1996 Kenneth Jenkins Oration
I am honoured and delighted to be here to deliver the Kenneth Jenkins Oration. My participation continues the involvement of members of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission with this event.
I am honoured and delighted to be here to deliver the Kenneth Jenkins Oration. My participation continues the involvement of members of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission with this event.
What I will talk about today is the way in which the Racial Discrimination Act (‘the RDA’) has been used by Aboriginal people to seek a remedy for the injustice of underpayment of wages.
Conference Convenors and Co-directors, distinguished guests from both Australia and overseas, ladies and gentlemen, all. I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we stand and by so doing remind ourselves that Australia’s cultural traditions stretch back many thousands of years.
When the CWA started in 1923 about 40% of Australians lived in rural communities. Rural Australia was made up of small but functioning communities whose members had to work hard but could make a living from the land.
Acting Chancellor Mr Stephen Keim SC, Vice Chancellor Professor Peter Coaldrake, Professor the Hon. Michael Lavarch, Executive Dean of Law, other members of the official party, Faculty staff, graduates and your families and friends.
I'll start with what's stayed the same. The fundamental restructuring of Australia's workplace relations system has left the functions of HREOC untouched. In particular there is no change in its responsibilities to investigate and conciliate complaints of unlawful discrimination.
To some of you the role of The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) in the industrial relations scene in Australia will be well known, others of you may be wondering why a representative of a human rights body would be speaking on this occasion. I propose therefore to briefly summarise HREOC's role in the administration of federal anti-discrimination law, including its complaint handling function, and to give some recent statistics.
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I would like to begin by acknowledging the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and pay my respects to their elders past and present.
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.
I am speaking on behalf of Dr William Jonas, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner. Dr Jonas is unable to be here today, with doctors having advised him he is not able to fly at this time due to a recurring illness. Dr Jonas sends his apologies and has asked that I deliver this speech on his behalf. He has asked me to express to you his appreciation for attending today and to thank Parry Agius and Lowitja O'Donoghue for agreeing to speak at this launch.
I congratulate EOPHEA for organising this discussion. Although, of course, your focus is primarily on employment in the university environment, the conference program is clearly designed to address equal opportunity issues of much more general significance. I have approached my own paper in the same spirit: I hope it will be particularly relevant in your own context as equity practitioners in higher education, but I have taken the opportunity to raise issues of wider relevance.
We would like to begin by emphasising the limited role of discrimination law - that is, we agree to some extent with comments by ACCI that equality cannot be achieved solely by providing stronger antidiscrimination legal provisions.
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