News

Disability Rights

Innes: TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Access to telecommunications services and equipment is increasingly, something that affects us all - an essential part of social interaction, of work, and of access to or participation in an ever greater range of activities and services. All of us, rather than just ET, phone home. This month, mobile phones celebrated 21 years of service in Australia . And yesterday stockbrokers announced the availability to trade on the stock exchange using SMS.

Disability Rights

Spinning an Accessible Web

One day during the Christmas school holidays, my nine-year-old daughter came into the loungeroom, where I was relaxing with a glass of Scotch, and said: "Dad, the window won't pop up -- you have to come and fix it".

Disability Rights

2006 - An opportunity not to be missed?

Australian summer holidays. The phrase evokes an image of sun, sand, slow days and late nights. But just imagine you and your mates are staying on the Gold Coast and it takes 20 phone calls for you to find a beachside unit with a shower you can use. Or the only wheelchair accessible restaurant in a 3km radius is fully booked so you have to eat take-away most nights.

Disability Rights

Speeches: Missed Business

I make this acknowledgment in all my public presentations around Australia, not only because I believe that it is good manners to do so, but also because recognising the indigenous history of this land is an important element in recognising the truth of our diversity as a people.

Disability Rights

Telstra / Diversity at work forum

I am sure I am not the first person to say it, but it seems to me that there are particularly important reasons for a telecommunications company such as Telstra to be interested in diversity.

Disability Rights

Presentation to the NSW Subcommittee of the Australian Braille Authority

Have you ever stopped to think about all the things that we take for granted? When you're wandering through the breakfast cereal isle at the supermarket, for example, do you ever wonder whether Uncle Toby really was? If so, was he related to Sara Lee? Were Nana's apple pies originally made by Granny Smith? It's not so much that familiarity breeds contempt as that it lulls us into a state of mind where we no longer feel the need to question or even test our assumptions and presumptions.

Disability Rights

LAUNCH OF THE TELSTRA LARGE PRINT BILL

I'm very pleased to be here today - not just as Disability Discrimination Commissioner but to represent the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.

Commission – General

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Thank you Professor Lansbury, and thank you to Marian and the Women and Work Research Group for organising today’s forum. Thank you also to our panellists – Dr Lyn Craig, Petra Stirling, and John Murray.

Rights and Freedoms

Addressing human rights concerns and fostering greater understanding and protection of human rights in Australia

It's great to be here today. I can't think of a better time to be taking stock of developments in human rights law and policy in Australia, or a better place to be doing this than Victoria. As a Sydney-sider I have to admit I haven't always been fully appreciative of the number plates down here, which proclaim: ‘Victoria: The Place to Be!’ But there's no doubt that Victoria is the place to be right now, when it comes to human rights developments.

Rights and Freedoms

PRESENTATION GIVEN TO KYOTO BAR ASSOCIATION: Dr Sev Ozdowski OAM (2003)

Let me start by saying that Australia is a culturally diverse society with 23% of Australians being born overseas. Amongst others, there is a sizeable Japanese community and, as you may hear from my accent, I myself was born in Poland.

Rights and Freedoms

Human rights issues for rural families: Chris Sidoti (1998)

Families, and those who support them, play a vital role in the protection of human rights. Accordingly, I am very pleased to address this conference, and I commend all of you for your work in preserving and strengthening families.

Commission – General

President speech: The National Human Rights Consultation: Outcomes

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

Commission – General

In defence of human rights

I would like to acknowledge that we are meeting on the traditional country of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation and pay my respects to their elders past and present.

Disability Rights

“Access to the arts: Being Discriminating rather than Discriminatory"

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

Burdekin: NATIONAL INQUIRY

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the launch of the report of the national inquiry into the human rights of people with mental illness. This report is the result of extensive research; public hearings in all States and Territories; and oral evidence and written submissions from over 1300 witnesses. I have been extremely fortunate to have the assistance of two commissioners with a long standing interest in the area of mental health - Dame Margaret Guilfoyle and Mr David Hall.