Strategies to address discrimination to build a more inclusive country
I would like to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora people, the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today, and pay my respects to their elders.
I would like to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora people, the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today, and pay my respects to their elders.
I was invited to pick my own topic for discussion. As an ex-judge being invited to speak to students of the law, I assumed that I was expected to speak on something related to the administration of the law from a judge's perspective. And as President of Australia's Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC), I assumed I was expected to mention the role of human rights promotion in our legal system.
I begin by paying my respects to the Noongar peoples, the traditional owners of the land where we gather today. I pay my respects to your elders, to the ancestors and to those who have come before us.
I’d like to begin by acknowledging the conference organisers: the Central Commission for Popularization and Education of The Communist Party of Vietnam, and The University of New South Wales Initiative for Health and Human Rights, and particularly Professor Daniel Tarantola.
Thank you to the Australian Catholic University for inviting me to speak today. As you no doubt know, I am a social worker by training , graduating in 1978, so it is wonderful to have an opportunity to address you. It is great to see so many upcoming social workers here today, as well as a number of you who have a wealth of experience and do so much good in our communities. It’s a tough job at the coal face. One that you often do in difficult circumstances, with little support, not to mention little money!
I’m sorry that I can’t be with you in person to deliver these remarks, but through my voice for the day, Mr Glenn Pearson, I am very pleased to be invited to talk about my perspectives on the new arrangements in Indigenous affairs. Glenn – I owe you one!
Thank you for attending this press conference to discuss the release of the Social Justice Report and Native Title Report for 2002. As you would be aware, these reports are the annual report card on the government's performance on Indigenous issues and native title.
Transcript of remarks made by Graeme Innes AM Deputy Disability Discrimination Commissioner, at the launch of the revised Commonwealth Disability Strategy, Parliament House, Canberra, 5 October 2000
Over the last four years the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (the Commission) has played a key role in raising community awareness about the human rights Australians with a mental illness. The Commission, through its public inquiry process, brought into national focus how, amongst other things, people affected by mental illness frequently faced discrimination and stigmatisation based on ignorance, fear and inaccurate stereotypes.
Acknowledgment of where we stand and where we are is, it seems to me, an essential precondition to good decisions about where we want to go, and how we might get there.
Graeme Innes AM, Human Rights Commissioner and Commissioner Responsible for Disability Discrimination Deafness Forum Conference, Canberra, 24 May 2008.
I think it's always good manners to make this acknowledgment. But at a Deaf community event it's also an important reminder that the rate of deafness and hearing impairment in some indigenous communities - over 30% - is even higher than it is throughout the community as a whole.
I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we stand, the Eora People, and pay my respects to their elders both past and present, and in particular, Aunty Gloria.
Dr Sev Ozdowski OAM Human Rights Commissioner and Disability Discrimination Commissioner Human Rights & Equal Opportunity Commission, Sydney, Australia
Thank you, Dr Morgan, for the invitation to attend this launch of the Westpac Disability Discrimination Act Action Plan. I am most pleased to formally receive a copy for the Commission to register.
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