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Thank you Indira - and thank you Michael for your welcome to country. On behalf of the Australian Human Rights Commission, I acknowledge the Gadigal peoples of the Eora nation and pay our respects their elders past and present.

I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of this land, the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, and to pay my respects to their elders both past and present.

I wish to start today by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we are meeting. On behalf of the Australian Human Rights Commission, I pay my respects to their elders past and present.  </a>

I speak to you now, not as the Chancellor of this University, but as the President of Australia&#8217;s national Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.

I wish to start this evening by acknowledging the Kaurna people of the Adelaide plains. On behalf of the Australian Human Rights Commission, I pay my respects to their elders past and present and extend a special welcome to any member of the Kaurna people present at this event held on their traditional lands.

I speak to you now, not as the Chancellor of this University, but as the President of Australia&#8217;s national Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. And while my remarks are addressed primarily to today&#8217;s graduands, I suspect what I am about to say will resonate among parents and friends.

May I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, the Wurundjeri people, and pay my respect to their elders past and present.

International Human Rights Day falls on 10th December each year. It marks the occasion on 10th December 1948 when the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Today, on its 125th anniversary, we celebrate the very considerable achievements of the Law Society of South Australia. This is an occasion to reflect on these past successes, to consider their present significance, and to think about the future.

Thank you Professor Lansbury, and thank you to Marian and the Women and Work Research Group for organising today’s forum. Thank you also to our panellists – Dr Lyn Craig, Petra Stirling, and John Murray.

I would like to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today, and pay respect to their elders.

In keeping with the theme of today's awards, I want to welcome you all here to celebrate our local champions, many of whom are with us as nominees for the 2004 Human Rights Medal and Human Rights Awards.

Many years ago, when I was a very young solicitor anxious to be taken seriously by my employers, I needed to do some banking in my lunch hour. When I arrived at my bank, I was confronted by a long queue. I assessed the pace at which it was moving and decided that I could get served and still make it back to the office on time. You can imagine my astonishment when, arriving at the front of the queue, the teller asked if I would mind stepping aside so that she could serve the men behind me who would need to get back to work!

HREOC is a statutory body independent of government. While our main function is to promote an understanding and acceptance of human rights in Australia, we are also charged with the responsibilities of investigating, and attempting to conciliate complaints of unlawful discrimination under the federal Racial Discrimination Act 1975, the Sex Discrimination Act 1984, the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Age Discrimination Act 2004.1 HREOC also has specific responsibilities to report annually to Parliament on the enjoyment of human rights of Indigenous Australians.

&lt;p&gt;(Check against delivery, 24 February 2015)&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The Report of the Commission’s Inquiry into the impact of immigration detention on children, &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/node/11379&quot;&gt;The Forgotten Children&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;, has now been tabled in Parliament and is available to the public– more than three months after it was provided to the Government. The Inquiry took place from January 2013 to October 2014, covering the periods of both the former and current governments. The bipartisan nature of government responsibility is clear on any fair reading of this balanced and objective Report.&lt;/p&gt;