Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice
I'd like to welcome the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission to Arrernte country. In particular, I welcome Dr William Jonas, the Social Justice Commissioner. We are here this afternoon to launch the Social Justice and Native Title Report 2001.
Disability Rights
Take a piece of canvas, some chicken wire, paint and plastic, and put them together so that they resemble a potato cooked in its jacket. Mount the whole thing on a block of wood, add a label that says "baked potato with butter" and what have you got? You've got a famous example of Pop Art. The collector who bought it is alleged to have remarked, "pop is the art of today, tomorrow and all the future". Human nature being what it is, I imagine they said much the same thing after they'd put the final touches to those prehistoric cave paintings.
Disability Rights
I'd like to start by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, the Ngunnawal people, in whose language Canberra means meeting place as you probably know.
Disability Rights
Acknowledgment of where we stand and where we are is, it seems to me, an essential precondition to good decisions about where we want to go, and how we might get there.
Disability Rights
Thank you for the chance to speak with you at your AGM today. AGMs are important formal processes in the corporate life of an organisation. But they also provide an opportunity to reflect on what the organisation has achieved over the last twelve months, and to look into the future at the challenges ahead. You - as members, directors, staff and supporters of Epilepsy Action - know the organisation much better than I do. So I'm not going to attempt a review of your past, or polish up my crystal ball for some future gazing.
Disability Rights
I recently returned from attending a United Nations meeting, where work is progressing on the development of an International Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.
Disability Rights
I also acknowledge representatives here of the disability community and the telecommunications industry. Also of course I acknowledge Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman Mr John Pinnock and his staff.
Disability Rights
Address By Graeme Innes Deputy Disability Discrimination Commissioner to the Conference Of The Roundtable For People With A Print Disability 22 May 2000
Sex Discrimination
I want to begin by acknowledging that we are gathered here on the traditional lands of the Ngunnawal people and pay my respects to their elders past and present.
Sex Discrimination
Welcome and thank you for making time to join us for this afternoon’s seminar. The next couple of hours will be, I think, very confronting and yet also inspiring as we share together our passion for the rights of women around the world.
Sex Discrimination
At the Human Rights Commission 85 per cent of the complaints under the Sex Discrimination Act we received last year were related to the area of employment. 30 per cent were on the ground of pregnancy discrimination or parental status/family responsibility, a remarkable jump over the previous year of 18 percent! [1]
Legal
1. That Aboriginal child sexual abuse in the Northern Territory be designated as an issue of urgent national significance by both the Australian and Northern Territory Governments, and both governments immediately establish a collaborative partnership with a Memorandum of Understanding to specifically address the protection of Aboriginal children from sexual abuse. It is critical that both governments commit to genuine consultation with Aboriginal people in designing initiatives for Aboriginal communities.” (emphasis added)
Rights and Freedoms
Many of you here would have read Tony Stephen’s SMH article ‘Stand up for your rights stuff’ of Saturday 8 October, where he gave an account of the launch by New Matilda of a campaign to install a Bill of Rights in Australia.
Rights and Freedoms
It is a pleasure to be able to address you today and I would first like to acknowledge the Gadigal people, the traditional custodians of the land on which we stand.
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.
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