Valuing and Protecting Diversity
In his introduction to the announcement of the 2020 summit the Prime Minister was succinct in his diagnosis of the challenges we face as a nation in today’s global community. He says and I quote
In his introduction to the announcement of the 2020 summit the Prime Minister was succinct in his diagnosis of the challenges we face as a nation in today’s global community. He says and I quote
May I begin by acknowledging the Larrakeyah people – the traditional owners of the land where we meet today. I pay my respects to their elders and those who have come before us.
Australian Life Underwriters Association and Claims Association conference 5 November 2000 Graeme Innes AM Deputy Disability Discrimination Commissioner
Over the past 10 years I have been involved in developing resources and providing informal assistance to organisations developing Action Plans throughout Australia. This has included assisting in the preparation of the initial guides to developing action plans produced in 1995 and the subsequent publication Developing an Effective Action Plan produced in 1999 both of which can be found on our website at http://www.humanrights.gov.au/disability_rights/action_plans/index.html
Thank you Anne-Mason and Ruth for this invitation to address your AGM on health access issues, and in particular access to height adjustable examination beds in primary health care facilities.
Thanks for the chance to speak with you today. As you might guess, in my role as Disability Discrimination Commissioner, I receive many invitations to speak at functions on the international day. One of the reasons I chose this invitation is because of the really important role that Local Government plays in the lives of all Australians. It deals with the issues that are in your face- and I know, because until two years ago I was a Councillor on Ku-Ring-Gai Council.
I would like to thank you Councillor Kemmis and your CEO Monica Barone for the invitation to attend this Forum as it gives me an opportunity to discuss the critical role that Local Government can play in ensuring people with disabilities have access to, and are able to contribute to, the social, cultural, economic and political community in which we live.
Allow me to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we stand [the Nyoongar people] and pay my respects to their elders both past and present.
Have you ever stopped to think about all the things that we take for granted? When you're wandering through the breakfast cereal isle at the supermarket, for example, do you ever wonder whether Uncle Toby really was? If so, was he related to Sara Lee? Were Nana's apple pies originally made by Granny Smith? It's not so much that familiarity breeds contempt as that it lulls us into a state of mind where we no longer feel the need to question or even test our assumptions and presumptions.
I have called this paper "the right to belong", and it is with this idea that I wish to begin my address to you this afternoon, before discussing in more detail the current state of the law in relation to disability discrimination.
Since the terrorist attacks on September 11 2001, Governments around the world have created a raft of new counter-terrorism laws. In Australia alone, over 40 new laws have created new criminal offences, new detention and questioning powers for police and security apparatus, new powers for the Attorney-General to proscribe terrorist organisations, new ways to control people’s movement and activities without criminal convictions, and new investigative powers for police and security agencies.
Paper presented at the Homelessness and Human Rights Seminar Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission 12.30 – 2pm, Monday 7 April 2008 133 Castlereagh Street, Sydney, NSW
I would like to open today by reading you part of an e-mail that a work colleague of mine received recently from a young Australian woman in her early twenties, who recently completed her Bachelor of Communications degree from UTS in Sydney. As it happens she also holds Polish citizenship and is currently visiting her grandparents in Warsaw.
I am delighted to be invited to speak today at the Biennial Conference of the Association of Childrens Welfare Agencies, in association with partner organisations dedicated to the wellbeing of children.
This paper deals with two aspects of the bill: the preventative detention orders and the new sedition offence. It does not touch on the problematic control orders.
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