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The Commission provides advice and recommendations to the Australian Government on an ongoing basis. Our aim is to ensure that a human rights perspective informs a broad range of policy issues, especially in priority areas like social inclusion.

The removal of the children from Wave Hill by MacRobertson Miller aircraft was accompanied by distressing scenes the like of which I wish never to experience again. The engines of the 'plane are not stopped at Wave Hill and the noise combined with the strangeness of an aircraft only accentuated the grief and fear of the children, resulting in near-hysteria in two of them. I am convinced that the news of my action at Wave Hill preceded me to other stations, resulting in the children being taken away prior to my arrival.

This year the Commission finalised its strategic vision for the coming four-year period. The Strategic Plan 2014-2018 provides a roadmap for all our activities and meets the Commission’s new legal obligations under the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (Cth). Over the next four years the Commission will work on three core priorities: human rights education and promotion ...

The Australia of 2009 is a proud multicultural nation. It is a nation, culturally, socially and economically formed by the unique combination of its First Nation peoples, its early settlers, and by the many waves of subsequent migration. As such, negotiating diversity and respecting people of all faiths, races, cultures and identities has evolved into an important characteristic of being a member of Australian society.

This week's conference could not happen at a more opportune time. While we discuss ways to engage Indigenous communities, as we listen to that ways government can engage with its citizens, a radical change is occurring in the way the Australian government and Indigenous Australians engage.

The first twelve months of the federal government's new arrangements for the administration of Indigenous affairs has ended. The primary focus of this period has been on abolishing the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) and creating new processes to engage with local Indigenous communities and coordinate mainstream delivery of services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Twelve months on, the new arrangements remain in a transitional phase. It will be a number of years before they are fully locked into place.

In 1999 and 2000 the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (the CERD Committee) and the Human Rights Committee (HRC) of the United Nations both criticised the 1998 amendments to the Native Title Act 1993 (the NTA) as limiting the rights of Indigenous people.(1) The committees found that the amendments were discriminatory and recommended that Australia either suspend implementation of the 1998 amendments (2) or amend the NTA anew.(3) No action has since been taken to lessen the discriminatory impact of the 1998 amendments and the true extent of the diminution of native title par

Indigenous peoples from all over the world have suffered the long-standing effects of colonisation. Consequently, we continue to struggle with the challenges that I have raised in this Report; particularly those that concern our identity, culture and access to and protection of our lands, territories and resources.

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.