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Disability Rights

Westpac launch of DDA Action Plan

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.

Category, Speech
Sex Discrimination

Ausyouth Conference 2001

The creation of Ausyouth is an initiative that clearly picks up on the real-life needs of today's youth, an initiative that has the potential to foster the building blocks of a progressive caring society, and from a human rights perspective, it's an initiative that addresses some of Australia's obligations with respect to international instruments, to which we as a nation are committed.

Category, Speech
Rights and Freedoms

Police Checks - A Human Rights perspective

Acknowledgments I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet. I'd also like to thank the Aged and Community Services Association for inviting me to speak about police checks today. Introduction I suspect the average person in the street associates police checks with high-security jobs, such as airport security, or, on the other hand, with jobs working closely with children. However, police checks are required for an increasing number and variety of occupations and industries in Australia, including those providing aged and community services.

Category, Speech
Commission – General

President Speech: 2009 Human Rights Day Oration

I would like to begin by acknowledging the Gadigal peoples of the Eora nation, the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today, and pay my respects to their elders past and present.

Category, Speech
Commission – General

Seventh International Conference for National Human Rights Institutions

Torture and various forms of terrorism have been practiced throughout history, though never on the scale we are now confronted with. The first visual records of police interrogation were discovered in a four thousand year old tomb in ancient Egypt. Since the pharaohs there have been many refinements in methods of inducing physical pain and gathering intelligence, most notably during the Spanish Inquisition, but more recently in the modern totalitarian state.

Category, Speech
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

2009 Speech: Bilingual Education

Good morning friends, supporters, Dr’s Peter Toyne and Lester-Irabinna Rigney and distinguished guests. I would also like to acknowledge my Indigenous sisters and brothers who have travelled here to be with us and to share your experiences and stories.

Category, Speech
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

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I begin by acknowledging the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, the traditional owners of the land where we meet today, and pay my respects to their elders. I would also like to thank the LIME conference organisers -- and Gregory Phillips and Lisa Jackson-Pulver in particular -- for inviting me to speak tonight and for organising this event and for ensuring that Indigenous health – so often overlooked in the ongoing debates about health and health reform in Australia – receives the attention it deserves in this context.

Category, Speech
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

WA Law Reform Commission Report into Aboriginal Customary Laws

I would like to begin by acknowledging the Noongar people on whose land we are today and pay my respects to their elders. The recent recognition of the Noongar as traditional owners of this land sets a significant context for the launch of the Western Australian Law Reform Commission Report on Aboriginal Customary Laws. The recognition of Noongar native title through Australian law is the most powerful confirmation possible that as a society they possessed, and continue to possess, well-developed systems of law and custom.

Category, Speech
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

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It is now more than 5 years since the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission completed its national inquiry into the separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families with the publication of Bringing them home.

Category, Speech
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

Building co-existence: Dodson

Under clear blue skies on a warm afternoon, Yankunytjatjara members of Anangu Pitjantjatjara peoples are sitting in the shade of large gum trees on the banks of a broad, dry creek bed. They have come from far and wide to be at this important meeting. There is a good turn up, despite a number of people having to attend to other responsibilities.

Category, Speech

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