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Rights and Freedoms

Freedom, Parliament and the Courts. Speech to the Human Rights Dinner

Please check against delivery Distinguished guests, friends and colleagues- thank you for your welcome tonight. I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land, the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, and pay respect to their elders past and present. I am honoured to be a patron of Justice Connect...

Category, Speech
Commission – General

Freedom, Parliament and the Courts

Speech to the annual Human Rights Dinner, co-hosted by Justice Connect and the Human Rights Law Centre. Draft: check against delivery Thank you for your welcome tonight. Acknowledgement of country I am honored to be a patron of Justice Connect that has so successfully aligned probono lawyers with...

Category, Speech
Race Discrimination

Forty years of the Racial Discrimination Act

In October 1975, at a ceremony for the proclamation of the Racial Discrimination Act, then Prime Minister Gough Whitlam described the legislation as ‘a historic measure’, which aimed to ‘entrench new attitudes of tolerance and understanding in the hearts and minds of the people’.(1) The Act was...

Category, Opinion
Rights and Freedoms

Speech to the Australian Libertarian Society’s 3rd annual Friedman conference

Introduction Thank you. It is a great pleasure to attend the Australian Libertarian Society’s Third Friedman Conference. I’d like to acknowledge the outstanding efforts of Tim Andrews and John Humphrey for bringing this important conference together. I’d also like to acknowledge the previous speaker...

Category, Speech
Asylum Seekers and Refugees

The Government, the High Court and the Migration Act

  The long running, if muted, struggle between the High Court of Australia and the Government over refugees recalls a bitter legal battle in the early 17th century. Sir Edward Coke, the first Lord Chief Justice of England, defied King James 1 by asserting the supremacy of the common law over the...

Category, Opinion
Rights and Freedoms

Launch of the Rights & Responsibilities Consultation 2014 Report

Thank you for coming. It's a great pleasure to launch the report from our Rights and Responsibilities Consultation. Like my Commissioner colleagues, the role of Australia’s Human Rights Commissioner is to look at systemic public policy issues. No Commissioner investigates complaints from the public...

Category, Speech
Rights and Freedoms

Isabelle Lake Memorial Lecture. Australia's Transgender Awakening

The Isabelle Lake Memorial Lecture is an initiative of the Equal Opportunity Commission of Western Australia in partnership with the University of Western Australia to honour the work and achievements of Ms Isabelle Lake. Ms Lake was a young trans rights activist, who was also a former employee of the Equal Opportunity Commission and University of Western Australia student.

Category, Speech
Rights and Freedoms

Fraser Lecture 2014

Professor Gillian Triggs President Australian Human Rights Commission Fraser Lecture Canberra Check against delivery Thank you Dr Andrew Leigh for your invitation and introduction. It is an honour to be here in your electorate of Fraser in north Canberra. I would like to acknowledge that we meet on...

Category, Speech
Rights and Freedoms

Speak up out of respect for rights and culture

To advance human rights we need to promote a culture of respect for everyone exercising their choice and freedoms. On a day-to-day basis, human rights probably appear abstract for most Australians. The term often gets raised in discussion about how we are treating asylum seekers, or when we discuss...

Category, Opinion
Children's Rights

Protected and safe: a child’s right, our responsibility

Megan MitchellNational Children’s Commissioner National Child Protection WeekGala Dinner – Alice SpringsThursday 11 September Introduction Thank you, Jade and Jacob and good evening everyone. I’m delighted to be here tonight as part of National Child Protection Week. Can I start by acknowledging the...

Category, Speech
Children's Rights

Child Protection: Every Child’s Right

Megan MitchellNational Children’s Commissioner National Child Protection WeekBreakfast LaunchTuesday 9 September Introduction Thank you, Charlie and Zac, and good morning everyone. I’m delighted to be here this morning to help launch National Child Protection Week and to present the NAPCAN Play Your...

Category, Speech
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

Nulungu Reconciliation Lecture

Acknowledgements Thank you for your kind welcome and can I reciprocate as I begin today by respecting the Yawuru, the traditional owners of Rubibi the place that is now known as Broome. I thank them for allowing me on their country. I salute the Elders who are here today, those that have gone before...

Category, Speech
Children's Rights

Children's Rights in a Changing World

Megan MitchellNational Children's CommissionerAustralian Human Rights Commission Association of Children's Welfare Agencies Conference 201420 August 2014 Check Against Delivery Introduction Thank you, Stephen, and good afternoon everyone. Can I start by acknowledging the traditional owners of the...

Category, Speech

Pagination

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