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This is the Interim Report of the National Inquiry into Employment and Disability. The Inquiry was announced on 4 March 2005 and is due to issue its final report by the end of 2005.

Dr Sev Ozdowski, Human Rights Commissioner and Acting Disability Discrimination Commissioner, will conduct on behalf of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission and pursuant to sections 31(a)(b)(c) and (e) of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Act 1986 (Cth), an inquiry into equal opportunity in employment and occupation for people with a disability in Australia.

Disability is a normal part of life. Anyone in the community might experience a disability at some stage of their life - men and women, young and old, city and country dwellers. In fact, almost 20% of Australians - 3.96 million - have some sort of disability.

Sydney , 31 March 2005 Melbourne , 7 April 2005 See also separate notes from employer forum, Brisbane 22 April and Sydney employer forum, 7 July 2005; see also NEEOPA forum, 10 October

Participants made a number of specific suggestions about potential solutions and strategies to further the employment opportunities for people with a disability:

They discussed some of the problems and strategies associated with recruitment and retention of people with disabilities. They also provided feedback on some of the Inquiry's draft recommendations.

Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission - Vanessa Lesnie; ABC - Chrissie Tucker; Bluescope Steel - Daryl Kilby; Commonwealth Bank of Australia - Melissa Collins; Qantas - Sandra Triulzi; Reserve Bank of Australia - Julie Ford; Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children - Rob Walker

This page lists submissions made to the Australian Human Rights Commission's National Inquiry on equal employment opportunity and participation for people with disabilities prior to the release of the Inquiry's Interim Report, and provides links to those submissions which have been provided electronically and on which no restriction on publication has been requested by the authors. Wordprocessor format files have been zipped (compressed) to provide smaller file sizes for downloading, but files are otherwise in the formats provided by their authors.

The Inquiry will also focus on identifying and developing practical strategies that can help address the disincentives that many people with disabilities experience when they do seek employment.

One of the goals of the Inquiry is to identify and develop practical strategies to address some of the factors that act as a disincentive to employers hiring people with disabilities.

There are several different questions that need to be addressed to foster equality of opportunity for people with disabilities in employment. These questions include:

From the outset of this Inquiry, it was apparent that there was a need for clearer information on the services offered by the Commonwealth regarding employment of people with disabilities.

This paper will highlight the findings of research examining Family Court and state Guardianship Tribunal's originating materials and written reports from 'experts' and family members. It includes all sterilisation cases involving minors that have proceeded to legal judgment in Australia between 1992-1998. The central assertion is that non-consensual sterilisation continues to be framed as a medical problem to be 'cured' for family and social reasons.

Personal stories: guide for submissions 1. The Commission encourages the submission of personal stories that describe: (a) situations where members of a same-sex couple have been denied financial or employment-related entitlements or benefits that are available to people in heterosexual relationships (married or de facto) because of Australian laws (b) the impact on same-sex couples, and any children of same-sex couples, of being denied access to financial or employment-related entitlements or benefits that are available to heterosexual couples.

Changing the definitions describing de facto relationships in relevant federal laws could help end daily discrimination suffered by more than 20,000 same-sex couples in Australia, according to a report by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC), tabled in Federal Parliament today.

The Same-Sex: Same Entitlements Inquiry was launched by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) in April 2006. The final report of the Inquiry was completed in May 2007 and transmitted to the federal Attorney-General.

The following is a summary of the findings and recommendations made in the full report. It substantially represents the content of Chapter 18 of the full report of the Same-Sex: Same Entitlements Inquiry.

1. The federal government should amend the discriminatory laws identified by this Inquiry to ensure that same-sex and opposite-sex couples enjoy the same financial and work-related entitlements.

The following 58 laws must be amended to eliminate discrimination against same-sex couples and their children in the area of federal financial and work-related entitlements.

Photos of the Launch Hon. John von Doussa QC, President HREOC Grame Innes, Human Rights Commissioner Susan Everingham Peter Fitzsimons Fran Kelly People at the Launch ...