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Commission – General

President speeches: Human Rights in Australia

Thank you for inviting me here today to speak about human rights in Australia. I would like to use this opportunity to focus on how human rights are protected in Australia; and how you, as human rights educators, can help students to understand these protections. I will also seek to shed some light on the role of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission and some of our responses to some current human rights issues.

Commission – General

Human Rights and Human Security

Firstly, I must applaud Amnesty International Australia’s campaign to secure a fair trial for David Hicks. I hope you take some heart from the recent US Supreme Court ruling that the military commissions set up to try prisoners at Guantanamo Bay are illegal and must be abandoned.

Commission – General

ADR: an essential tool for human rights

I would like to begin by acknowledging the Elders and Traditional Owners of Darwin, the Larrakia People, and to thank them for the opportunity to visit this beautiful part of the country. After that very heartfelt welcome to country, I feel very privileged to be here this morning.

Commission – General

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I feel very honoured to have been invited to contribute to this symposium. As a theme for today's discussion, I have chosen the notions of regionalisation and responsibility within Asia and the Pacific. I believe that the ability to accept responsibility for our neighbourhood, and to generate cooperative regional dialogues and actions to fulfill that responsibility will be the key to meeting the challenges and opportunities human rights will face in the new century.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples access to services 2010

I would like to start today by acknowledging the Gimuy Walubara Yidinji people on whose land we are on today and pay my respect to your elders both past and present. Thank you to Seith for your welcome to country. I pay my respects as a Gangulu man from Central Queensland.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

Essentials for Social Justice: The Future

I begin by paying my respects to the Kaurna 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, And thank you, for your generous welcome to country for all of us.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

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I would like to begin by acknowledging all the traditional owners of the land where we meet, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. Thank you Megan Davis for your welcome and for inviting me to be here today.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner and Acting Race Discrimination Commissioner, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission The Elliott Johnston Tribute Lecture

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

References Committee Reconciliation Inquiry

The terms of reference for the inquiry into reconciliation that was established yesterday by the Senate directly responds to the concerns raised in my latest Social Justice Report to the Parliament.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

Geography at the Millenium: Dr Bill Jonas (1999)

I would like to begin by acknowledging the Eora people, the traditional owners, custodians and kinsfolk of the land where this conference is being held.

Disability Rights

Risky Business?

I make this acknowledgment in all my public presentations, because recognising the indigenous history of this land is an important element in recognising the truth of our diversity as a people.

Disability Rights

Dimensions of diversity in Australian civil society

It is a particular pleasure for me to have been invited here today to launch the City of Dandenong's Diversity Action Plan. Allow me a few moments to explain why.

Disability Rights

The best DisCo in town: Towards implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2009)

A very big thank you, in particular, to our colleagues from the Australian Attorney-General's Department and theDepartment of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Mostly, of course, for their work with us, over many years, in advancing the human rights of people with disability, internationally and domestically. But also, for being (as far as I know) the first in the world to refer, officially, to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities not by its unappealing acronym of CRPD, or as the Disability Convention, but as the "DisCo".

Disability Rights

UN Convention - Rights of people with disabilities & domestic violence

Diverse and inclusive practice: Redrawing the boundaries Domestic Violence, Disability and Cultural Safety National Forum Brighton-Le-Sands, NSW, 8 - 9 November 2007

Disability Rights

Opportunity knocks

I follow this custom wherever I go to speak in public. I think recognising Australia ' s indigenous peoples and their prior ownership of this land in this way is more than just good manners. It is an important part of recognising our diversity as a nation.