Disability Rights
Thank you AMTA for support in attending the first meeting of the TEITAC Committee, held from Sep 27-29 at the National Science Foundation in Arlington Virginia, near Washington. While in Washington I also had a meeting with the Telecommunications Industry Association during which I briefed them on the legislative background and current situation concerning access to telecommunications products and services in Australia by people with disabilities.
Disability Rights
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.
Disability Rights
I am here today partly because Michelle Castagna was quick off the mark in organising me to come before I had accepted any of the numerous other possibilities for events for the international day.
Disability Rights
I would like to thank ACROD for inviting me to deliver the Kenneth Jenkins Oration; both because I regard it as a privilege and because it gives me the opportunity to address a gathering of the key people in the disability field at an important time in the work of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.
Race Discrimination
Centuries ago a great many of the inhabitants of this beautiful island were wiped out by colonization and its aftermath. The disappearance of so many is a solemn reminder of the injustice done to the first peoples of this land. Their violent absence is a presence that calls for us to reflect on injustices, suffering and reconciliation in the broadest sense. To them I pay my respects.
Legal
While Australia may have come in from the cold, the wind has been taken from my sails. The typical role of an international lawyer over the last few years, whether in Australia or in the UK, Europe and North America has been to berate their respective government ministers with numerous failings and to list the necessary reforms to policy. In Australia’s case these have been to persuade the Commonwealth government to:
Rights and Freedoms
Good morning, and thank you for the opportunity to speak at this conference. I'm very pleased to be here. Firstly as a senior Commonwealth public servant not based in Canberra I immediately warm to this forum. The challenges of interacting with, and learning from, our colleagues are increased greatly by the fact that we aren't located in the city viewed by most commonwealth public servants as the centre of the universe.
Rights and Freedoms
In so doing however I am confronted with the classic dilemma of many, namely what fresh insight can I bring to bear on this subject that has not already been canvassed.
Rights and Freedoms
Mrs Irene Hancock, AWCH National President, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, all. I would like to acknowledge the Gadigal people, the traditional custodians of the land on which we stand.
Rights and Freedoms
Thank you for inviting me to speak today. It is almost a year since I spoke about the Human Rights Commission's Bush Talks consultations at the 1999 national conference of the Australian Association of Rural Nurses in Adelaide. I spoke in particular about some of the health concerns raised in the consultations. Today I would like to look beyond Bush Talks in more detail at some of the areas of particular concern which were raised and then explain some of the Commission's continuing work on human rights in rural Australia.
Commission – General
Human rights are said to be universal and indivisible. This paper explores how far that universality introduces human rights principles into the functions and work of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT). The answer, I think, could be “further than you realise”.
Commission – General
I would like to begin today by acknowledging the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation of peoples and pay my respects to their elders past and present.
Commission – General
I would like to acknowledge the Kaurna peoples, the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today, and pay my respects to their elders past and present.
Commission – General
Debates about a charter of rights are often monopolised by the contentious issue of the proper role of the courts. While this is undoubtedly an important question, it overlooks the impact a charter would have on the role of Parliament as a guardian of rights of freedoms.
Commission – General
When I was invited to give this address, my first thought was to talk about unlawful discrimination in the context of higher education and, in particular, disability discrimination.
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