News

Race Discrimination

Disability Royal Commission: Race Discrimination Commissioner

Statement by Chin Tan relating to barriers by people with disability of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

Essentials for Social Justice: Land and Culture – Economic Development

Between December 2007 and July 2008 the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Tom Calma, will deliver a series of key speeches setting out an agenda for change in Indigenous affairs.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

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I’d like to begin by acknowledging the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation on whose land we are today and pay my respects to their elders. I’d like to thank the organisers for inviting me to speak, and I would like to acknowledge you, the Aboriginal field staff. You have an important role and I pay tribute to you and your work.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

Indigenous Peoples Permanent Sovereignty Over Natural Resources

Furthermore, I would like to thank Professor Mick Dodson and Mr. Parry Agius for the invitation addressed to me to deliver this lecture within the framework of the National Title Conference. In particular, I express my warmest thanks to the Acting Chairperson of the Conference Mr. Parry Agius for his very kind words about my humble work in the field of the protection of the rights of the world's Indigenous Peoples and my background.

Disability Rights

Equal employment opportunity for people with disabilities: how to move from the theoretical to the actual

I congratulate EOPHEA for organising this discussion. Although, of course, your focus is primarily on employment in the university environment, the conference program is clearly designed to address equal opportunity issues of much more general significance. I have approached my own paper in the same spirit: I hope it will be particularly relevant in your own context as equity practitioners in higher education, but I have taken the opportunity to raise issues of wider relevance.

Disability Rights

Presentation to Productivity Commission DDA review hearing

We would like to begin by emphasising the limited role of discrimination law - that is, we agree to some extent with comments by ACCI that equality cannot be achieved solely by providing stronger antidiscrimination legal provisions.

Rights and Freedoms

Police Checks - A Human Rights perspective

Acknowledgments I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet. I'd also like to thank the Aged and Community Services Association for inviting me to speak about police checks today. Introduction I suspect the average person in the street associates police checks with high-security jobs, such as airport security, or, on the other hand, with jobs working closely with children. However, police checks are required for an increasing number and variety of occupations and industries in Australia, including those providing aged and community services.

Rights and Freedoms

“The Relevance of Human Rights in Contemporary Australia”: Dr Sev Ozdowski OAM (2003)

1. Introduction 2. Emergence of International Human Rights 3. Impact of international human rights law on federal law 4. Moving forward on human rights protection

Commission – General

Australian Red Cross National Conference

I wish to start today by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we are meeting. On behalf of the Australian Human Rights Commission, I pay my respects to their elders past and present.

Commission – General

"I'm the boss, so that's the way it is!"

I would like to begin by thanking the Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) for inviting me to address you today, and to thank you for your attendance.

Commission – General

Opinion Pieces Archive

The following opinion pieces have been published by the President and Commissioners. Reproduction of the opinion pieces must include reference to where the opinion piece was originally published.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

NAIDOC Week Oration to Senior NSW Police

Firstly, I’d like to begin by paying my respects to the Gadigal peoples of the Eora nation, the traditional owners of the land where we gather today. I pay my respects to your elders, to the ancestors and to those who have come before us.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

Indigenous Rights and the debate over a Charter of Rights in Australia

My thanks to the Human Rights Law Resource Centre, in particular to Phil Lynch, for inviting me to address this important gathering of human rights advocates and supporters about what I consider vital for the implementation and promotion of human rights in Australia.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

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I’m sorry that I can’t be with you in person to deliver these remarks, but through my voice for the day, Mr Glenn Pearson, I am very pleased to be invited to talk about my perspectives on the new arrangements in Indigenous affairs. Glenn – I owe you one!

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice

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In championing the cause of universality (of human rights) I should emphasise that universality does not negate cultural diversity; on the contrary, I believe that it reinforces and protects cultural diversity.