Disability discrimination and insurance
Australian Life Underwriters Association and Claims Association conference 5 November 2000 Graeme Innes AM Deputy Disability Discrimination Commissioner
Australian Life Underwriters Association and Claims Association conference 5 November 2000 Graeme Innes AM Deputy Disability Discrimination Commissioner
I am very pleased to be able to contribute to this Forum and would like to congratulate the co-convenors, Rhonda and Fiona, and their organisations for this initiative, which is just one part of the Disability Advisory Council's Disability Action Plan Project running throughout 2006.
I also want to thank Bill Shorten for being with us, and acknowledge the energy and leadership he is providing on disability issues within Government, both on specific issues and on the big picture cross government and inter-governmental issues.
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.
Before I commence, on behalf of HREOC, I would like to thank ACE for the opportunity to discuss a national disability employment strategy and importantly the opportunity for multiple perspectives to be presented here today.
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.
One day a few years ago I went in to wake my son. I told him that it was good to get up in the morning, to which he grumpily replied, "yes, but dad, it's even better to stay in bed".
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?
This law applies in all areas of public life, and specifically access to public premises. This means that premises and related facilities should not impede the use in any way by people with disabilities.
I am honoured and delighted to be here to deliver the Kenneth Jenkins Oration. My participation continues the involvement of members of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission with this event.
Paper presented at the Homelessness and Human Rights Seminar Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission 12.30 – 2pm, Monday 7 August 2008 133 Castlereagh Street, Sydney, NSW
I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we stand, and pay my respects to their elders both past and present.
In the contemporary world, and particularly amongst developed economies, many of us believed that the culture of civil liberties, freedoms and non-discrimination are reasonably well established and these precepts have clear links to innovation, creativity and the broader concepts of economic productivity and a well functioning civil society. Indeed, I believe that many of us had come to accept and expect this to be the situation, and that conferences like the one we attend here today could be built on this very premise.
I am pleased to be participating in the opening of the Futures Victorian Rural Health Forum. I would also like to thank Neil Roxburgh and the Country AIDS Network (CAN) for inviting me to speak.
I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land upon which we meet, the Gadigal peoples of the Eora nation, and pay my respects to their elders, past, present and future.
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