australian laws that limit freedom of expression in the interests of other rights, or on other permissible grounds, have ‘drawn the line’ appropriately without a comprehensive review of such laws. In New Zealand, a legislative review undertaken by the New Zealand ...

In my previous two Native Title Reports, I have strongly argued the need to reform the native title system. Stakeholders from all sectors engaged in the native title system have also stressed the need for the Government to take significant steps to ensure that the system meets the original objectives set out in the preamble to the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth) (Native Title Act).

8.1 Introduction 8.2 The universal nature of care 8.3 Support for carers combining paid work and caring 8.4 Supporting the diverse needs of carers 8.5 Government provision of formal care for older people 8.6 Greater availability of formal care to meet growing need 8.7 Specialist disability services 8.8 Conclusion

2008-09 has been a year of positive developments in the human rights area. While many human rights challenges lie ahead, as Human Rights Commissioner, I have been excited by the progress that Australia has made in human rights, both domestically and internationally during the year.

In 2007-08, the number of new migrants who settled permanently in Australia was 205 940.[78] The Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) and the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) defines ‘settled permanently’ as:

No person can achieve a smooth transition and successful entry into the open workforce unless they are 'job ready', and this is especially the case for people with disability.

No child shall be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily. The arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be in conformity with the law and shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time.

Despite the significant positive developments of the past two years, the Commission remains seriously concerned about some aspects of Australian law and policy on asylum seekers, refugees and immigration detention. The Commission is primarily concerned about the prolonged or indefinite detention and lack of durable solutions or substantive visa pathways for certain groups of people in immigration detention. These include stateless persons; refugees who have received adverse security assessments; and refugees who are of interest to or have been charged by the Australian Federal Police (AFP).

2.1 Scope of international obligations During Australia’s review, the Government made a commitment to improving Australia’s monitoring of its international human rights obligations. Australia is a party to seven of the core human rights treaties and maintains a number of reservations under these. The Australian Government made a commitment to conduct a comprehensive review of such reservations by ...

4.1 Introduction 4.2 Social security and social insurance schemes 4.3 Employer funded 4.4 Combination of employer and social security 4.5 Parental or family leave

This is an Inquiry into discrimination against same-sex couples regarding access to financial and work-related entitlements and benefits. Many of Australia’s laws exclude same-sex couples from financial and work-related entitlements and benefits that are enjoyed by heterosexual couples. For example, same-sex couples do not enjoy the same tax and health concessions as other de facto couples and they may not have the same rights to pensions and other social security benefits as heterosexual couples.

3.1 Introduction 3.2 Australia's human rights obligations for workers with family and carer responsibilities 3.3 Limitations of federal discrimination law 3.4 The need for law reform 3.5 Conclusion

The federal government on 21 June 2007 announced measures to tackle sexual abuse against Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory. The legislation it passed to implement the measures has significant implications for Aboriginal owned and controlled land.