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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2010)

Firstly, let me begin by acknowledging the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. You always have been and always will be the traditional owners of this land where we meet today.

Category, Speech
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

Indigenous Rights and the debate over a Charter of Rights in Australia

My thanks to the Human Rights Law Resource Centre, in particular to Phil Lynch, for inviting me to address this important gathering of human rights advocates and supporters about what I consider vital for the implementation and promotion of human rights in Australia.

Category, Speech
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

Social determinants and the health of Indigenous peoples in Australia

Improving the health status of Indigenous peoples1 in Australia is a longstanding challenge for governments in Australia. The gap in health status between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians remains unacceptably wide.2 It has been identified as a human rights concern by United Nations committees3; and acknowledged as such by Australian governments4.

Category, Speech
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

Indigenous peoples and the right to self-determination

I pay my respects to the Gadigal as a Kungarakan man whose traditional country lies far north from here, up near Darwin. I recognise the relationship of the Gadigal to this land and their ongoing responsibilities to it, under the watch of their ancestors. In other words, I recognise the ongoing dimensions of the sovereignty of the Gadigal to this country.

Category, Speech
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

Statement on Mandatory Sentencing

For Australia's Indigenous communities and those associated with us, the death in custody of the young Aboriginal boy last week is nothing new. Lamentably, it is nothing new.

Category, Speech
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.

Category, Speech
Disability Rights

Keynote address: Creating Welcoming School Communities (2009)

26 years ago, on this day in 1973, the first call was made on a mobile phone other than a car phone, when Martin Cooper, a Motorola executive shocked New Yorkers by walking down the street talking into a shoe-shaped handset. We've moved a long way since then, when there are more mobile phones in Australia than people, and phone calls are just one of the many things that they now do.

Category, Speech
Disability Rights

Disability and information technology

I also want to thank and congratulate the organisers of today's workshop, in particular Dr Gerard Goggin from the University of Sydney , Dr Chris Newell from the University of Tasmania and Philip French from the Disability Studies and Research Institute.

Category, Speech
Disability Rights

Launch of WorkCover South Australia Disability Action Plan

I am very happy to be here today. Not just because South Australia was my home for some years, as many of you know, but to recognise initiatives here in social justice and access for people with disabilities. There is a tradition here of innovative action for disability rights.

Category, Speech
Disability Rights

Hastings: Finding Your Own Shape

I am delighted to have been invited to speak to you tonight on the Eve of International Women's Day, as so many of you are at the eve of being women yourselves, whether international or not. I can tell you, from my own experience, that being a woman kind of creeps up on you: one minute you're a girl, or an adolescent (whatever that may really be), and the next you are a woman!

Category, Speech
Sex Discrimination

Making change happen: The media and violence against women

Let me begin by acknowledging the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation, the traditional owners of the land on which we are now gathered. I pay my respects to your elders, past and present, and all the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and men who work tirelessly to eliminate violence against women.

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

Launch of Human Rights Week, Tasmania

I’d also thank the Human Rights Week Organising Committee here in Tasmania, and congratulate them on their 20th Anniversary. Human Rights Week has been successfully and continuously marked with a number of events each year over the past 20 years in Tasmania. And that in itself, is a remarkable achievement.

Category, Speech

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