News
Australian sport and racial vilification
Speech to Australian and New Zealand Sports Law Association Annual Conference Adelaide Check against delivery Most of us would agree that booing can be a healthy ritual in Australian sporting life. Every summer at the cricket in Melbourne, as the Mexican wave circles the vast arena of the MCG...
Freedom, the sublime and the patriotic
Speech to Castan Centre for Human Rights Law During the past year or so, I have been constantly asked two questions with unerring predictability. One: Should the Racial Discrimination Act be amended? Two: How is everyone getting along at the Australian Human Rights Commission? Being among friends of...
Religious freedom and the hard work of harmony in anxious times
Someone once said to me that the vehicle of social progress is like a car on a steep incline. You have to keep your foot on the throttle to prevent yourself from rolling back down the slope. We should be under no illusions about the task of maintaining our multicultural society today. We must keep...
Harmony and religious freedom in anxious times
Speech to Australian Catholic Bishop’s Conference – National Conference on the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees Australian Catholic University, Sydney Someone once said to me that the vehicle of social progress is like a car on a steep incline. You have to keep your foot on the throttle to...
Our values define us not our race or religion
It is said that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. Today we have many reasons to be watchful. All of us are rightly disturbed by the prospect of terrorist acts on Australian soil. Counter-terror raids in Sydney and Brisbane, and the shooting of teenager Numan Haider in Melbourne, have...
Hate and the regulation of speech
University of Sydney Festival of Democracy 26 September 2014 Sydney I am grateful for the invitation from Professor John Keane to speak today. In talking about religion, hate and democracy we need to remember that we are not dealing here just with conceptual debates, but about a matter that has real...
Cultural diversity in the workplace
Speech at the Launch of the Workplace Cultural Diversity Tool
Freedom from fear: racism and human rights
Speech to UTS Human Rights Awards Night
Racial Vilification Law Unites Australians
Few political debates have the effect of uniting Australians. Yet, in one sense, the contest over section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act did precisely that. There has been an emphatic affirmation of our commitment to racial tolerance. Read the full article by following the link below.
Multiculturalism and “Team Australia”: Speech to Community Relations Commission for a Multicultural NSW symposium
Thirty years ago, we were warned that Australia was fracturing into a nation of tribes. We were warned that multiculturalism and immigration were undermining the Australian national identity. The warning came in a speech delivered by the historian Geoffrey Blainey. It was a significant intervention...
Culture, talent and leadership
Speech at launch of Diversity Council Australia’s Cracking the Cultural Ceiling report
Legislative innovation and the Racial Discrimination Act
Plenary address to National Institute of Administrative Law Annual Conference, University of Western Australia, Perth
PEN Essay 2014: Freedom of speech and Australia’s Racial Discrimination Act
It is said by many that freedom of expression means nothing if it doesn’t entail a freedom to offend others. The price of having free speech is that one may have to tolerate things that we may not like. As the writer Richard King suggests in his recent book On Offence, ‘the claim to find something hurtful or offensive should be the beginning of the debate, not the end of it’. But what if the burden of tolerance is not borne equally?