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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

Let the healing begin

Prime Minister, the Hon Kevin Rudd; Opposition Leader, Brendan Nelson; the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, the Hon Jenny Macklin; former Prime Ministers, Professor Bruce Wilson representing the late Sir Ronald Wilson, Stolen Generations patrons Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue and Bobby Randall, NSDC Chair Helen Moran and SGA Chair Christine King, Ministers; Members of Parliament; Senators, members of the stolen generations and your families; my Indigenous brothers and sisters; and distinguished guests from around Australia and overseas.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

NSW Teachers Federation Council Meeting (2010)

With respect and gratitude I acknowledge that we sit on the lands of the Gadigal peoples of the Eora Nation, and I thank the Traditional Owners for allowing us to do so.

Age Discrimination

Building a better cultural inheritance for an ageing Australia

Hon Dr Kay Patterson AO Age Discrimination Commissioner Keynote Address to National Press Club of Australia, Canberra Wednesday, 28 June, 2023 CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY Welcome Thank you Andrew Tillett (National Press Club Vice President) for your kind introduction. I am sometimes introduced...

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

‘Partnership builds success’ An Indigenous perspective of educational partnerships (2009)

I would like to acknowledge the Kaurna People, the traditional owners and custodians of the Adelaide Plains and pay my respects to their elders past and present. Thank you Uncle Lewis O’Brien for your warm and generous welcome.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

Role of social workers as human rights workers with Indigenous people

Thank you to the Australian Catholic University for inviting me to speak today. As you no doubt know, I am a social worker by training , graduating in 1978, so it is wonderful to have an opportunity to address you. It is great to see so many upcoming social workers here today, as well as a number of you who have a wealth of experience and do so much good in our communities. It’s a tough job at the coal face. One that you often do in difficult circumstances, with little support, not to mention little money!

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

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We are here to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Bringing them home – the Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner and Acting Race Discrimination Commissioner, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Ending violence in Indigenous communities Forum

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

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The title of this session on the conference program is 'The history of human rights in Australian law'. I have chosen to slightly change the topic for a number of reasons. The main reason is because Indigenous peoples' struggle for recognition of their human rights remains to a large extent unfulfilled. Consequently, it is not, and has never been, well reflected in Australian law. Second, because human rights continue to be poorly and rather patchily implemented in our legal system.

Disability Rights

Dimensions of diversity in Australian civil society

It is a particular pleasure for me to have been invited here today to launch the City of Dandenong's Diversity Action Plan. Allow me a few moments to explain why.

Disability Rights

Innes: Launch of City of Sydney Inclusion (Disability) Action Plan

Thank you, Deputy Lord Mayor Councillor Hoff for the invitation to participate in this early celebration of International Day of People with a Disability and the launch of the City of Sydney Inclusion Action Plan .

Disability Rights

Opportunity knocks

I follow this custom wherever I go to speak in public. I think recognising Australia ' s indigenous peoples and their prior ownership of this land in this way is more than just good manners. It is an important part of recognising our diversity as a nation.

Disability Rights

The DDA and its impact in the area of Education

Perhaps it's just because I'm getting older, but I increasingly have the feeling that Australia is becoming a more sentimental and nostalgic nation. We have a Prime Minister whose vision for us is to be relaxed and comfortable. And many of us spent last night - after watching the final stages of the Australian cricket juggernaut's comprehensive winning of the ashes for the eighth time in a row - watch a bunch of old blokes who used to be rock and roll singers showing us that it was a long way to the top. Haven't we got anything more exciting to do than that?

Commission – General

President speech: Human Rights, Refugees and Asylum Seekers

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

Sex Discrimination

Work Life Balance: AIM Breakfast

I hope you’re all enjoying your hot breakfasts and are extremely grateful for them. For a couple of reasons: First- you didn’t have to cook them yourself, or, to be more precise, wash up all the dirty frying pans yourself. This is because you are working and you don’t have time to cook hot breakfasts for a particularly fussy group of consumers, your family.

Rights and Freedoms

Australian Lawyers Alliance Conference (2009)

As lawyers who work every day with ordinary people, you will all have first hand experience of the value that we, in Australia, place on human rights. You will also be acutely aware of the significant gaps in human rights protection in Australia.